THE WEATHER -

Not much to report on the weather this month, except to say that it has been a mixture of sunshine and showers, with a lot of dull, cloudy, cold, wet and windy days - more like October than August! However, summer returned again for the last few days, with beautiful warm and sunny days - fantastic! Very warm on the 31st (warmest day of the month), however, thunderstorms from late afternoon into early evening watered the garden (but not enough!) and cooled things down a bit. Maximum temperature 32°C (84°F), but only on the 31st, up until then, 28°C (80°F). Minimum temperature 7°C (44°F).

One of the pleasures of summer is looking up through the foliage of a tree to see a beautiful blue sky! I did just that with my Paulownia tomentosa, a wonderfully architectural tree which has huge green leaves which seem to glow as the sunlight touches them. If you keep it cut back hard each year, the resulting leaves will be gigantic and make the neighbours suspect you are growing some sort of a triffid (heh heh!!). The only drawback to this treatment is that you will sacrifice the lovely purple foxglove-like flowers, which only appear on mature branches. Take your pick - flowers or foliage......

I'm really pleased this year with my Lobelia tupa. This is a lovely but somewhat tender perennial, which grows to around 3 feet tall and has the most wonderful spires of dark red flowers. I bought this about three years ago, but it never did very well, so last autumn, I replanted it on a sunny bank, and this seemed to do the trick! It obviously needs a well-drained sunny site, and although I had originally planted it in a south-facing border, it wasn't particularly well-drained and also tended to get overshadowed by more exuberant neighbours. It is now covered with flowers, and looks wonderful!

This is a lovely plant called Calceolaria integrifolia. Calceolarias are often thought of as tender, but this is a hardy one (except maybe in very exposed locations). Throughout the summer and into autumn, it produces clusters of bright yellow puffy flowers. It is evergreen, although stems can get damaged in very bad weather over the winter. I usually cut mine back quite hard in spring, which encourages lots of new growth that will flower later on, as well as improving the shape of the plant, which can be rather sprawling. It's very easy to propagate from cuttings in summer too!

My Dahlias are still giving a wonderful show in the garden. Last month I featured "Duet", "African Night" and "Art Deco". This month, I've pictured (left to right) the showy "Mick's Peppermint No 1", a large flowered cactus variety with white petals spotted and streaked with red, "Sparkler No 1", with orange petals streaked with red and bifurcated at the tip, and finally, a new variety called "Asahi Chohje", with small flowers with a double centre and red and white striped petals.

I love Hydrangeas, and of course, this month they are in full swing! The mop-headed ones (Hydrangea macrophylla) are probably the most familiar, and these are very showy, with dark or light pink, white or blue flowers, depending on your soil. Acid soil produces wonderful blue flowers, whilst alkaline soil produces beautiful pink ones, even if the plant you bought was blue to start off with!! However, these are not the only types available, and I have several different ones in the garden, all producing different sorts of flowers. Pictured above are (left to right), Hydrangea macrophylla - always pink in my alkaline soil; Hydrangea arborescens "Annabelle", a wonderful plant with huge but refined creamy-white flower heads regardless of the type of soil it is planted in, and whose only drawback it its need for staking to supoort the weight of the flowers, and Hydrangea aspera "Villosa", with hairy stems and leaves, and lovely velvety purple heads which have the fertile flowers clustered in the centre, with the more showy sterile flowers (really bracts) around the outside.

That's all for this month...... Happy Gardening!!

Blackbird, Blue Tit, Bullfinch, Chaffinch, Coal Tit, Collared Dove, Crow, Dunnock, Goldfinch, Great Tit, Greenfinch, House Sparrow, Long-tailed Tit, Magpie, Robin, Rook, Seagull, Starling, Swallow, Thrush, Wood Pigeon, Wren.

RAIN
Patience Strong

A sudden shower burst from the skies upon the dusty lane -
In gardens thirsty flowers looked up, and sipped the cold sweet rain.
Beneath a tree's green parasol, I found a sheltered place
Where wet leaves dropped capricious kisses on my upturned face.

The storm swept like an angered god across the distant hill -
Defenceless in its path, the mighty trees bent to its will.
A cottage door swung open and a woman rushed outside
To gather in her sturdy arms the washing she had dried.

A man went by - a man of earth - bronzed by the sun's deep stain -
He touched his cap and smiled, and said, "A lovely drop o' rain!
This be a god-send for us folks - this be just what we need -
It's good for man and good for beast and good for soil and seed."

And I, beneath the dripping tree, remembered that in towns -
Men greet the gift of God's good showers with fretful words and frowns.
But wise and patient earth-brown men don't grumble or complain -
They say a courteous "Thank you" for a "lovely drop o' rain."