End of Month View: How I Love my Coat of Many Colours

As recent posts have suggested the garden is awash with colour and abundance, all the shades of Joseph’s coat and more, and generally a few weeks ahead of last year’s position at the end of May. It is useful to be able to compare from month to month and year to year on this blog, so this End of Month View that Helen, the Patient Gardener, hosts is a useful way of doing this. Do follow the link her to blog and find other links to what is happening at then end of May in different gardens around the world. Text today will be brief, but do have a look at the map to see how the views fit into the bigger picture.

Above is the view we see the from the kitchen windows, now dominated by greenery and roses – Danse de Feu on the pergola and Munstead  Wood in the big circular tub. Just out of the picture to the left the first few flowers are out on Rambling Rector and to the right Clematis montana ‘Marjorie’ is strutting her stuff on the old apple tree:

Below, the streamside area is beginning to be cut back now the narcissi are finished but will take a few weeks before it looks less rough. Now that we have put the stream on a timer I shall be mortaring the rocks back on the bank that was relaid and will need some extra turf to finish it off too. Meanwhile, the woodland in the right hand picture has quietened down now the wood anemones, bluebells and wild garlic have finished.

The main herbaceous borders, rapidly filling out and with colour splashes courtesy of allium, astrantia and aquilegia (all the ‘a’s), with the pots of hostas in the foreground:

The clematis colonnade is turning into a the successful feature I had hoped for, now that the clematis are settling in and the geranium at their feet are filling out – G.Dragon Heart and Johnson’s Blue are in full flow, whilst C Josephine is at her peak on the second pillar on the left.

I have trimmed the edges of the path through the woodland edge border, seen here from both directions, to reduce wet-leg syndrome the next time it rains:

The bold borders are still looking more ‘hot’ than ‘bold’ and there is hardly space to add the anticipated bold pinks and purples when the borders are crammed with geums, hemerocallis and crocosmia which of course are all bigger than they were last year:

The blue & white borders are equally full and the various clumps of centaurea and tradescantia will need liposuction as newer and possibly more favourable neighbours take their turn at filling out:

The rose garden is well and truly stunning, with Zéphirine Drouhin and Guinée about to be joined by Blush Noisette – all very lovely and, of course, smelling delightful. Another example of things settling down again after change and upheaval:

Retracing steps towards the house and bypassing the species snowdrop border this month I am astonished at the fullness of the hedge border, created following removal of the D****’s plant barely a year ago; the picture on the left shows the area first planted up twelve months ago and the right as it is today, the Hydrangea arborescens, Astrantia ‘Shaggy’ and Luzula nivea clearly loving it here, as I do in my garden of many colours. No wonder I like to ramble in it as much as I do ……