A Garden Update

In the garden ... 

One of the dwarf sunflowers (photo 1) has started flowering and the other has plenty of buds so it won't be long before it too is in bloom. They are the only yellow flowers for this time of the year and I'm not sure whether their inclusion is a mistake. Sunflowers were our flower so these dwarf ones provide the opportunity to have them in the garden as a happy reminder, but they do stand out amongst all the purples and pinks and I'm haven't decided yet whether they stand out in a good way, or like the orange poppies, in a bad way. I suppose the fact that I haven't instantly rejected them works in their favour and, for this year at least, will be allowed to stay.

The second gaura (photo 2) is starting to flower and is a much darker pink than the other one. Both are beautiful and I'm happy with my choices. The same for the new pink rose (photo 3) which is a much deeper colour than that shown on the label but I love it and it will hold it's own next to the deep red rose. 

The new plants are now all planted. The pink salvia and one of the perennial nemesia have gone in the centre bed with two more of the nemesias in the side beds. I only ordered and paid for two perennial nemesia plants but have somehow ended up with eight of them, not that I'm complaining, so the remaining five nemesias are in pots. There are also three marguerites, pink ones, which there will be a place for every year if they do as well in pots as the online photos suggest.  

For this year, that's all of the planting done ... or so I thought! M has seen some phlox which she thinks will look good in the far bed so, if there are any left when she goes back to the shop, she will buy some for me. There will undoubtedly be gaps in the planting but for now it all needs to grow and fill out. The crocosmia lucifer are producing their flower stems so they will be the next group of plants to bloom, closely followed by the gladioli, and ... the sweet peas are growing at long last! 

We also discussed ideas for the front garden which is going to be planted up with bulbs but I don't know whether the planting for that will start this year as I still have to buy the rest of the pots for the spring bulbs in the back garden.

Apart from the usual maintenance jobs, there won't be that much in the way of actual gardening for M to do next time so we're debating whether to make a start on the patio re-grouting. However, the patio needs to be power washed before that can happen and that means moving all the pots around so there's a big question mark about the best time to do that ... maybe it is better to wait until next year and fit it in the gap between the pots of spring bulbs going into storage and before all the pots of annuals are ready to go out. I also need to buy the pot mover! She is very busy at present, so we'll speak before her next scheduled visit in two weeks and decide what to do.