Friday, July 11, 2014

Spoilt for choice - even without summery weather

Where is the summer? Usually this time of year I am complaining of all the watering, now I am complaining of all the rain and the three inches of weeds that I've found on my allotment after being away for a little more than a week. 

However, I can't complain about the flowers. Spoilt for choice that is! This week the
Ageratum and the Salvia (Salvia viridis "Blue Clary") have come into flower. Also for the fist year my coneflowers (echinacea) are doing terrific in the flower garden and the  butterfly bushes 
(buddleja) are producing masses of fragrant flowerheads attracting a huge number of insects, including butterflies. But those I'll save for my bunch of next week. 

Last Wednesday I made a single bunch of flowers, but because of all sort of things going on, I didn't get the chance to write about it.  Today I replaced the roses in this vase as all the other flowers were still going strong. The red rose is Black Baccara, but it is not as nearly as black as on the marketing pictures. The sweet pea is "Winter Elegance". This is a variety that you can sow early autumn for early cropping in the green house. I sowed it very late -thus missing both the point and the early flowering!- and also only one seed germinated. Nevertheless, this one plant keeps on producing lovely long stemmed and fragrant pink sweet peas. 



My bunch for this week was made with Ageratum, Salvia (Salvia viridis "Blue Clary"), Calendula officinalis 'Indian Prince' (the most beautiful marigold I know!), Achillea double diamond and Cerinthe major 'Purpurascens'. 

This was the first year that I sowed both the ageratum and the salvia. Being unfamiliar with their growing habit, I was worried at first of the plants only producing very short stemmed flowers. Of course I worried unnecessarily as by the time the salvia's top buds flower the stem is a reasonable length and the ageratum buds just appear before the stem shoots up. I think both deserve a place in my cut flower garden again next year. What do you think?







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