ArtShades

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 
 

Knautia macedonica - Bloom of the Week

What a fabulous colour this Knautia is.

 

As usual I forgot to stake it and it has flopped over the path; I wonder what it looks like growing upright. 

 

The bees don't seem to care how it grows.

 

Digitalis purpurea - Bloom of the Week

It's a good year for foxgloves in my garden.  Usually I leave them be and delight in the way they power skywards wherever they please. 

 

Last year I had a bare patch of ground along the edge of some steps so each time I came across a foxglove seedling in an odd place I transplanted it there. 

 

The resulting display is lovely and it's great to be able to look up inside the little bells as you go climb up the garden.

 

I must head up the Herefordshire Beacon soon to see what the foxgloves are looking like this year - here is a photo from a few years ago - aren't they fabulous en masse?

Allium Christophii - Bloom of the Week

My new favourite bulb is this Allium - I haven't grown the big ones before and I am so glad I did.

 

I grouped the packet of 8 together (a tad too tightly) and they catch my eye every time I walk past the window.

 

They have managed to distract my eye from the Rosebay willowherb which has taken root behind - I only realised how much of it there was when I took the photographs!

 

An urgent case of weeding is required methinks. 

PS  No photo of a bloom in my vase this week - I haven't been able to bring myself to make the chop.