The first two weeks of the month were pretty dismal, with a lot of rain and cloud cover, and very little sun. There was enough rain for me not to have to water the garden, but many of the pots still had to be watered regularly. It's easy to forget that even with vast amounts of rain, pots and hanging baskets still need to be watered almost every day. The third week of the month was much more like summer! Beautiful weather, hot sunshine and no rain! I've had to spend a lot of time watering though, but at least it felt like summer at last. The last week of the month was cloudy, with sunny spells but no rain until the 27th, when a thunderstorm watered the garden!

My seeds of Geranium maderense have now germinated (they took just five days) and I'll soon be able to prick them out and pot them on. I think it will be next year now before they flower, but I can't wait to see them in all their glory. I will overwinter them in the greenhouse, just to be sure I don't lose them! I also planted some seeds of Echium pininana, and these have germinated after just 7 days. They are also tender, so I shall have to overwinter them in the greenhouse as well, and plant them out in their flowering position next spring. No sign yet of the Puya chilense seeds though.

At last! On 7th July, my tree fern, Dicksonia antarctica, burst into life! I have two of these, and although the larger one was OK, I was really afraid that the smaller one had been killed off by the frost last winter. I have never bothered to protect it over winter before, but the difference last winter was that I had moved it in its pot from its normal position outside the conservatory, to further down the garden. I had forgotten that it is much colder on each successive lower level in the garden, and obviously, this had made the difference. The potential new growth had been killed by the frost, and I counted eight blackened new croziers. Now, though, new leaves are pushing their way up through the thick "fur" in the crown of the trunk. I love these ferns, they are so architectural and exotic-looking. I also have Dicksonia squarrosa, which is a slightly daintier-looking tree fern. This has produced a succesion of new leaves so far this year.

I really love these Pitcher Plants, Sarracenia and Darlingtonia species. I grow them in a water-tight container, which I keep topped up with water. They stay outside all the year round, as they are quite hardy with me, and flower in spring (around May) with red, orange or yellow flowers. I used to keep these in the conservatory, and they flowered in February, but the flowers smell so awful (well - they are meant to attract flies!) that I always keep them outside now. They are planted in pure peat, with no added plant food. The pitchers are growing well now, and should reach about one third of a metre in height. By the end of the year, the pitchers will be full of the remains of flies and other flying insects. I will need to split them up soon, though, because they are filling the pot and looking a bit crowded. I may split them into individual species and pot them up separately.

I was really pleased to discover that I haven't lost my Arundo donax. This is a very tall species of grass, with lovely glaucous blue foliage. I found it pushing a single, fat, shoot through the ground! There had been no sign of it at all this year until now. It isn't the hardiest of grasses (though it's probably one of the tallest!) and I may dig it up from where it is at the moment on level 4 of the garden, and re-plant it further up where it is warmer. It is such an architectural plant (my favourite type!) and I would hate to lose it. I have the variegated species as well, but this is in a pot which I move into the conservatory in the winter, as it is definitely not hardy here.

I've cleared an area on the lower level of the patio, where it was very overgrown, and discovered about a square metre of ground just right for planting some of the plants I have bought and which were still in pots awaiting the right spot. (I've still got plenty more left to plant, though!). I'm quite pleased with the result, and it should look even better next year when things have established themselves more. I've planted up the gaps with bedding Impatiens, which do very well in shade, and give a good splash of colour.

Butterflies seen this month - Cabbage White, Small Tortoiseshell, Gatekeeper and Speckled Wood. I have a self-seeded Buddleia shrub in a pot, which I was going to dispose of, but I think I will keep it and plant it somewhere to try to attract more butterflies to the garden.

The weather this month has been mostly warm and sunny, with temperatures up to the mid-20's (°C). This is just how I like it - I hate it when it's so hot you can't work in the garden! Not much rain, though, until 18th August, when it rained heavily for nearly 24 hours! Only a few short showers after that, so I've had to do a lot of watering.

My Puya chilense seeds have now germinated, they took approximately four weeks. They are very small, so I don’t think I will have to prick them out into individual pots just yet, unlike the Geranium maderense seeds, which are getting very crowded. Only three of the Echium pininana seeds germinated, but as these plants grow so big, this is probably a good thing, as I don’t think I have room for many of those! I've also been busy taking lots of cuttings from shrubs, Fuchsias and Pelargoniums.

It's been a very funny month! Autumn colours are already in evidence on some of the plants in the garden, notably my Vitis coignetiae. In the surrounding area, the trees, especially the Poplar trees, are already losing their leaves. It's also very strange that several January/February-flowering plants already have flower buds forming, for example, Garrya elliptica, Hamamellis mollis, Sarcococca, Rhododendron praecox, Viburnum tinus and Cyclamen neapolitanum. The pictures above were all taken on the 20th August 2000, and you can see what I mean! What's going on? Could this be a case for the X Files?!!!

