ArtShades

Japanese Anemone - Bloom of the Week

Japanese Anemones seem to like my garden - they are very low maintenance and multiply with enthusiasm, which is a good thing as I favour the wild, natural look and they block out any weeds that dare to trespass on their patch.  This dark pink variety is shorter than my others, so needs no staking (another plus point).

 

It has started flowering very early this year (two years ago I featured it on my blog as Bloom of the Week in October), although there are still lots of buds so maybe it will have a long flowering season.  I hope so.

 

I like the fact that it looks a little ruffled around the edges - as if it has just got out of bed!

Buddleia davidii Royal Red - Bloom of the Week

The rich dark colour of this Buddleia is my favourite and it's at its best now.

 

The peacock butterfly posed beautifully for my photo and then closed its wings to hide those amazing colours and give me a charming silhouette.

So accommodating!
 

Sweet Peas - Bloom of the Week

The sweet peas have put on a good show this year, albeit not quite the show I had in mind.

 

I sowed carefully-selected varieties from seed in cardboard tubes, by colour, with smart labels, before Christmas!  Unfortunately I have since realised early planting is not ideal for me.  The longer I have seedlings hanging about the more chances they have of meeting a grizzly end.  I lost some when the bucket they were in was left out in the rain and promptly froze, others when they dried out whilst on holiday in April and yet more when puppy found he could reach the cardboard tubes in the tray and thought it was a great game to race round the garden with them in his mouth, leaving a trail of compost and bedraggled seedlings in his wake.

 

My mum took pity on me and my bedraggled specimens and promptly bought me a replacement tray of healthy little plants that someone else had grown, putting mine to shame.  I mixed them in with those of mine that had survived against all odds, and thus have no idea what varieties I have ended up with.

Trachelospermum jasminoides - Bloom of the Week

Having built a green oak structure for our garden last year we decided to soften its hard edges with a climbing plant.  We wanted scented flowers, evergreen leaves and something that would establish fairly quickly.

 

The friendly couple at Grange Farm nursery in Guarlford, near Malvern highly recommended the evergreen jasmine and convinced me to buy the large (and thus more expensive) specimen.  I am so glad I took their advice. 

The jasmine survived the heavy snow over winter, being nibbled by puppy in spring and has more than doubled in size by summer.  It has lovely glossy leaves and keeps on flowering.

Alphabet Walk Blog Hop

Today I am participating in One Sydney Road's Alphabet Walk, so if you have hopped here from there, welcome!  

  

I intended to take a walk around town in the sunshine and snap away with my camera, but as it's grey and chilly and I have a shade commission I should be working on, I decided to take a short walk around my garden and capture as many plants as I could find whose name (botanical or common) begins with the letter in question.

Can you guess the letter?

   
   
 

from top: Hollyhock, Holly, Hypericum, Hosta, climbing Hydrangea, Hazel, mop-head Hydrangea, lacecap Hydrangea, evergreen Hypericum, Hypericum berries.  All growing in my garden on the eastern slopes of the Malvern Hills in Worcestershire, UK.

I'm looking forward to seeing how everyone else has interpreted their letter as part of the Alphabet Walk, but in the meantime must get down to some work - if you're interested in what that is, click on 'Lighting' to your right.

Thanks for coming, do pop by again!  Sarah