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
Love in a mist
Pop your head over the garden gate of any country garden in summer time and you’ll probably see a patch of Nigella.
Commonly called Love in a Mist, Nigella damascena is classic English country garden plant.
Actually it seems that Nigella is native to much warmer places in Southern Europe (such as Spain) North Africa and Syria.These beautiful flowers were introduced to the UK in the Elizabethan era during the 16th Century – luckily they seem to like it here too!
Easy to grow from seed, Nigella seedlings grow into sturdy quite bushy plants reaching just 30-50cm/12-20 inches in height.
Like most summer flowering annuals Nigella prefers a sunny position but they will grow perfectly well in a partially shaded spot such as the dappled shade of a large shrub or small tree. They prefer moist but well drained conditions.
Nigella has feathery finely dissected leaves, beautiful papery flowers and strikingly ornamental seed pods.
Flowers come in all shades of blue and pink plus white. The coloured flowers usually fade gracefully as the blooms age.
Nigella plants are in the buttercup family – Ranuculacae.
Nigella is lovely in the garden and it’s good for cutting too.
Another lovely plant to add to your seed list!
Hope your garden is blooming lovely too. Gillian 🙂
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.
Malva and Mint
A tall white vase calls for a simple bunch of flowers today.
Malva zebrina is one of the tallest annual flowers I’ve grown this year.
These plants could probably stand alone but I’ve added some mint for it’s fresh green foliage and zingy scent.
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.
The Best Yellow Roses
I love roses. If you read my blog regularly you may already know that!
I love yellow roses in particular. We have several, all climbing the walls here.
Rosa banksii Lutea has clusters of tiny lemon flowers starting early in April.
Rosa Mermaid is an old late single rose, beautiful flowers and vicious thorns. Best of all is Rosa ‘The Pilgrim’.
Supporting Sweet Peas
Sweet peas are beautiful vigorous tall plants and climb using tendrils to cling on to their support. Growing sweet peas is easy. To help them along when newly planted I tie them onto their canes with soft green string or little plastic coated loops. Then I leave them to get along with it. Once they are established they haul themselves up the canes or trellis with little intervention from me. Usually all I need to do is pick, pick, pick everyday once flowering begins. Sweet Peas are trouble free plants and usually all is well…
Larkspur and Feverfew
It’s lashing it down with rain here today. It’s good for the garden! Luckily I had already cut some flowers and they were standing on my studio verandah waiting patiently in buckets full of water. So I’ve arranged and photographed the flowers indoors for a change.
Country Garden Flowers
Woo Hoo! Summer’s here!
Here’s my first full buckets of summer blooms from my garden this year.
Most of my flowers are a good 3 weeks later than usual but they are certainly making up for lost time now.
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.