Dahlias take the prizes
There is an autumnal feel to the garden now, with perennial sunflowers, phlox, echinacea, sedums and eupatoriums coming into flower. I’m particularly pleased with Veronica longifolia ‘Marietta’ as I’ve grown it from seed this year and the flowers are a lovely deep violet blue. Beautiful dahlias ‘Rip City’ and ‘Juliet’ have been flowering for weeks and there are still many more to come. I entered classes at the local horticultural society show recently with vases of both and was lucky enough to win a second and third prize. Rambling roses ‘Felicite Perpetue’ and ‘Belvedere’ have again completely outgrown their space. The area they were planted in looked huge initially, so I thought ramblers would be the best thing. I now know better, and having got tangled up in them as I tried to prune them, I decided to cut them right down. In autumn, I’ll dig them up and plant them in the orchard to grow through the hedge. Much better!
We have just agreed to open the garden again for charity next year along with others in the village, so for us the planning starts now. There are one or two new projects under discussion so we have to decide fairly soon what is achievable over the winter months and what will have to be left for another year.
My husband and son are currently re-laying the path by the greenhouse and a new bed will be dug alongside, probably for herbs. I’m taking plenty of cuttings from santolina, lavender, curry plant and purple and common sage to fill this new bed. Cuttings are also being taken from scented leaf pelargoniums, which I love to fill the greenhouse staging with, along with penstemons to replace those in the garden which haven’t flowered that well this year.
Tales from a Country Garden 