The Slope on Tuesday 30th July

The weather is now very hot; high 30’s C during the day; last weekend it was close to 40°C in the shade! Despite all the rain and the water that must be stored deep in the ground the garden is shrivelling before my eyes.

Weigela is looking very stressed

The Perovskia is taller now, from the drive you can only just see over the top.

Eschscholzia californica (Californian Poppy)

Californian poppies are flowering from new seedlings, the older plants are dry and need cutting to the ground; they will flower again in autumn.

One crop grows on the slope!  The fennel I showed with the Perovskia a couple of weeks ago is there for a purpose.  I collect and dry the flowers to add to roast potatoes, sausage risotto or dishes with Porcini (wild mushrooms).  I dry the cut flower heads on trays in an airy spot and then rub the dry flowers through a sieve and then into a jar.  You can buy them ready done in the local vegetable shops; but as they are very labour intensive to prepare they are very expensive (about €100 per kg). As there is a good crop this year I may prepare some in some pretty jars to give as little Christmas presents, it is always a much appreciated gift.

Fennel flowers ready to pick

What is the weather doing in your part of the world?  Are you having rain or thunder storms, hail or wind or is it pleasantly warm or even too hot to bear.

The Slope on Tuesday 23rd July

The afternoon thunderstorms continued all last week until Sunday.  This week the temperatures are rising each day and we are heading into the weekend with temperatures forecast to be about 35°C.

Again the images were taken this morning with the sun at the top of the slope creating shadows and highlighting grasses.

GBFD – Green is Cool

My apologies for not having this post up earlier.  I’m having problems accessing the net; difficult to know if this is due to local storms or just mechanical problems, then you don’t need to know all about that boring stuff.  BTW this is my 301st post!

On the days when it is hot and sunny the silvers are more silver and the purples are deeper, but today I wanted to concentrate on green.

Looking down the drive from the top, green is the only colour here

Visiting Castelluccio

When I posted about visiting the lentil fields at Castelluccio the other day I found it really hard to pick out the images that summed up just how beautiful the experience was.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day- July’s Summer Bounty

I missed the deadline of the 15th for GBBD but I wanted to take photos for my own records so I will share with you what is flowering on the 16th July.

The rain during the last weeks combined with below average temperatures mean that the garden is a pleasure to be in and that many more flowers are blooming for a longer period of time.  Roses have usually given up by now, but there are lots in the garden.  I think the Perovskia is the best it has ever been and even Cistus are continuing to flower.  Foliage is lush; the garden is at last full of butterflies and bees and now that it has become hot the cicadas fill the air with their chattering sound.

The Slope on Tuesday 16th July

All last week we had thunder storms and varying amounts of rain.  The whole garden is looking very different from last year.  From Saturday the temperatures have risen and it is now hot (yesterday about 33°C).

Visiting the Lentil Fields at Casteluccio

The July following our arrival in Italy some friends took me up to what seemed like the top of the world to see the lentil fields flowering in Casteluccio in Umbria.  We were a little early so although I enjoyed the day there wasn’t all that much to see.

I have been promising myself and my husband that we would go up one weekend when we were sure the fields would be colourful.

So nine years later we got there!

My Thoughts – Hemerocallis

Ephemeral they may be (each flower only last one day) but they really add intense colour into the garden over a long period.

Day Lilies (their common name) are tolerant of a wide range of garden conditions.  They don’t like intense shade but will flower well in partial shade.  They are pretty drought tolerant but will flower better when there is some moisture in the soil.  In winter the foliage dies back so they will survive low winter temperatures with no problems.

There are many, many cultivars; mostly the flowers are trumpet-shaped but some of the newer varieties are slightly star-shaped.  There are a vast array of colours, hues and sizes so you are sure to find one that is right for you.  They flower in slightly different periods and once a good clump has formed will flower for quite a long period.  Given some summer rain (or irrigation) and by cutting back the initial flower stems when they have finished flowering some will give a second flowering in autumn.  If the leaves become untidy in summer, cutting back the foliage to the base will produce fresh green foliage to provide good groundcover.  I wouldn’t recommend cutting back the foliage unless there is sufficient water.

I have a large clump of Stella di d’Oro planted under an Arbutus, they are inter-planted with Tulip Lambada to give a succession of colour; the foliage of the Hemerocallis successfully hiding the dying foliage of the tulips.  They flower in May, here seen with a Salvia.

Hemerocallis Stella di d’Oro

A very pure yellow, slightly later flowering and taller than Stella di d’Oro is Happy returns.