One of the stars of the autumn border is Rudbeckia 'Goldsturm'. This is a lovely plant which begins to flower in late August and carries on well into September, giving a wonderful show of bright yellow daisy-type flowers with dark centres on long, strong, stalks, which are good for cutting. Once the petals fade, the cone-like centre remains a feature for some time, giving added value to the plant.

One of the plants in flower in the garden this month is Carlina acaulis. This is a thistle, whose flowers have silvery petals with a papery texture. The bees go mad for it, and are often to be seen in a "drunken stupor" on the nectar it produces! One of the bonuses of this plant is that the flowers can be cut and dried for flower arranging. It's important not to cut them too late, as the flowers continue to open and begin to disintegrate if the flowers are too old. They need to be cut when the petals are fully open (as in the picture) and only the first ring of stamens can be seen. They can be dried in a vase without water, and will keep their shape well. It's best to trim off a few of the very spiny leaves from the stems, to make them easier to handle.

A couple of projects have been finished this month. Firstly, I have at last persuaded Hubby to build me a pergola across the path leading from the front gate to the shed. My Vitis coignetiae vine is growing against the wall there. This has huge leaves which turn beautiful colours in the autumn, and also produces small bunches of decorative but inedible grapes (well, they are edible, but the skins are very tough!). Every year, I cut it back in the spring, and it grows vigorously all summer and swamps everything else because it hasn’t got any support. Well, now it has! Also, we've given the boring old shed a facelift!

The second project is a bamboo feature down by the pond. More details and pictures of these projects can be seen in the GARDEN GALLERY and WATER GARDEN pages.

Fuchsias give such a lovely splash of colour at this time of the year. They're probably at their best now, and the picture shows a display of Fuchsias which are outside the Conservatory. Some of them are standing on a wooden bench, which helps to give them height, and shows their trailing nature to best advantage.

I've been very busy in the garden this month, making a start clearing overgrown borders, and splitting and moving plants around so that I have room to plant some of the plants which I have bought earlier in the year and are still in their pots! August is not the ideal time to move plants around, but so long as you keep them well watered after moving, I find there's not usually much problem. I've also cleared the pond of excess oxygenating plants, and thinned out some of the marginal planting so that I can see the fish better. Some pictures of the pond and the fish can be seen on the WATER GARDEN page.

Butterflies seen this month - Peacock, Gatekeeper, small Tortoiseshell, Cabbage White and Speckled Wood.

The weather this month has been quite warm, but we have had a great deal of rain, which has ruined some of the Canna flowers and begonias, and made a soggy mess of lots of other things! Still - at least I haven't had to do any watering, except right at the beginning of the month, so it's not all bad news as it takes me about 2 hours to water all my containers!

September is the start of autumn, and the trees and plants are showing autumn colours now. There is heavy dew and mist in the mornings, and the days are getting shorter. It's always a sad time, I think, when summer is over, and there are only the dark, cold days of autumn and winter to look forward to. Looking on the bright side, though, seed catalogues have been coming through the letterbox, so I've spent some time browsing through them to decide what I want to grow next year. I usually make a list of seeds I want, then when I total up the price, it's a quick re-think!

I was amazed to find that my 15 year old Actinidia chinensis (Kiwi Fruit) has lots of small fruit! I've never seen fruit on this plant before, and I assumed I had a male or a female plant. (I know now that these plants are usually one or the other, and you have to plant one of each sex to get fruit - but they didn't tell me that at the Garden Centre when I bought it, so I only bought one!) I only have this one plant, and as far as I know, nobody in the vicinity has a Kiwi Fruit plant, so I don't think it's been pollinated from there. I can only think that my plant is hermaphrodite (i.e. containing both sexes). It always flowers prolifically every year, and I always had trouble deciding if the flowers were male or female because they appeared to have both male and female attributes (!). I don't know if the fruit will ripen before the first frosts, it's still quite small, although growing rapidly! I really hope so - I love Kiwi fruit! The pictures on the right show the flowers which were on the plant in May, and the fruit as it was on September 12th 2000.

Eucomis comosum is in full flower now. This is a bulbous plant which I find fascinating. It has such strange flowers, with their little tuft of leaves on the top, giving it it's common name of Pineapple Lily. It seems quite hardy in my garden, and doesn't get any protection over the winter. It's easy to grow from seed, the only problem being that it takes some years to reach flowering size.

An unusual plant in flower this month is Fascicularia bicolor. This is a terrestrial bromeliad, whose leaves begin to turn bright red in August, and then completely red in September, just before the fascinating pale turquoise-blue flowers appear in the centre of the rosette. I have had this plant for about five years, and it flowered for the first time two years ago. Each flowering rosette then dies, but not before several offsets have been formed, which flower a year or two later. My plant is quite large now, with about five flowering rosettes, and several non-flowering ones which should flower next year. A really spectacular plant!

Butterflies seen this month - Comma, Peacock, Red Admiral, Gatekeeper, small Tortoiseshell, Cabbage White and Speckled Wood.