Salvia ‘Hot Lips’

Flower power

~ Sam ~ 20 Comments

It may be feeling cosy and almost Christmassy indoors but our garden is blissfully unaware that we’re speeding towards the shortest day of the year. It’s been gloomy of late; we’ve had very strong winds and rain (but nothing like the devastating rains in other parts of the country) and not much sunshine. It has been unseasonably mild, though, and this is probably why some plants seem a bit confused.

photo 2
There are still marigolds.
A strawberry plant is flowering..!
A strawberry is flowering!
There are still snapdragons...
There are still snapdragons. They’re a bit windswept but they’re hanging in there.
The Erigeron is still flowering on the front steps - continuous flowering since April. It's such a hard-working, joyful plant.
Erigeron karvinskianus is still flowering on the front steps – continuous flowering since April. It’s such a hard-working, undemanding lovely plant.
Salvia 'Hot Lips' is still going strong.
Salvia ‘Hot Lips’ is still going strong.
Some hardy geraniums are still sending out flowers and the leaves on some others are only just starting to fade.
Some hardy geraniums are still sending out flowers and the leaves on others are only just starting to fade.
Primroses!
Primroses! This one has been munched by an opportunist mollusc..
And, yes, the cheery geraniums are STILL flowering. This time last year, we'd moved them all into the greenhouse for the winter.
And, yes, the cheery geraniums are STILL flowering. This time last year, they were tucked up in the greenhouse.

In other news, I took the dog for a short walk this morning – a gentle stroll (no stomping yet) up to the top of the cliffs to breathe in some fresh, sea air and blow the cobwebs away. It was windy and drizzly and grey but it was marvellous. Have a lovely weekend.

Hope

~ Sam ~ 22 Comments

photo-24

Heavy hearts, this weekend. The stark reality of our world can be overwhelmingly sad but we must hang on to love, tolerance, respect, joy, beauty, compassion and hope. I’m joining in with Cathy at Rambling in the Garden for her weekly gathering of beautiful flower arrangements. It seems particularly appropriate to be appreciating beauty where we can find it.

The garden has been battered by heavy winds and rain all weekend and we woke up to more grey and driving rain this morning. It stopped raining about an hour ago, the clouds parted and the sun came out (fleetingly), so I rushed out into the garden, scissors in hand, and snipped some Salvia ‘Hot Lips’ and white snapdragons, and foliage from rosemary, Lonicera nitida, jasmine and Lysimachia. It smells delicious. I also cut a pink rosebud from the unknown climbing rose at the front of the house, which you can just see bottom left in the picture below.

IMG_9337

IMG_9336

IMG_9344