THE WEATHER -

A cool and showery start to the month, with heavy rain on the 1st. However, things got hotter as the month progressed, and by mid-month, we were in the middle of a heatwave, with a high of 33°C (93°F). This lasted around a week, then cooler, fresher weather arrived. Not much rain to speak of until the 25th, when it rained constantly from the early hours right through the day. Miserable, but great for the garden! More heavy rain on the 26th, but better on the 27th with only light showers and sunshine. A bit of sunshine but mostly heavy showers for the rest of the month. Maximum temperature 33°C (93°F). Minimum temperature 10°C (50°F).

I couldn't resist this plant when I saw it in the garden centre last month. It is Rehmannia elata, a herbaceous perennial plant. I was impressed by the large pink flowers which are rather like a foxglove, but with a wider mouth! I have planted it in a well-drained position on a slight slope, where it looks lovely at the moment, and is covered in flowers. It will look even better next year when it has bulked up a bit! It is slightly tender, so I am going to save some seed as a backup in case it doesn't come through the winter. I can't lose this!

This is an unusual plant called Dicliptera suberecta. It has lovely grey felt-like leaves and buds, and these open to fiery orange tubular flowers, with long stamens. It isn't very hardy though, apparently, so I am growing it in a pot on the south-facing patio. I have only recently bought this, so I'm hoping it will do well and come through the winter alright.

A month or so ago, I was at a flower arranging demonstration, and whilst having lunch I noticed a wonderful Clematis climbing up the bird table just outside the window by our table. It had no label, and nobody seemed to know what it was. Imagine my surprise and delight when wandering around my local B & Q garden centre a week or so later, I spotted the very same Clematis I had fallen in love with at the demonstrator's house. It was Clematis 'Crystal Fountain', a lovely shade of mauve, with the most amazing double centre. What's more, you get double the value from this, because as the flower ages and the outer petals fall away, the centre remains for several days longer, looking like a completely different flower (see picture below). They don't come any better than this!!

I don't usually grow annuals, but one of my flower arranging students brought me several pots of these Nicotiana 'Lime Green' plants, which she had grown from seed and were surplus to requirements. Never one to look a gift-horse in the face, I thanked her very much, and found a spare bit of soil (a very rare occurence in my garden!) and planted them. They have grown really well, and every evening around five o'clock, the smell wafts upon the breeze and is divine!

I'm always a sucker for rescuing a poorly plant when I see one - it's always so rewarding to see them recover their health and strength, knowing that otherwise they would have ended up in a skip! This Cestrum elegans is my latest rescue, and is a tender evergreen shrub, growing to several feet in height eventually. This was a reduced plant in my local Tesco store, and was looking the worse for wear, but it did have one flower bud on so I thought I'd give it a chance. I re-potted it, and the one flower bud went on to produce this beautiful flower. Since then, it has produced several more strong new shoots with a large flower bud on the end of each one, so I'm looking forward to a wonderful show from my poor little rescue plant! I will have to bring it in to the conservatory during the winter if I want to keep it healthy though.

I grow several varieties of Hemerocallis in the garden, as I think they are such lovely plants. They are all in full flower this month, and the pictures above show just three of the ten different ones I have in the garden at the moment. On the left is H. 'Bonanza', yellow with a dark red-brown centre. In the centre is H. fulva flore-plena, a lovely double orange variety. I have had this plant for about thirty years, and it was originally a piece from my father's plant, which he had grown for many years himself before I had mine, so it is obviously a very old variety! On the right is H. 'Mountain Laurel', a very strong grower with wonderful deep velvety red flowers. Although each individual flower lasts only a day, hence the common name of Day Lily, each plant has many flower stems bearing several buds, so there is a long succession of flowers over several weeks. Good value or what?

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

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

RAINBOWS
Patience Strong

A shaft of sunlight pierced the clouds and lit the rain-washed world,
Each leaf and twig was hung with jewels and crystal drops impearled.
The Earth gave off a fragrant scent that hung upon the breeze,
And diamonds trembled on the dripping blossoms of the trees.......

And suddenly, above the roofs I saw a flaming bow -
That made an arch cross the world and set the sky aglow,
As if an artist with a brush moved with divine desire
Had stained the dome of heaven with a hoop of coloured fire.......

An then my heart remembered what this thing of beauty meant,
And why, when sun and showers blend, this lovely thing is sent
To tell His doubting children that the word of God is true,
And lest men should forget - He paints a rainbow in the blue.