NICE TO SEA YOU TO SEA YOU NICE
Eryngiums are commonly known as ‘Sea Hollies’ and their metallic blue bracts look funky in a cottage garden.
The pink candy floss sticks of Sidalceas bring a fairground mood to the borders. The pink or white swirls of Zantedetcias in their brown pots or containers make them look like ice-creams adding to the seaside feel of the month.
Lavenders add a Meditterranean touch to borders or rose gardens. Talking of roses, these are often at their best this month and their scent combined with Honeysuckles engulf you with a rich perfume you can’t tear yourself away from.
Philadelphus, better known as ‘Mock Orange’, brings a soft touch to the shrub border and Potentillas will flower freely throughout the summer and many varieties are available.
Vegetables play an exciting role in the cottage garden, as Runner Beans display their scarlet flowers and Swiss Chard shows off its vibrant stems.
Salad Lettuces provide useful decoration almost anywhere in the garden and there are spicy varieties available for successional fortnightly sowing.
It’s summer holiday time!!! French Lavenders are soon happy to join in too.
This type of border is further enlightened by Convolvulus ‘Cneorum’ with their blinding white trumpets.
The adorable Nigellas (Love in a Mist) look gorgeous growing through areas of gravel, such as a covered border or informal path.
Summer bedding plants start to produce their rainbow colours spurred on by the strongest sunshine of the year and the occasional refreshing downpour.
In the shade clusters of Sweet Williams are an unforgettable sight, jostling amongst Aquilegias.
My best advice this month is to walk around the garden everyday and enjoy all that’s going on around you.
At the same time this might be a time to plan a little for your autumn work as well as next June’s display.
Those of you who really love your plants will be in your element - enjoy!!!
(Paul Tovey)
Lett-uce get vegi-mental
Also, some varieties such as lettuces make good space fillers when spring flowers such as Forget-Me-Nots have finished. Why not try some of these...
Swiss Chard - This, with its vibrant flamingo orange stems looks like a mini rhubarb.
Runner Beans - If you keep picking the pods, then the scarlet flowers will keep coming.Cut and come again lettuces are all pretty decorative, useful and delicious in salads.
Beetroot - This is famed for its decorative bronze foliage, a reliable salad vegetable.
Nasturtiums - These are really ornamentals but their flowers and foliage can be eaten and they also make superb colourful decoration for salads - especially for children.
POTENTILLAS provide plenty of colour throughout the summer and are often at their best throughout June and July.
This shrub is comparatively slow growing with soft green foliage providing a superb foil for the many buttercup shaped flowers.
There are different colours available and here are a few favourites.....
Red Ace - This is a tomato soup orangy red.
Tilford Cream - Has creamy white flowers.
Gold Finger - Has vibrant yellow blooms on somewhat upright plants.
The rather lax herbaceous types also have similar qualities.
ROSES look at their best in July though many varieties will flower for much of the summer if dead-headed. As we all know they are certainly not without their problems and the most common include Aphids and Black Spot. There are various methods of dealing with rose troubles and traditionally fungicides and pesticides are used, but Bloomin’ Great prefers to adopt a more nature-friendly organic approach as this will benefit the wildlife in your garden and other plants.
To deal with Aphids, I have found that underplanting roses with Nasturtiums and Marigolds helps considerably, as does the use of washing up water followed by a blast with the hose. Black Spot can be avoided by keeping the base of plants free of leaves during autumn and winter.Normally we suggest leaves should be dug-in to give ready-made compost, but roses don’t appreciate this.
Another way to keep your roses Black Spot free is by pruning them correctl. In early spring cut them down to an outward facing bud - this will keep the centre of the plant clear and open it up. Never put rose prunings into your compost bin - they are renowned for carrying disease spores.
When you look back at what you’ve chosen, we want you to feel you have used your ‘head’ and ‘rose’ to the challenge, so here’s a few suggestions and we’ve put a lot of ‘thorn-t’ into it.......
Floribunda - ‘Iceberg’ is easy to grow and prettty disease resistant, its crispy white petals allow this variety to linger on into the night.
Hybrid Tea - ‘Blue Moon’ has soft lilac large blooms and looks good with a white Campanula Perscifolia growing next to it or even up through it.
Shrub Rose - ‘Juliette’ is a new hybrid with traditional characteristics and is also scented. Its peachy orange double, no treble flowers look gorgeous if undersown with Nigella.
Climbing Patio - ‘Laura Ford’ is a lovely variety with small and numerous golden blooms fading to a pale pink. It is repeat flowering and no pruning is required as it gradually increases in height.
Climber - ‘New Dawn’ is a popular silvery-pink type which covers itself in bloom.
Wild - ‘Rugosa’ has masses of pink flowers in July followed by bright red ‘hips’ in the autumn combining with warming yellow foliage. This variety can be successfully grown as a pretty hedge.
Rambler - ‘Mme Pierre Oger’ is silvery pink and with an arching habit is a beautiful variety.
Ground Cover - ‘Ballerina’ is a soft pink single flowered variety which is excellent for mingling.
WHY NOT tell your friends about Bloomin Great? This edition and previous ones are available to read on-line, so get them all to log onto: https://www.angelfire.com/tv2/bloomingreat/. Why not put your ideas forward for future features by E-mailing us at: Email: bloomingreat@postmaster.co.uk.
It’s time to settle up weatherwise
WE’VE already done exceptionally well all of this year so far but July will start off cool and rather showery. A return to warmer sunnier weather can be expected for a time but from mid-month expect it to be unsettled.
Why not raise a glass to your Delphy lifestyle?
DELPHINIUMS add height and much pleasure to the cottage garden. Their exuberant spires of blues add a little formality to the chaos of the under-planting. These are hungry plants which appreciate full sun.
Forget-Me-Not so plant me now
SOW biennials such as Wallflowers and Forget-Me-Nots in a nursery bed in a sunny corner of the garden for planting out in autumn for next spring’s displays.
See you next month!
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