THE WEATHER -

After almost a month with no rain, we finally had some showers on the 6th. Although some of them were heavy, there was not enough rain to penetrate under trees or into pots. It made up for it on the 7th though, with heavy rain all day and late into the evening - great stuff! Everything looked so fresh after the rain! Lovely weather followed until the 15th, when it was dull and remained so for several days. No more rain this month, and everything is looking very dry indeed now. Maximum temperature this month, 25°C (78°F), and minimum temperature 7°C (46°F).

I bet you didn't know that Aspidistras flower!! Here's the proof! This is a flower on one of my Aspidistras in the conservatory. It isn't the usual Aspidistra elatior, which has plain green leaves and white flowers, this is an unusual variety with green leaves spotted with minute creamy-yellow spots, and has these lovely wine-coloured flowers. Aspidistra flowers are borne at soil level, as they are pollinated by slugs and snails! This is the reason most people miss the flowers, as they are usually hidden by the leaves of the plant.

This must be one of the most colourful flowers ever! A mixture of turquoise blue, pale pink and yellow, with lipstick red leaves! It is Fascicularia bicolor, a terrestrial bromeliad which is hardy in my garden. I bought it as a single rosette several years ago, and it has now developed into a large plant with many rosettes, several of which flower at the same time. Its leaves are usually green until flowering time, when they begin to turn red. By the time it actually flowers, the leaves are a brilliant red. Once the flower has faded, the leaves turn red-brown. Each rosette dies after flowering, but by that time, several offsets have been formed around the base, and these will flower in future years.

This Hibiscus seems far too exotic to be hardy - but it is! This year it has been covered in these beautiful pink flowers with maroon blotches in the centre. I bought the plant two or three years ago, and it has been in a pot since then. It didn't flower last year for some reason, and I'd forgotten what colour the flowers were. It was a lovely surprise when it flowered, and I remembered why I had bought it in the first place!

I've recently bought this Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle'. I couldn't resist these lovely lime-green flower heads. As the flowers mature, they turn white, but are equally as beautiful. This poor plant was off to a bad start as soon as I bought it.... It was raining heavily (the only day this month when we have had any rain!) and I was carrying the plant from the garden centre to the car, wrapped in a black plastic bin bag. It was a big plant and quite heavy. I only have a small car, and as I hurried to get it into the front footwell (it wouldn't have fitted into the boot) out of the torrential rain, I heard an ominous crack. It was too wet to investigate in the car park, so I jumped into the car and drove home. Fortunately, by the time I got home, it had stopped raining, so I got the plant out of the car, and when I looked, the larger of the only two stems on the plant (the one which had most of the flowers on!), had broken off at soil level, leaving me with only a stump, and the skinnier stem! I was VERY annoyed! The only thing I could do was to cut the flowers off the broken-off stem to put into a vase, and plant the other bit as a cutting in the hope of salvaging something! The weaker stem which was left went on to develop these two lovely flowers, however, so I still got some enjoyment from the plant. Hopefully, next year, the plant will throw out more new shoots from the broken stump, and make a good sized plant again!

It's always a treat to see the flowers of Cyclamen hederifolium (syn. C. neapolitanum) appearing. They help to brighten up the late autumn garden. I love this plant, not just for its lovely flowers, but for its leaves also, which have wonderful marbling on them. No two plants are the same!

This arbour seat is a new addition this month to the garden. I've always wanted one of these, and finally I've got one! I've put it against the shed, in a west-facing position, where it catches the late-afternoon sun on the patio. It's great to sit out there with a nice cuppa, and relax for a while....... I've had to cut back a couple of Elderberry trees which were either side of it (one purple-leaved, the other variegated), so that it could be constructed and painted, but these will soon grow again next spring, and fill in the gaps!

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

Peacock, Fritillary, Large White, Green-veined White.

Blackbird, Blue Tit, Chaffinch, Collared Dove, Crow, Dunnock, Goldfinch, Great Tit, Greenfinch, House Sparrow, Jay, Long-Tailed Tit, Magpie, Pied Wagtail, Robin, Rook, Seagull, Starling, Swallow, Thrush, Wood Pigeon, Wren, Yellow Wagtail.