July, who’d have thought it? It will soon be school holidays (better journey to work for me), Peggy’s birthday (cream teas, always good), rain, Tour de France (niche, I know). Oh, and glorious gardens. If you would like to admire some of these wonders then pop over to Jim at Garden Ruminations who hosts our frivolous gang. Shall we get on?
I always struggle to take a decent photograph of Salvia ‘Neon’, perhaps my camera isn’t up to the job, perhaps it is a user problem. Today I attempted by stealth and have pretended to take a picture of a nigella in an attempt to capture the salvia’s incredible luminous pink. Failed again.
This is the first sunflower in our garden to bloom. Is it camera shy or just rather rude?
Another Pollies daylily in the garden is Hemerocallis ‘Yabba Dabba Doo’. I bought it for OH a couple of years ago. He never mentions it. Perhaps he thinks I bought it because he reminds me of Fred Flintstone and is wounded. I like FF.
Geranium palmatum and a feral calendula make an unlikely but harmonious couple.
There is a nursery not too far from here that has a fabulous range of the more unusual and I am like a moth to a flame. This Salvia fulgens was bought last year and now it is rewarding me. I had a little flutter the other day, a few more beauties that I can’t pretend are for clients.
Dahlia ‘Labyrinth’, what can I say? Crazy, in the best possible way.
There we have it, another six, another Saturday, another month. And its raining.
Off The Edge Gardening 
So you get to go and buy plants for your clients’ gardens, magic! Fabulous Dahlia, will that need staking?
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I do! Great fun 😊 No dahlia staking, they all seem to be pretty sturdy. I may live to regret saying that. 😂
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I rather like the back of the sunflower. I’ve never managed to grow nigella from seed, your’s is a lovely shade – even if it wasn’t supposed to be the star.
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I agree, always nice to see another view!
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Dahlia Labyrinth is just too amazing! I must sprinkle seeds of Nigella in my gravel area at the back, I used to have it in borders, but gradually it vanished!
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Isn’t it, just?!
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A great tour. It’s not raining here! But I will enjoy the thought of your gardens getting some rain.
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The Tour de France actually starts today and there are going to be some great stages. Plus, the Tour passes 20 km from my house in the town where my 2 boys live. They planned not to work that day to go see the finish in Rouen. Your sunflower looks shy, but at least it bloomed… mine were eaten by slugs or grasshoppers, I don’t know, but they were decapitated. This Dahlia ‘labyrinth’ is a superb flower!
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Watching the Tour now! Really wet here so perfect excuse. I wondered if it was going close by.
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Salvia Neon is very difficult to photograph. If you don’t mind me butting in with a thought – take a look at some seller’s images and you might see that the best are photographed in overcast lighting. Sun creates harsh shadows and burnt-out highlights. Try again when cloud obscures the sun and creates bright but overcast lighting – think of it as a photographer’s Lightbox in a studio setting. The Nigella is very pretty though!
All the best flowers always face the wrong way. But back-shots of flowers are rather lovely. To my eyes, your sunflower is a winner! Dahlia ‘Labyrinth’ is a favourite and by showing it you’re making me miss my lovely tall dahlias this year. The short, dumpy varieties I have in pots just aren’t working for me.
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Top tip Catherine, I will give it a go. All my dahlias seem to be tall, not through design, just chance.
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‘Labyrinth’ looks like something from the movie of the same name from 1986; so, besides ‘Crazy’, it is also RAD! Although those dinnerplate types are not my favorite, this is one that can get away with its huge size because of its RADness and Crazyness. Geraniums seem to be popular . . . elsewhere. I have not seen one here in years, and they were rare back then also.
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Stealthy with that first photo, indeed! And that Dahlia…I can’t agree more with your thoughts about “crazy” in the best possible way. That is one special bloom! Happy “Six”!
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Love that crazy dahlia, but ‘Yabba Dabba Doo’? Really? What on earth was the person on who named that?
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😂 Whatever it was I’d like some of that!
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A lovely selection. The sunflower made me smile. I had one solitary sunflower survive to flowerhood once & it decided to bloom in the neighbour’s direction so that I just got the back view. I was most put out.
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Why is it that daylilies have such silly names? Lovely salvias. And I adore Labyrinth, I used to grow it, I don’t know why I haven’t got it now. I would really like to wear it as a hat, but then I never go anywhere fancy enough for a hat like that.
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I think life is too short to wait for occasions. Stick it on your head and enjoy!
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The Dahlia made me smile. Any word on the banana tomatoes?
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Really tasty! Also tried Austin’s Red Pear which was also lovely. The blue tomatoes are still like rocks, I think I might bring a couple indoors and see if they ripen.
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Ohh! Red Pear? The Yellow Pear has been the best tomato this year. I did not know there was a red, though I saved seed from a huge fruit to see if I could grow jumbo yellow pear?
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I’ll try to take photos for next week. Trouble is as soon as they are ripe, in dribs and drabs, they get eaten. Jumbo yellow pear sounds delicious!
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It makes me realize how many tomato plants farmers must have.
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I’m envious of your sunflower…in recent years mine get to 5 or 10 cm high then get nipped off….or the seeds, when planted in the ground, get eaten…voracious chipmunks I think. Labyrinth is spectacular!
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Bloomin’ chipmunks! You can share mine.
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Nice photos. The Geranium palmatum struck a chord with me. How do you get it through the winter? It wouldn’t survive here.
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