Hemerocallis ‘Happy Returns’

Hemerocallis ‘Happy Returns’

Hemerocallis ‘Happy Returns’

I have two whites which I now cannot distinguish; this year they are flowering much better than in other years so I think they appreciate the wet spring more than the yellows.  I think this is Joan Senior and this Gentile Shepherd

H. Gentle Shepherd

Growing to about a metre tall the very common H. fulva is planted all along the back border.  It has increased enormously meaning I can divide them and extend the planting.

H. fulva in the back border (June)

H. fulva (June)

There are other oranges, H. Hot Ember and H. Mauna Loa.

H. Mauna Loa

H. Duke of Durham? or H. Hot Ember

Hot Ember is what I ordered but looking through the catalogue this colour appears to be Duke of Durham.  Any comments about which it is gratefully received.

Strutter’s Ball is an intense dark violet.

H. Strutter’s Ball

Grape ripples is reputed to be perfumed but I have to admit that I haven’t noticed any perfume.

H. Grape ripples?

I bought H. Scirocco to under plant Rosa mutabilis as it has a similar mix of colours.  The roses sooned filled the space so I moved the Hemerocallis and they need more time to really settle where I have planted them.

H. Scirocco

I purchased all except the tall orange H. fulva from a specialist grower in Sardinia (Vivaio i campi ); as I bought so many he gave me three extras, I don’t know their names but the yellow one has a huge flower and the plant has bulked up well.  The star-shaped dark magenta one fits well in the ‘Magenta zone’ and maybe ‘Crimson Pirate’.  The other is a washed out orange with a stripe, not my favourite but not unpleasant.

These were all flowering today:

H. Starling

H. ‘Mary Todd’ or ‘Forsyth Lemon Drop’

H. Mauna Loa

H. fulva

H. Duke of Dureham

H. Joan Senior

H. Gentle Shepherd

I didn’t have the name when I purchased this antique pink blotched variety.  Looking in the catalogue all these look identical to me! Allways Afternoon (miss-spelt in the catalogue), Chicago Heirloom, Druids Chant or Royal Braid – take your pick!

Hemerocallis ‘Allways Afternoon’ ???????????

Hemerocallis ‘Allways Afternoon’ ???????????

Hemerocallis ‘Allways Afternoon’ ???????????

Whichever one this is, I would have to say if is difficult to place with other plants, its antique pink colour is not like anything else.

Does anyone have any experience of the pale pink varieties, I’d be interested in knowing if they maintain their colour.

The Slope on Tuesday 9th May

We have had thunder storms during the last week.  During the night last Tuesday it rained for several hours, refreshing the garden so much that by the weekend there were more roses.  Although the day time temperatures are pleasantly warm they are not HOT, so I am enjoying this summer very much more than this time last year when drought conditions were already making themselves felt.  Yesterday there were thunder storms again but only a few drops of rain, not even enough to wet the ground.

Blue and Orange

Now that we are in July the colours and flowers in the garden are changing; the most noticeable colour is suddenly the misty blue of the Perovskia and the slightly darker blue of Lavender in the formal beds at the front of the house.

The formal beds looking from the front door

Clipped box and Perovskia

Clipped box, Lavender and Perovskia

Perovskia

Perovskia with the brilliant orange of pomegranate flowers in the back ground

Perovskia with Stipa tenuissima in the foreground

This is joined by newly opening Agapanthus.  Sadly I think all the agapanthus I bought last autumn at the plant fair in Courson need more time to reach flowering size, but we’ll see some may flower later.  The Agapanthus in the Left Hand Border were part of the very first planting in the garden in Spring 2007.  I planted 5, and in subsequent years there has been an increase in the number of flower spikes.  Most winters the foliage is very damamged by the cold and I always think they will die.  This last winter, although a long winter did not have very low temperatures and the foliage entered spring looking very healthy and I was full of hope that there would be a huge number of flowers this year.  But no! there are FIVE flowers again – who knows why, I certainly can’t think why there should be less flowers this year.

Agapanthus

Agapanthus

The view from my kitchen window in the evening is the orange Hemerocallis positively glowing behind the mass of Perovskia in the sunset.

evening light catches orange hemerocallis and makes it glow

Tall Hemerocallis

Perovskia with Achillea

Red Hot Pokers, Kniphofia planted with Nepeta, not really visible in this image

Above the upper slope path, the kniphofia are hidden within the bed, I will move an ornamental pomegranate that isn’t actually very ornamental in the autumn to open up the border.

Orange trumpet vine, Hemerocallis and blue foliage of Euphorbia

Above the back border.