Autumn Flowers

 I've neglected this blog again over summer, and autumn feels like an odd time to pick up a gardening blog. There are still flowers to be seen though - an advantage a perennial garden can have over a 'summer bedding' style planting.

This white Michaelmas daisy, the orange violas and a couple of still-flowering dianthus are all 'rescues' from the garden centre clearance racks. I'm fond of a bargain (who isn't?) and with perennials a little care will see them flourish for years.






































Michaelmas daisies are the mainstay of my autumn flowers with these long established plants now forming good-sized clumps.
I just wish I last year's rudbeckias had survived to add a splash of bright yellow to the garden.

August in the garden - flowers

August is the time for montbretia flopping over the path,

 for hollyhocks reaching up past the hanging basket

 This year I've a variety of new pinks and carnations - mostly rescue plants from the clearance section at the garden centre. They're looking well so far but I was disappointed to find out that the smaller ones aren't very hardy. I'll need to take some of them inside the greenhouse for winter.

















 This massive blue flower is a platycodon or balloon flower - one of thoe no-effort required plants that I love.

I grew new antirrhinums this year, most of which have turned out a pale lemon with just one red so far.

 The old straggly white rose has had a second flush of flowers.

 Sweet peas are flowering regularly at last. Only two shades on them this year - deep red and lilac. They're grown from last year's seed and it rather seems like only one pod of seeds germinated.















 Dry weather has helped the rudbeckias along - one of the few annual flowers I grow,mainly for their bright high-impact colours.



A lot of veg seems early this year - and so do Michaelmas Daisies! Here's the first of them.

To the rescue again

We were actually only supposed to be picking up a bag of compost but when I saw these cottage pinks on the dead-plant reduced rack, I couldn't leave them behind. I've been looking for some for a while, as they're a typical cottage garden plant they'll fit right in in my garden,but the price has been putting me off and I couldn't find seed for the right sort of 'pinks'. For the reduced rack, both plants are looking well and should grow - unfortunately the plant on the right lost a lot of flowers on the way home!

This week's rescue mission

Another weekend trip to the 'reduced' rack! I was specifically looking for pinks - and found one. It was in a very sad state - drooping from lack of water. In fact it was so dry that while we looked at the other 'reduced' plants, I pulled the rootball out of the pot and sat it in a puddle.
The two hanging baskets were dry but not as dreadful. The smaller one is for us to hang by the back door. The larger was actually bought as the cheapest way to buy a new hanging basket chain! Less than £3 for all 3!!