Awful weather - typical Brits talk

twopenny

Whohoo Bluey you're living the high life 🙂 I think the little things, like eating a delicious ice-cream somewhere pretty can be one of the best things in life. Well next to a gorgeous diamond bracelet.
Lovely hydrangeas. Shade and they like a damp spot. Azalea are demanding on site unless you're the one growing in annoying neighbours garden that is totally neglected and blooms like mad.

A couple of short bursts of rain yesterday for about 10mins each. That was it.
Today forecast but not a sign.
The flowers perked up but the plants are still drooping or dying.
The birds love it being cloudy and cooler. Don't know if it's the same Blackie but one was back the next morning and this perkie as anything. I suspect it's lack of worms with rock hard ground.

Domestic stuff happening today I hope. Totally undisturbed by any demands and everything ready to start a more fun week next week .
Sitoorie looking ok. Almost dead sweet peas as they didn't do well with prolonged heat.
Cloudy and cool here. Heat tomorrow?

Farway

Rained a bit overnight, not loads but enough so I don't need to water the pots this morning, uptick for that

It did “shower” yesterday as forecast, enough to deter me from pruning more apples, but useless for the garden in general

They look nice Hydrangeas YBE, which reminds me I have one in a pot somewhere, last seen fighting for life near the manky fig. 

I'll have a look for it later, it was intended for the Volunteer Border pre fall out committee discussion, and put to one side while I decided on its eventual fate.

You read all sorts about care, but I remember huge ones near Plymouth Hoe, all day in hot sun on dry banks. Of course, showing care will kill them overnight.

Nice ice cream as well, near very subtle but tasteful planter. Any bits stick to you while sitting there?

The verdict is in on my plum, some have ripened, but are like purple bullets  , no lush flesh at all. 

Luckily for the plum, it has decided to become a display stand for a clematis that escaped its bounds, so the plum will earn its keep that way     

Pea Patrol was slim pickings, half a dozen pods, but as I did not set out to grow peas this year I'll settle for this bonus.

twopenny said:

Almost dead sweet peas as they didn't do well with prolonged heat.

My sweet peas headed straight to the fjords without even attempting to flower 

What I spotted yesterday was one of my self seeding Shoo Fly plants, a bit like Cuckoos & Swallows, I get Shoo Flies as sign of summer

Shame about LIAM though 

Shoo fly is centre, bright green leaves

Self seeding trailing nasturtium right

Dustyevsky

It has rained overnight here, but to quote Paul Daniels”, not a lot.” Yesterday's rain was just misty stuff, so I ignored it, working through the day in T shirt + shorts, and not even needing to dry out in breaks. I even mowed the grass paths in the mini wood in the evening. Today, they say more cloud and not much rain, if any, so I'm tempted to do a couple of gutter repairs....but not very!

That's a very tasteful display you sat by, Bluey. Your hydrangeas will almost certainly be fine, once they've acclimatised from the traumas of moving from cosseting in a nursery to the harsh realities of life in Lidl's fast lane!  As I was saying, we've a hydrangea in full sun, battling it out with half a dozen other thugs in the road hedge, and it comes out on top. Picture (currently in other 'puter) to follow.

On the subject of plums, ours seem to be shaping-up nicely this year, so I'll get a picture of those soon. As for stuff that's now producing the Cherry Falls toms are OK for cooking with bacon, but not a patch on Sungold. We have a family day coming up next weekend so I'm sure they'll all come in handy for that anyway. 

Now a cautionary tale for those of you who don't like precise Latin names. Roses don't tend to come with those, so one has to rely on the English. It's very easy not to notice two different cultivars share the same name when looking up a specific variety up on a 'phone. So it was with our 'Iceberg.' We got the non-climbing one. It's very nice, but no amount of shouting will make it go up the trellis!    At season's end it'll be relocated..... 

YoungBlueEyes

Aye I liked the sitdoonerie planter too. Nice calm fresh colours, I'm thinking of how I can copy it here. No bits stuck to me cos I think I've the main ingredients here already. I've a couple of white geraniums and some strands of whatever the lime coloured leaves are in the corners (which stuck to me from a hanging basket outside a pub last year. Very attractive it was, all long and wavy and lovely wee flowers on it). They've not died on me but they've not grown any further :rolleyes: It sure is the little things 2p, I could have happily sat there all day watching the world go by  

Your garden might be baked to the bone but it looks well on it 2p Is there a collective noun for LiaMs? A cloud? A fluff? I vote for a fluff of Liams   Ditto here on the sweet peas, even though I went mad and bought them a 'metal' climbing frame to encourage them up this year. They've grown a few inches and stopped. I'm sure I can hear them laughing at me behind their teeth when I'm near them. 

Maybe if all the plum does in it's life is support your clematis that's not the worst outcome Farway. Not ideal but could be worse. Are they fleshless due to all the hot dry weather? I'm trying again next year for nasturtiums, they're so jolly.

