At the pub quiz this week a friend pointed out that I’ve not shared a garden update in a while, so this one’s for you Paul. 🙂
On Saturday, garden bloggers share six things from their garden, using the hashtag #SixOnSaturday.
Here’s my six for this week, with snaps taken this morning after a rainy night.
- Pirouette, a beautiful rose I was given for Christmas by my brother and sister-in-law. It’s a slightly peachy pink with a hint of spice in the scent.
2. Blythe Spirit – the first rose to bloom in our rose patch, its a lovely buttery yellow and prolific bloomer. I got this from David Austin roses as a bare root a few years ago and it’s a most pleasing sight with a dreamy aroma.
3. Vanessa Bell rose – an absolute beauty, sweet scent, subtle shades and plenty of blooms on fairly tall stems, especially good for cut flower bouquets. Named for Vanessa Bell, a painter of the Bloomsbury set, whose work is being reevaluated and celebrated after being kinda ignored in her own time. There’s a show of Vanessa Bell’s work at a gallery in Lewis this year, and I wrote a blog about her story a while back.
The rose patch is overstuffed with plants, which is beginning to become a problem but its a nice one to have. The idea was to cram them in so they compete with one another and grow taller, and I can manage the congestion by picking lots of stems for vases and bouquets. It is sort of working, but I think I’ll need to redistribute some of the planting and give these roses a bit more room soon.
My 4th selection is a dicentra spectablis, a species commonly known as ‘bleeding heart’ which will henceforth be known as the diving turtle. Someone on BlueSky pointed out the resemblance, now we can’t unsee it.
A major highlight of the garden this month has been the wisteria, which was simply magnificent. Kudos to my lovely husband for the bold and effective pruning that led to this cascade of sweet scented flowers that were humming with bees all day long.
And finally, a ‘red star’ aquilegia, a stunning highlight of the shadiest part of the ‘horsey border.’
Not entirely according to ‘the plan’ I’m working full time in IT these days, which leaves me less time for garden blogging. But it does enable the purchase of more plants and pots and I’m working from home which means I can take my breaks under the apple tree.
The bench under the apple tree on a soggy Saturday morning
The ongoing plan is to nurture a beautiful wildlife friendly garden that provides plentiful blooms to make bouquets, a good supply of tasty herbs and a few fruits and veggies, and to have the time to enjoy it. I cut a big bunch of garden blooms to a cheer up a friend this week, and it felt much more personal than something from the shops, and like a little piece of success with the plan for the garden. 🙂
You can find more collections of garden highlights for Six on Saturday on the Garden Ruminations blog.
I hope you have a lovely weekend (and for those in the UK, a lovely long weekend with bank holiday Monday!)
Jen x
I recently heard the diving turtle thing and you are right – you can’t unsee it! Great roses too! My Aquilegia is just getting going but the flowers are smaller as it is he species native to my part of the US. Thanks for sharing!
Lovely roses, Blythe Spirit is stunning and definitely one I’d look out for at the garden centre.
This Saturday is already producing a few flowers that do not perform well here. Peony and clematis appeared in another post. Now I see your dicentra and aquilegia. We tried aquilegia once, but it roasted immediately. It managed to drop seed, and one (ONLY one) survived, and is blooming meagerly now.
Wonderful! Love the diving turtle!
The ‘red star’ aqilegia is my favorite.
Oh my goodness, your Roses are just stunning! Mine aren’t blooming yet, but they will soon. I am going to click back through your photos because they’re simply dreamy…