Sunday 28 August 2016

Flowers - a strange year.

OK, so flowers are not the No.1 priority in Mark's Veg Plot, but I do still like to have a bit of colour in the garden. Just like with the vegetables though, the flowers have had a strange year. Some things have done well (not many), but others have been very poor. I shall blame the weather!



Our Living-Room has a sliding glass door that opens out onto the garden. Just outside is this:




The little splash of yellow is a Rudbeckia Fulgida "Goldsturm". It is usually pretty vigorous, but this year it is pathetically small, and I don't know why. It has been in the same pot for three years now, so I suppose it needs re-potting, though I always feed it generously.




In stark contrast, my Salvia Cardinalis is looking really good, its tall slender dark-coloured stems tipped with fiery red blooms (supposedly the same colour as the robes and caps worn by Roman Catholic cardinals!).



I have found it hard to photograph those flowers - they are just so vivid.




Another poor performer is my Helenium, which normally has a huge mass of russetty-golden blooms at this time of year. Currently it has about 10, and the stems are soft and floppy instead of the usual perky upright ones. Strange.







No such trouble with the "Bishop of Llandaff" dahlia though.




This time it is much taller than before, standing nearly four feet high. You can see it in the background of the first two photos of this post.


Gardening is definitely not a precise art. Plants perform differently from year to year, even when you think you are treating them exactly the same. But that's what makes our hobby so interesting, isn't it? It would be dull if there were no challenges to overcome!



4 comments:

  1. I love it all. Lovely late summer flowers.

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  2. You said it - there's no such thing as the perfect year in the garden, no matter how much experience you have, and that's what keeps us on our toes.

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  3. I think it all looks very pretty Mark, I'm sure it's a lovely place to sit just outside your patio doors when viewing your veg patch.

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  4. We ave two rudbeckia Goldsturn planted about a couple of foot apart and one is really bushy and tall and the other is like the one you showed.

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