
The garden is growing gold these days, trucking along at full speed. I’m very nervous to be leaving it for the next two weeks as I tour English gardens and visit with some impressive horticulturists and designers in the U.K. Seeing as how my packing is yet to be done, I’ll jump right into the details of what was blooming and producing in the garden this past week. Notice above how the zinnias are starting to pop up at the front and the Metasequoias on the far right are getting very bushy. I’m thinking about pruning them, though I love their texture and fresh green growth so much that I’m not sure I can bring myself to do it.

The succulent container is absolutely stunning as all the plants have become very well established and are taking on their more intense color now that they are in the sun and the weather is quite hot. The reds and blues make me smile every time I walk by, as do the tiny off-sets the thimble cacti have started to produce. I’m relieved the 21 days (!) of rain we had in June didn’t swamp the entire container and leave me with a bunch of rotted out plants.

Speaking of beautiful containers, my main focal container is continuing to look spectacular. The hydrangeas are holding up like real champs, despite being in full sun and crammed in with loads of other plants. The coleus is shooting up through the middle and adding yet another layer of texture and some yellow-green highlights to match those of the creeping jenny below. I have been fertilizing my container with a cocktail of compost tea and fish emulsion once a week. Same goes for the varigated lime sitting below the big container. It has been growing like a weed and adding a nice accent to my container collection.

New to bloom in my ornamental beds this past week were the punchy Allium ‘Drumstick’ and clear blue Platycodon grandiflorus (ballon flower). Last year the ballon flowers were very short so I was unable to use any in cut flower arrangements. Now that these perennials have gotten established, they’ve stretched to a lovely height of three feet with straight strong stems. I promptly cut the two you see above and am currently testing their vase life – three days and counting.

Another new bloom in the garden is the patch of nigella. This is a pleasant surprise. I had direct seeded nearly six feet of a row in the very early spring only to have very slow germination and spotty with what did sprout. The seedlings failed to put on any growth for nearly 3 months. Since these are a spring cut, I pretty much gave up on them and was just thinking the other week that I should rip them out and put in more zinnias and cosmos. Well, ta-da! They’ve burst into bloom and are the most stunning cut I’ve grown to date, adding to the bunches of sweet williams, snap dragons, and dill flowers I’ve been harvesting by the armfuls. What I love best about the nigella is that I can harvest a stem that has a bloom or two open on it but several others that aren’t and the stem will continue to bloom in the vase, adding an element of surprise as it fills out the arrangment with additional fresh flowers.

Just look at that bucket of flowers! I’m still in awe every time I harvest a big bunch… it’s really that easy to grow amazing flowers like this to have tucked into vases around the house! My clients are really loving them too. I made a delivery the other day and couldn’t help getting a big smile across myself as I saw how much delight they invoked. Another gratifying harvest as of late has been the tea herbs; lots of yarrow, anise hyssop, chamomile and lavender still being pumped out of my tea garden bed.
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