Fleeting

Blink and you miss it. My white peony is up and over. But here is a picture of it in all its glory.

I woke up this morning to a windy, grey day so I thought I’d best get a picture before the petals all blow off.

No such problem with the wild foxgloves: I have a forest of the batons waving merrily over in the duck pond area.

With digitalis you just accept they will turn up where they want, not where you want; and laugh at their outrageous form.   They are over six feet tall.

I have one white one hidden in the festuca area of the shade garden; and I just have to hope it self seeds everywhere. But being a biennial, I wont get the pleasure of new ones until 2014.   But I do keep my eye out for the distinctive leaves of the flowers forming next year.

All the nasturtiums in the planters are fine and enjoying their absurdly rich soil.   Well it’s a mix of the compost that has been mooching in there for a few years, and the new light fluffy stuff. I know that nasturtiums are supposed to thrive in poor soil, but I am aiming for outrageous growth.

The ‘can grow three metres’ ones down in the potager are just looking fat and fluffy. And not showing any inclination to scramble up the poles.   But I have to be patient.

Luckily some of the climbing beans are starting to do just that in the nearby central poles. I am relieved.

But today I must go to the market and get some baby cucumber and courgette plants from Nicolas’ stall.   I have one healthy plant, but there just isn’t time now to keep on urging the ones in the pots to germinate.   This has been the season for rotting seeds in pots. I’ve never had so many failures with climbing beans before. And all across the varities.

One of my first jobs when I arrive each time is to cut flowers for the house.   And it’s great to finally get Agathe’s huge vase out for the season.

Here are the deutsia (a sort of poor man’s philadelphus) branches in the hallway.   I just cut and plonk and try not to do much ‘flower’ arranging.   It would take ages.   And in this way I get to do a bit of nifty pruning at the same time.   It looks like the plant only flowers on last year’s growth, as a quarter of the branches have flowers, and the rest of the enormous shrub is just green and growing.

The flower has absolutely no scent in the garden, but does feebly impress when in a small enclosed room.

Maybe I ought to try that on the New Dawn roses that are now in flower in the herb garden. I planted three roses against the west walls of the bread oven and they are scrambling like mad. Note to self; must put up more wires here.

Their scent is completely absent if you stick your head into their lovely blooms.   And it makes one wonder what is the point of a scentless rose?  But they do cover the wall and I should try the small room trick.

Actually right now, with hayfever season in full handkerchief mode I doubt I would detect any faint scent.   Thank goodness the gertie jiyklls are so strong they can penetrate even a sneezy blogged dose.