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. Continue reading
Iris ‘Immortality’
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. Continue reading
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. Continue reading
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.
The above you’re seen in my post about Irises, but worth seeing again I feel.
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.

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

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