Hands up, anyone else feeling frazzled? I thought as much, most of the UK contingent. The gardens are suffering, choices are having to be made and lessons learnt. We have been promised thundery showers today but, having just checked the Met Office forecast, it appears they have changed their minds. Someone who is hoping that one of these allusive showers will make a direct hit on his garden and fill their water harvesting devices is our very own Six on Saturday compare, Jim at Garden Ruminations. Check out his site for the rules and regulations. I haven’t actually read them, but believe they are something like “six” on “Saturday” and are open to interpretation and side stepping. Let’s get this show on the road.
Astilbes and dry ground do not “go together like a horse and carriage” or indeed “love and marriage”. This moisture lover was in the garden when we arrived and had been planted in the most arid place possible. Spoiler alert: it struggled to survive. Kindly, well the intent was there, I moved it to more hospitable surroundings, a lovely shady dampish place. Unfortunately, it has had no time to get its roots down and is suffering badly. As my mum, Peggy, would probably say “I can’t do right for doing wrong!” As I feel a little guilty because of the added trauma I’ve inflicted upon it, it is one of the few in the garden that gets a regular water.
Underneath our rotary washing line we have an area of set-aside. A nigella has seeded itself there. Very pretty.
Rosa ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ is having a wonderful year, surprisingly unaffected by being totally swamped by the deliciously unruly Diascia personata. In fact, as Elvis Costello would say, it has been a good year for the roses.
The prize for the first flowering dahlia of the year goes to ….. drum roll …… annoying pause …… scrabbling around opening golden envelope ……. the most enchanting Dahlia merckii. A gift from Anna in Cumbria, it goes from strength to strength. It was dug up and stored in the greenhouse last winter. Today I noticed that I can’t have quite got the whole tuber up as it is sprouting again in its previous position. Has anyone else found that some plants that are considered tender survived the dreadful winter unprotected whilst others, supposedly more hardy, succumbed?
This is another survivor, an unnamed nemesia. As I extended this border it also needed to be moved in early spring. No complaining going on here, it doesn’t seem to have missed a step.
Finally, Eccremocarpus scaber that I grew from seed last year. To be honest, I didn’t expect it to be yellow and, ever the methodical scientist, I can’t remember whether these are collected seed or from the Hardy Plant Society. Who cares? Nice, isn’t it?
All done, synchronized rain dance anyone?
Off The Edge Gardening 
A lovely selection. Gerty does seem to be putting on the best show ever this year. I feel better about my frazzled Astilbes now. I’m pondering making a mini bog garden for mine as I have some left over pond liner left. May have to wait until next year though as ground is rock hard. Come on rain…
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A mini bog garden sounds great, you could grow all kinds of lovelies like carnivorous plants!
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Happy it’s still thriving for you I always found it hardy up north, we are hoping to move into a bungalow surrounded by large area of lawn with a few shrubs and all on one level very soon so my head is filled with ideas
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Oh, how exciting! Are you taking merckii with you?
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No not many plants but i am taking lots of seeds and having a fresh start it’s a lot lower altitude and it isn’t as exposed
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If you would like some merckii just shout. I can also send you dahlia seed for next year if you like. Remind me again in the autumn.
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Gill the Eccremocarpus I grew from seeds you sent to me survived the winter despite being “tender”, the Hardy Geranium did not despite being hardy…..My lifted dahlia tubers nearly all died whilst the ones left in the ground have all bar one returned. Odd.
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Very! Perhaps we will have to rethink things.
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The dahlia is so simple and so sweet!
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It is one of my favourites.
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“an area of set-aside” is hands down the best excuse I’ve ever heard! How come your merckii is flowering when mine is barely above the ground.
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That made me laugh! Yes, I thought it was early, I’ve got others in bud too. Yours will catch up soon enough. I quite fancy the white merckii, we had one at Cliffe.
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Lovely Dahlia and that Nigella is a beauty! Rain dancing here!💃🏻
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Thank you and thank you!
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Here too the forecasts change… we were expecting 8mm of rain and it would only be 0.4mm. ie nothing at all….Brilliant this first dahlia! The flower is simple but very beautiful. Can’t wait to see the others!
