Late summer roses
Happy birthday Mum. If I lived a bit closer I could bring this bouquet of late summer roses over. But Sydney is just a touch far from deepest rural France, so you just have to imagine the amazing scent.
I’m crouching close by: the roses are on the living room table and giving off the most amazing aroma. Sometimes just finding flowering roses this late in the year is the biggest treat.
But actually my flower garden is powering away. And by that I mean the dahlias. Boy they are troopers. And the zinnias have to win the award for longevity in the vase. They can easily go two weeks, and even then they seem to fade rather than fall to bits.
The cosmos this year have been a disappointment. They do well in the garden, but seem to last only a few days at the most in a vase.
Best of all we are now in sedum season.
I do like these plants. They are still on the slightly too pink side: I have a lot of Sedum Autumn Joy in the lilac bed and growing on the terraces behind the potting shed.
But I’m working on building up the stocks next year to put all around the shade garden. I want to grow more Sedum Carl which is growing in the planters in the coutyardy. And try and find more Sedum matrona.
They are the perfect drought tolerant plant. They cope brilliantly with the heat and the parching summers. They put up good green foliage over the hottest months. And just when you are yearning for something other than green in the garden, out they come.
Stone crop I think is their common name and they grow for me among the stones. So that is very apt.
I will multiply my stocks next spring. You will have to wait until then to learn the Foolproof Method for increasing your sedum plants. Thrilling. Can’t wait.