It’s hot and windy here in my Country Garden in Lancashire so I’m taking photos in the dappled shade of the veranda of my garden studio.
In a Vase on Monday
Title and Tagline
The assignment on Blogging 101 today is to make sure your blog title and tagline reflect what you write about. If you are clear then visitors can decide quickly if they want to stay and read further or move swiftly on to another blog.
The Kiftsgate Rose
Think of a country garden… think of a rambling rose. Close your eyes and imagine clusters of scented flowers in sugared almond shades of pink, lilac, white and cream. To me their exuberant arching habit adds to the character and atmosphere of the country garden. Ramblers are vigorous plants producing strong new stems from the base of the rose every spring. Then in early summer great swags of scented blooms cascade down from laden branches. I often wonder how just one plant can produce so many flowers. We have been growing rambling roses through some of the mature trees in our garden for several years now…
The First Sweet Peas
Sweet peas are the first plants I ever grew. I bought ten packets of sweet pea seeds for our first garden. Yes TEN!
I thought growing them would be difficult and I’d be lucky to cultivate a few plants. To my surprise every seed germinated.
Calendula officinalis
I grow Calendula officinalis every year from seed. It’s a hardy annual with big curved seeds. They are very easy to grow… so if you have small children who would like to grow their own flowers then these are just perfect. This year I have grown several different types of Calendula.
Sweet William
The Sweet William plants growing in my greenhouse for next spring have already produced some flowers . They were ready for planting outside in early autumn but I decided to leave them inside when I saw buds developing. I’ve had a few flowers for the house already and today I cut some more.
Shooting Sunflowers
Sunflowers could be the perfect plant for country gardens. They are so easy to grow from seed and some varieties quickly shoot up to about 2 metres tall adding drama and intense colour to any planting scheme in full sun. Insects love the pollen and after flowering the hundreds of glossy black seeds are brilliant for garden birds.
Not so mellow September
There are vibrant colours in the garden this month. Bright pinks and deep golden yellows and every shade of orange and red. Orange is not popular I know.
It’s too common some people say.
But I love it.
It makes me feel glad to be alive.
Bluebell Cottage
I love to see country gardens given a modern twist. Planting schemes with traditional cottage garden flowers and grasses are brilliant. They look beautiful seen from a distance and even more stunning close up.
What should we grow?
There are more than 400,000 different plants in the world. Something like 10,000 plants are in general cultivation and are available to buy from good garden centres and plant nurseries.
No wonder it can be difficult to choose which plants to grow in your garden!