( I didn’t know the word “frazzled” but yes we are, very nice weather but hot and without rain …)
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Always a linguistic education! 😀
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The dahlia is an eye catcher. Rain dance here. We need it also.
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Thank you and it worked, for a short while anyway.
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Gertrude is such a lovely lady. I always used to leave my dahlias in the ground with a mulch of newspaper and bark chippings. I am convinced it is winter wet rather than cold that kills them. I am not doing a rain dance for you just yet. I am enjoying my hammock too much.
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I’ve never been in a hammock, it is on my wish list. I was worried about the clay soil here, it seems I needn’t!
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Frazzled here too, it’s another of those years, too wet then too dry. Your Gertrude Jekyll is blooming lovely, my Scepter’d Isle is looking pretty.
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So many beautiful roses. I am getting another one for my birthday 😀
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Have you chosen one yet or will it be an impulse purchase 😊
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I have, Fragrant Cloud. We had a whole bed of it at Cliffe, until the deer ate them all. It is lovely.
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PS The synchronised rain dance is a brilliant idea!
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It worked! A little anyway. Hope it did for you too x
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No!! I obviously didn’t synchronise properly!
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I’m not normally a fan of dahlias but that one is superb. And yes I’ll join in the synchronised rain dance! We should probably sing as well, that would guarantee some rain!
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Yes, singing will double the effect, I’m sure!
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Nice Six sister, and seeing your Rosa ‘Gertrude Jekyll’, and another one this week, I am pining for the one I left behind, it probably means that ‘another’ rose will join the garden ready for next year. May we all have a little rain, a gentle rain all night, and then more every other day. Maybe I ought to go out and do a rain dance.
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Your rain dance worked for me, did it work for you?
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I need another rain dance and something from you to make me smile. I’m not being needy or am I?
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Definitely need more rain dancing, just been out in the garden and it’s like the Gobi. You are never needy, I sort you something later x
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My Astilbes are looking good I have to say, but then they are in the woodland border and it’s quite shady and damp along there despite the lack of rain (and having a hosepipe ban) – though we did have some overnight light rain and it has been foggy all day so I suspect the washing I hung out to dry is still wet… possibly even wetter!
That dahlia is a cracker. I have two Mignon type which seem to be coming back – they are in pots and left outside during the winter under a patio table. I do like the smaller kind.
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Hopefully my astilbes will recover, we had a little rain yesterday and even that has perked everything up. I’m sure it won’t last long, but ever little helps. ps I had to look up Mignon 🙂
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Love the Dahlia. In recent years I have just left my dahlias in the ground and one keeps coming back no matter what the weather does. The one year I did dig them up and then repotted them nothing grew when they were repotted.
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I am beginning to think you are doing it right!
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The pain of Astilbe. I had some when further north, to no avail. It is thundering here, but no showers have materialized, I hope you get water soon.
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It is worldwide pain! You too x
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Gertrude J is hands down my favorite rose, she is such a do-er. The petals even dry nicely for a lovely rose tea. I know exactly what you mean about capricious plants: the dahlias I lifted all rotted in storage in the shed: the fragments I failed to lift, left out in freezing wet soil, are sprouting… I’m never lifting another dahlia again!
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I think you might be right about the dahlias, it is such a palaver digging up and protecting and checking for rotting off etc. Mind you, I will probably lose nerve and dig a few up.
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Rain is ‘normal’ for June?! . . . or are you merely hoping for some out of season. The dry season started here quite a while ago, but the weather should also be warm by now. It is ‘nice’, but really weird, and some new foliage can not grow faster than the critters that eat it. How long can your climate go without rain?
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Up until recently we have had some rain all year round, especially in the south west of the country. Things are changing, prolonged periods of dry weather then the same for wet and it was very cold last winter.
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Wow, rain all year round. That would be totally weird.
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My poor astilbes are the same as yours, we do need rain, only a tiny trickle came over the weekend! your Gertrude Jekyll is looking really good, mine is looking better this year than ever before, maybe the heat last summer was just what it needed!
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