Flowering in November

I don’t often join with Chloris at the Blooming Garden when she writes about her favourite 10 plants for each month; however I think it is a good exercise to understand what pleasures each month brings. 

Tuesday View – 25th April 2017

Today is a public holiday in Italy; an Italian friend described it as the day the Italians celebrate losing the war.  What ever it is for today is sunny with the wind coming from the south so not as cold as it has been.  Many have gone to the sea, not to swim but to enjoy the beach and have a good meal in a restaurant.

Irises on May Day

Happy May Day everyone, here in Italy it is a holiday; all holidays are celebrated on the actual day rather than always on Monday as in the UK, this gives the opportunity for a ‘ponte’ (bridge) so that any holiday next to the weekend or even a Tuesday or Thursday give the chance of a few days holiday by only actually taking one day off as official holiday from work.

White flowers in the garden, May

Although I don’t have a Sissinghurst-type white garden as part of my garden I do love white flowers.  They add pools of light in dark shady areas and are, for me, essential to have on the terrace or near it because they seem to be luminous in the evening as dust and then night arrives.

Here are the white flowers in the garden during the first week in May.

Iris ‘Immortality’, a lovely pure white

The above you’re seen in my post about Irises, but worth seeing again I feel.

Philadephus is filling the garden with its wonderful perfume

Allium Karataviense

Rosa Sally Holmes

Unknown name white Cistus

Aquilegea vulgaris alba

Aquilegea vulgaris alba with Allium Roseum

Convolvulus cneorum

cerastium tomentosum – snow in summer

Cistus

Solomon’s Seal

Photinia flowers, the bees love them

Allium Roseum are actually native here and people are surprised I bought them for the garden

Iris in the garden

When I lived in the UK I never grew Bearded Irises, now they have become one of my favourite flowers.  Partly because they love the climate here and my very free draining soil in particular, they form clumps of colour very quickly.  I also enjoy the strong form of the foliage, perfectly making a strong full stop when planted next to more softly rounded forms.

This Dutch Iris has been flowering for a while

This is a real beauty, it came from a friend when he thought he was giving me a different variety

I’ve decided on a new place for this clump, I want to put them in the Large Island in front of Phlomis

Looks like velvet in close-up

Pride of Kent came from the same friend when I first had this garden

This was an unknown quantity from a plant swap – rather nice. When it has made a clump I’ll move it from the slope

I bought some new varieties when I visited Courson last autumn and am pleased to see that they are producing strong flower spikes in their first year.

Iris Grand Canari, planted close to Rosa Molineux, almost exactly the same colour

Iris ‘Immortality’, a lovely pure white from a local supplier

Iris Jane Philips – not shown well here, it is a very pure pale blue

It’s now raining too hard to take any more photographs, so I’ll post the rest tomorrow.