Weigela | Rosie Amber

The wind changed direction on Monday and the air pressure dropped (my headache told me). I looked out for Mary Poppins, in case she decided to call. We had a tease of rain on Tuesday, I collected half a watering can full from the multiple pots and buckets left out. Wednesday was better with 29mm (just over an inch in old money!) of measurable rainfall. It’s better than no rain, but we could use some more.

Own photo of flowers from my garden — August 20th Six On Saturday

So what is still flowering in the garden?

First photo goes to the lovely pompom dahlias, five of my plants have been in a shady border. A gamble back in Spring, but it worked out fine with the scorching heat which fried some of the others. They have attracted the black-fly and my ladybirds from a few weeks ago seem to have disappeared, so no useful munching of the black-fly.

Own photo of pompom dahlias — Pompom Dahlia

Second photo is of the Morning Glory, grown from seed from a free packet on the front of a gardening magazine. Another plant also grew from the packet with a very similar leaf but it had multiple tiny white pink flowers and I wasn’t sure about it as it started to be a thug, so out it came in case it was a rampaging weed.

Own photo of Morning Glory — Morning Glory

Third photo is of a bee on the rejuvenated Birdsfoot Trefoil. I thought the plant was over and had collected some of the seed pods, but after a little water it is flowering again. The seed pods are fun (you can just see two long brown ones on the right of the picture), when very dry they twist as they open with a loud crack and fling the seeds far and wide. I keep finding them all over my seed table.

Own photo of a bee on the Bird's Foot Trefoil. — Bee On The Birdsfoot Trefoil

The fourth photo is of the Salvia, this has regrown from last year’s plug plants. I have taken cuttings and placed them around my roses to help deter black-spot.

Fifth photo goes to the Weigela which is re-flowering after a late Spring prune. All my Weigela are offering new flowers which the bees are thrilled about.

Own photo of Weigela — Weigela reflowering

Lastly a photo of some of my dwarf dahlias, these had an early show, then died back in the heat, but some regular watering has rescued them. They seem to prefer to be left alone and not dead-headed. Phew! I wasn’t sure that I could find six things for this week, so was pleased when the garden came through for me.

Own photo of dwarf dahlias — Dwarf Dahlias

Thank you for joining me for this #SixOnSaturday post. I hope that you enjoyed it. If you would like to know more about this hashtag, read founder Mr Propagator’s post here also find him on Twitter here.

Happy gardening

Rosie

Links:

This weeks linky on The Prop’s blog.
Sarah has a soggy six from her garden in South Australia.
There’s a lovely pink Gladioli in Granny’s garden.
Has Graeme got Olympic sprinting snails?
See how much of Fred’s garden survived while he’s been away.
Noelle has a pretty shooting star Allium in her garden.
Kiwi And Thistles in New Zealand had heavy rain, flooding and landslides.
Despite the lack of rain Chris has some wonderful red Hibiscus in Ontario.

Brrr! It’s freezing once more. Think of me sat watching my son play cricket this afternoon. I’ll be the one in gloves, coat and a blanket.

First photo goes to a plant that Fred (I think it was Fred) inspired me to try; Butch, my ginger plant. Back on February 8th I planted a ginger root and waited and waited and waited (while keeping it moist under a plastic bag). Then quite recently a green shoot appeared and now it’s growing at a speedy rate. When will I know when to harvest it?

Photo two is some Alium, they are a funny plant, they throw out lots of foliage for a long time ahead of the flowers. Most of the under-gardeners here don’t like them, but when they do flower, they are quite pretty.

Third photo goes to the first flowers on this Weigela. Last year it flowered profusely. It also grows well and it is tempting to prune it hard each year, but I have found that it needs a year of free growth for it to flower the following Spring.

Next is a pot of Lobularia. These were five plug plants bought from Sarah Raven last year, they survived the winter and look to be growing once more. They kept some of the flowers all through the winter. I love the honey fragrance that they give off.

A bit of fun with my sunflower kids. A couple of weeks ago I mentioned the #SunflowerChallenge2022. Last week I planted some of my tallest sunflowers out as they were looking peaky. It was a gamble with the forecast and I have them wrapped at night with a fleece, but they have greened up. The fence that they will grow up was boring, so I got out some paints to give the plants some growing inspiration.

Final photo is of the flourishing rock roses, only the white ones are out at the moment, I have pink ones ready to burst into bloom soon. Perhaps like me they are waiting for the sun to return.