Carpe Diem

The heat has of necessity kept my gardening activities to a minimum recently, with watering of tomatoes and pots done last thing at night and keeping up with the picking of soft fruit as early in the day as possible. I still have my rambles several times a day though, checking out what’s in flower and if anything is looking droopy – I watered the clematis in the colonnade today, and the roses in the rose garden, as they looked as if they were suffering, but other than that I haven’t watered borders in dry conditions for years, although I may be prepared to make an exception if our heatwave continues (which I believe it is anticipated to do into the beginning of August….). I also have to confess that this year I have been using tap water for the pots as the water butts are largely empty  – I will collect any ‘grey’ water we create, but this is minimal.

I am still finding plants seemingly appearing from nowhere and flowering this year – the clematis pictured on Tuesday which I thought was durandii but is not (the real durandii is not yet flowering), the white monkshood, some iris, the rose climbing over the shed – the list goes on – and also the two day lilies on the left. I have no idea what varieties they are or how long they have been sitting doing nothing, but the orange one is certainly very fine and the one below is just about ready to burst forth and delight me. Top right is Hemerocallis  ‘Cathy’s Sunset’, flowering for the first time in a few years, and bottom right is ‘Mini Stella’, a compact form of  ‘Stella d’Oro’, and at only about 12″ (30cm) tall is perfect for the front of the hot border, and such a lovely soft yellow shade. I think I will look out for some more of these compact varieties if they are going to do so well – and I am wondering if the weather has contributed to the success of the hemerocallis this year?

Also making an impact this year is this 7ft tall thalictrum in the woodland edge border. I do have thalictrum in this border but I would never have knowingly bought anything that grows 7ft tall (other than trees and climbing plants) so it seems as if it has secretly been ingesting a growth hormone as it has never reached more than 3-4 ft before. It must indeed have a death wish, as it will be hoiked out if it does this again next year!