A Soggy May Sunday.

Goodness , we have had some rain . Everyone is moan about it , although we gardeners are in secret glad not to have to worry about lachrymation . But even so , I am beginning to experience like Mr. Bennet in Pride and Prejudice when his daughter Mary showed no sign of ever bar her piano recitation . I am not thankless , but I want to say to the rainfall : ‘ That will do extremely well child . You have delighted us long enough ’ .

But the garden is flourish , include of course the weeds . I always have hopes of keeping on top of it all in March and April , but in May I know I never will . And each year there are new areas to care for because there are always new plants to try and this gardener is totally innocent of restraint or common sense . groovy gardeners are just obviously greedy . Show us a plant we have n’t got , especially if it is rare and difficult to grow , and we will stop at nothing to take it . My particular ruination , or one of them , is fond climbing industrial plant that grow 10 feet tall and more . They wo n’t survive outside and I have n’t got room to accommodate them all in my glasshouse . I even have aSolandra maximawhich I believe can grow to 40 or 50 base . I just do n’t have a stop button when it comes to acquiring works and not having enough elbow room is irrelevant . But I do have have way for this lovely lily-livered floweredClivia miniatavar . ’ Citrina ’ , it needs space but at least it does n’t climb .

In my last office I wrote about yellow flowers and here are a few more . I jazz quite a few gardeners who wo n’t grow sensationalistic flowers ; I ’m looking at you , Cathy fromRambling in the Garden , and my daughter , and my friend Rachel . Actually , Rachel is even more extreme , she only allows white flowers into her garden . But look at the sunshine yellow ofRosa ‘ Helen Knight ’ . It really fire up up its corner of the garden . I have primrose icteric ‘ Canary Bird ’ in rosiness too , but Helen is my favourite as it is a much burnished yellow .

I maturate the rather rareBerberis‘Georgei ’ because it has masses of the bright scarlet berries imaginable in fall . But I intend it looks quite pretty in May too with dangling chickenhearted peak partner withEuphorbia‘Fireglow ’ .

I have a cheerful yellow self seeder which is always welcome . Papaver cambricumalways pops itself where it look expert , amongst the Scilla nonscripta or artistically arranged under trees . Sometimes it issue forth up as orangish .

But if the poppy is too plebeian and the berberis andRosa‘Helen Knight ‘ are a bit smart for you , Paeonia mlokosewitschiior Molly the Witch will surely beguile you as she is the palest Citrus limon and very special .

And nobody could wrick up their nose at the delicate beauty ofClematis ‘ Korean Beauty ’ .

I like flower which are unusual colours and I go weak at the knees at the sight of brownish or green blossom . This littleIris pumila‘Green Spot ’ is a favourite .

And chocolate-brown Irispumila‘Gingerbread Man ’ really invoke to me .

Each year I grow bearded iris from seed I collect , I do n’t set up the marriages I permit the bees manage that , but I am always happy with the fry . This is the first one to blossom from my latest batch and I fuck it because it is a bit dark-brown even though its mother was pink .

If like me you love greenish flowers , then you may likeMathiasella bupleuroides . It ticks all the box for me , it is a umbellifer with jade green bell- like bloom . It is comparatively unexampled to polish as it was discovered in Mexico in 1954 .

But I do have refined white-hot flowers too that would appeal to Rachel . Cornus‘Eddie ’s White White ’ has glitter white bracts .

I lately bought the snowdrop tree , Halesia monticola . I ca n’t resist the white bell shaped flowers . I did farm it successfully in my previous garden and it was a terrific wad in May . Here I have wipe out two halesias , or they refused to be delight by anything I provide them and wilfully died . If this one dies too , I shall have to take on frustration . The snowdrop tree looks wonderful underplanted with white aquilegia .

May of course is columbine metre and I adore them , each twelvemonth I grow some different ones from ejaculate . The hassle this year is the pigeon . They start on Thalictrum a couple of years ago and have now decided that aquilegias are just as tasty . They miss the unmated one like this one , but most of them have been eaten to the footing . I do hate beastly fertile pigeons ; when they are not deplete my aquilege they are evacuate their bowels in gravid disgusting heaps under their favourite roosts or indulging in dateless bout of x - rated behavior with a gravid deal of flutter of wings and fanfare .

Other tasteful , minimise white bloom are lovely Solomon ’s Seal , Polygonatum biflorum . I make love the little bell -shaped clean flowers with green peak hang on gracefully arched base .

And this is one with a red stalk calledPolygonatum odoratum‘Red Stem ’ .

If you are want tasteful blossom then what could be more refined thanPhlox divaricata‘Clouds of essence ’ in a lovely shade of blue and smack Godhead ?

And now I desire to show you some of the treasure on my tabular array of delectation . I choose whatever is calculate undecomposed in a tummy and expose them on the tabular array on the terrace by our tabular array where we trust one day to be able to take our repast outside . It is difficult to reckon doing this without waterproof and umbrellas ; but perhaps one twenty-four hour period . At the import I am enjoying some auriculas .

A dear little pot ofRhodohypoxis baaurii .

A tummy ofViola‘Molly Sanderson ’ which had seeded all over an alpine trough .

And this dear little gnome tulbaghia which a friend sacrifice me a few year ago delights me every May . I am not sure of the variety as I have lost the label .

I ca n’t end without showing you my stars of the May garden . They are big , blowsy and grand and they are my pride and joy as I grew them from seed . They are supposed to bePaeonia rockiibut of path they are not as they are seed spring up and they do n’t come on-key from seed . None of them twist out to be the glorious clean paeony with maroon throat which every one desires . Never mind they are still beautiful . They seem brilliant and they smell wonderful too . Nothing else can equate with them .

40 Responses toA Soggy May Sunday.

I consider that rain is magical and that gardens always benefit from it even when it overstays its welcome – but then that ’s also not something I have much experience with . I have friends that head off jaundiced in the garden too and at least one who turn her nose up at them even in other the great unwashed ’s gardens but I ’m not in that coterie . I love your Iris pumila ‘ Green Spot ’ but , as the species does n’t even appear in my westerly garden “ bible , ” I mistrust my clime is inhospitable . I am of class as envious as ever over over the peonies .

At least we do n’t have to water the lawns when blessed with frequent May shower . For at two weeks , after having our lawn reseeded and fertilized , we were “ required ” to water every half hour , every Clarence Shepard Day Jr. ! Whoowee ! Now the grass is thick and luscious and shows up the peonies and roses in my English borders . No poppies for a while , however ; I think they had reseeded but perhaps were choked out by cat mint .

Oh the rainwater seems to have been non- block off Chloris but not only that it has been unseasonably cool too . At last though planetary house of balmier daylight and nights on the horizon 😂 Some beautiful yellows and other colours too in your May garden . I hump ‘ Molly ’ and your iris ‘ Gingerbread Man ’ too . I ’m confused as my mathiasella bupleuroides seems to have no signs of living at all 😢 I think that I bought it about 12 years ago or so and it always in flower by now . I ’m not digging it up though just in shell .

A Soggy May Sunday.