Top August Blooms?

The stars of the August (and July too) garden are undoubtedly dahlias, which seem to be doing exceptionally well this year, perhaps encouraged by the mulch of manure applied to much of the garden over winter, and I could easily have filled my quota of ‘top ten blooms’ for Chloris’ monthly meme with individual dahlias. This would not have been fair on the also-rans which have been doing their very best to keep up with them, so I will just offer up ‘Twyning’s After Eight’ (above) and ‘Top Totty’, ‘Jescot Julie’ and ‘Happy Single Juliet’ (below) as examples of dahlia fecundity.

None of my August blooms are particularly special or unusual but they are all good do-ers, an important feature in our August gardens which can have a reputation for looking tired. Hence the inclusion of bog-standard Japanese anemone…

…and unusually long flowering cornflower ‘Blue Boy’, which has never flowered as well before:

Another patch of blue has been created from a second flush of blooms on clary sage ‘Oxford Blue’ and Geranium ‘Rozanne’, just getting into its stride:

…and another from that too-big-for-its-boots herbaceous Clematis ‘New Love’ decked out with another clematis, C ‘Gypsy Queen’:

Several roses have done well this year but most felt they deserved a brief rest before flowering again; not so ‘Lady Emma Hamilton’ which has flowered continuously and profusely since the end of May. Resident here for less than a year, the two bushes have excelled themselves, apart from needing a little staking to stop their exuberance from flopping onto the adjacent path:

Persicarias are at their best now and I love them all; P ‘Inverleith’ in the streamside border has done exceptionally well and looks as if it would yield a few divisions to sell at next year’s garden openings:

Sedums (OK, hylotelephiums if you must, but I would rather you didn’t) are beginning to colour up and will undoubtedly be stars of the September garden but some, like Sedum ‘Jose Aubergine’, are already making an impact now, much to the delight of the local bee population:

I am delighted that Annabelle (Hydrangea arborescens) has joined the August party-goers this year as she was conspicuous her absence last year, put off by the dryness of the party I imagine; she is so pretty, whatever the stage of her finery, and always looks so downright cool:

Last but not least is Sunflower ‘Velvet Queen’ which despite the generosity of her blooms has sadly not yet made it to a vase, a result, I suspect,  of the combined effect of her tallness and my shortness. Nevertheless, she looks both regal and magnificent, especially against a clear blue sky like those we have experienced in recent days and which somehow is not apparent in this photo!

That, I believe, is my allocated ten blooms for this month so please now pop over to Chloris’s blog and see what blooms are delighting her and others.