Gawd that rose is well named Dusty, Iceberg is just right. Hydrangeas are currently not being cosseted, they're being whispered to by the other dying things with Tales of the Fjords. I don't think I'll plant them, I'll keep them in their pots and just pot them on when they're ready for it. I'm not getting a clear answer on the suitable conditions though, is it hot and dry or shady and moist... different websites say different things, naturally. I'll ask Cissie tonight.

Here's 2 more Unidentified Growing Objects. The first one is only diddy, and the petals are all in one I think. The second one looks a bit more menacing - it's grown from nothing to 6 inches in a few days...Rip out or keep? 

I’ve 2 of the last one - the other one is hidden away behind my rose, and it's 4ft tall if it's an inch  

OT it did rain, eventually. Half decent rain it was too but nothing like they said. Even Tusky is still showing thunderbolts and lightning for this aft, but it's slipped into the next hour every time I've opened the app, so it doesn't count.

Farway

Blue, top pic is Field [creeping] bindweed, a little sister of the big white climbing one

Personally if in manky grass AKA lawn I'd leave it, pretty enough and drought tolerant

Bottom. Looks like my carrots, but doubt it's that. Going by flower & your description, I'd say Cow Parsley.

Both are good for insects etc, Cow parsley makes good flower arranger stuff. Self seeds like billy O but easy to pull up the young uns

YoungBlueEyes

Thanks Farway, I'll leave them then if they're good for Unidentified Flying Objects. I'm not having the cow parsley self-seeding about the place though so I'll pull them before then.  (I thought they looked carrot-y too ha haa!

twopenny

I thought it might be sweet cecillie
https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/11303/myrrhis-odorata/details
But I don't know how to tell the difference between that and all the others 🙂

Hydrangeas are pretty tough. Drought is the only thing to deter them but even then they come back. They do like some water though.
Along with the lovely coloured ones here I've noticed just how wonderful they look planted together and they flower over a long period regardless.
I try to see which ones fade looking glamorous as some just go brown. 
You can dry the flowers at the end of the season and making a winter wreath is the latest trend which I intend to do. Was going to last year but the weather devastated them just as I was about to cut.

Dusty I have a lovely pick of Iceberg planted as a border with Hidcote Lavender. Saw the lady making the garden from scratch and it's inspired. I have to download from camera though.

Today's buys were eggs and Bee Vomit from roadside stalls 


I missed the chance to buy sweet pea bunches. The stall is becoming far too popular for my liking. No milkshakes left either 😬

wort

Oo bee vomit , not the most appealing name 😂 my mum used to have propolis tablets she used to call them bee spit.
YBE ,mine are in large pots cos I was hoping to keep the blue colour !! 🙄sods law. But in sun and a couple in a more shady aspect. I do find they need water more in full sun , otherwise the flower droops. So keep an eye on that for watering.

Dustyevsky

wort said:

Oo bee vomit , not the most appealing name 😂 
YBE ,mine are in large pots cos I was hoping to keep the blue colour !! 🙄sods law.

I remember them for their black stems, though, and those must still be there.    Here's my blue one, almost escaping from the garden at the front:

I've seen 2p's Bee Vomit, so I'll respond to that too, with something even less appealing; rat-tailed maggots! These always seem to arrive in barrels of comfrey feed, no doubt drawn by the powerful aroma they give off. But before you go "Bluergh!" and move on swiftly, it might be good to find out what they become.   

I'm not sure what your mystery umbellifer is, Bluey, but it's not Sweet Cicely. It might be Cow Parsley, as Farway says. 

 Well, the weekend rain didn't amount to much, but it was cold yesterday in the wind.  Today, we're back to sunshine, allegedly, but not scorchio until Wednesday. After that, a predicted heatwave. I predict the hay will be cut, at last. 

YoungBlueEyes

Bee Vomit Also, I like your teapot and ...radio...?  

I want to keep my one bluey so I'm not for taking it out of the pot 'til I get the proper stuff for it. Where is white on the acid/alkali scale then? I don't want either of them changing colour. Wort which compost/feed did you use so I know to avoid it!

I was a bit heave-y at your comfrey barrel population Dusty so I went back for a look at your gorgeous blue hydrangea  

I'll leave the 2 cow parsleys for now, and the bindweed one. It opened further yesterday and it is one big solid petal. Lovely.

I asked Cissie about about hay cutting timings last night. She said you'll keep the same weather as you have until the wind changes and blows you in something different. If that's a help..?  

OT cooler than it has been, bit breezy and humid but the sun's out so it'll dry up. We got nil nada zero thunderstorms and lighting yesterday, it didn't even rain for as long as they said it would :rolleyes: 12'c out there now with a high of 20' to come, but the Feels Like will top out at 17. Possibly.