Friday's Flowers... I must change this title!

 The colour of the garden has moved to a more vibrant pallette with the Helianthus (a perennial sunflower) coming into flower. The plants grow steadily from ground level in the spring, to at least 1.5 meters high now. They do rather shade out their neighbours at the moment, but they do shout out 'summer'... and the bees love them too.

The oregano is also in full flower and when I walk into the garden a cloud of butterflies (mainly Gatekeepers and Meadow Browns) rise up from it. I love the red stems too.
Both of these plants were given to me, so I don't know the exact varieties. They do give the garden a new lease of life, when a lot of plants have done their thing by now.

Friday's Flower - catching up

Two weeks into the summer holidays and already any sort of routine has gone out of the window and I barely know what day it is. Friday's slip by before I realise that I have yet to take a photograph of a flower in the garden.
So in an attempt to catch up, here are two Friday Flowers, on a Sunday!
I love Hydrangeas, and this Hydrangea Arborescen 'Annabelle' is perhaps my favourite of all. It has beautiful compact flowers and I love it's white simplicity. Over the winter the flowers dry and their fragility is beautiful all over again.
Next is Hollyhock which I grew from seed from a packet named 'Old fashioned mixed'. I particularly like this antique yellow/peach one.

Friday's Flower - Day Lily

I was given these Day Lilies as a lump of soil and roots and being completely ignorant of what they were I just plonked them in the ground. They have been a fantastic addition to the garden. True to their name, each bloom lasts only a day, but they are very prolific. This particular clump are, as luck would have it,  perfectly placed to catch the light from the setting sun as we are sitting in the garden enjoying these fabulous warm summer evenings.
It's been an incredible two weeks of sunshine and heat. The doors of the church have been open and the warmth is quite wonderful. I feel as though I haven't been properly warm for years!
The skies have been wonderfully blue and today there were the most perfect fluffy white clouds.

 

Long may it continue!

Friday's Flower - Knautia

Knautia macedonica, which I proudly grew from seed a few years ago. In fact this was the only surviving plant that I managed to grow from that batch. It's now really well established and looks wonderful growing amongst the tall grasses. I've managed to grow four seedlings this year, to plant in other areas of the garden, as I love it. Knautia reminds me of devils-bit scabious, which I also love and had tried to grow from seed this year, but they didn't germinate. I'll be trying again next year.

Belated Friday's Flower - Verbascum

 

I spotted this Verbascum - Southern Charm, whilst weeding as it was hiding behind some rather thuggish plants. I must remember to move it in the autumn, to somewhere where it will thrive as I love its colouring and would like to see more of it!

Two Friday's Flowers

 I missed last weeks Friday's Flower (I was away with son #1 visiting university open days!) so I thought I'd cheat a little this week and have two!
The roses are just coming into bloom, but are looking a little sorry for themselves in the rain, and are covered in aphids. Ladybirds have been conspicuously absent this year, where are they all? I fear the cold spring has had an adverse effect on them. Hopefully they'll return and feast on all these aphids.

My second choice is foxgloves. The originals here I grew from seed, who joyfully self seeded and now there are foxgloves popping up everywhere. I love them, and so do the bees.

Friday's Flower - Plume Thistle

Plume Thistle or its proper name 'cirsium rivulare atropurpurea' - tall and striking.
Dodged the showers this morning to pop into the garden to take this photograph, hence why you can see raindrops on the flowers.
The bees were still active however and this flower is one of their favourites. In fact one landed on it just after I took this picture.

Friday's Flower - Iris

 

Iris... I like the contrast between them and the euphorbia behind.

It's getting harder to choose my Friday's Flower as so many things are coming into flower. 

Here is a wide shot of the garden, in case you haven't seen it. It's not very big, with two long flower borders either side of the path (which ends with a picnic bench for eating out on) and a sloped grassy area for the boys to play on.

Friday's Flower: Geranium

A few days away and the garden has turned into a jungle.
Geranium 'phaem' which I planted last year, is looking particularly good with its vivid pinks and distinct stamens, against the lush green background

Friday's Flower - Aquilegia

I couldn't imagine a garden without Aquilegia.
I love the range of colours, their beautiful shapes and the height they give the garden.

Friday's Flower - looking up!

One of the first plants I bought when I made this garden was Exochorda 'The Bride', sometimes known as The Pearl Bush. It's at its best at this time of year when the pearl like buds open up into beautiful white flowers.
Today I was taken with the form of the stems of buds, especially when I looked up to see their silhouette. I'm not sure how I managed to capture the sky as a pure white background, but I am pleased it came out that way!

Friday's Flower

The Tulips steal the show today.
It's cloudy, wet and breezy so really not a day for being out in the garden. However, I'm glad of this blog series to make me pop over to the garden and take a look and appreciate what's blooming. I'd of hated to of missed these tulips.
At least the garden is happy with this recent rain!

Friday's Flower... euphorbia

I love the zingy lime 'flowers' contrasting with the rich deep plum colour of the leaves of Euphorbia Purpurea, which really stands out in the garden this week. This is a great plant which needs very little attention and as an added bonus, it gradually self seeds... just my sort of plant.

Friday's Flower

Whilst weeding in the garden this afternoon, I had the idea of featuring a flower each week that is looking particularly mighty fine.

The garden is separated from our house by the graveyard! Then you have to go down some steps and unlock the gate, so it's quite a commitment to go there. At this time of year my attention is on the allotment and greenhouse with seed sowing, watering and potting on, so the days slip by with the garden getting very little attention.

I'm hoping that at least once a week I will stop rushing by the garden gate and actually open it to appreciate all its loveliness.

This weeks Friday Flower is the humble Violet. It is such a lovely little plant with it's heart shaped leaves and cheery little flower. I love the way it self seeds and pops up in all sorts of places. Here its growing in the garden path. I have to try and step over them!