A Little Summer Magic

Just a short post to say thank you for all the good wishes I've received,my wrist is mending nicely thank you and I didn't need any surgery. I have another two and a half weeks before the cast comes off but I've become quite good at doing things with one hand now :) I've been in the happy position of being able to spend a good deal of time sitting in my garden enjoying the lovely weather. It isn't in very good shape after 3 weeks of neglect and I've become very aware of its many shortcomings, it definitely needs much more strong colour among all the white and pastels which I tend to go for.


This is a magical time of year and there are so many lovely flowers, campanulas are among those that are just starting to bloom, I love this particular shade of blue which is actually more intense than it looks, the strength of the sunlight has drained some of the colour. Blue flowers always look better in the evening when the light is beginning to fade.



The best thing at the moment is the scent of roses which drifts on the air all over the garden. Almost all my roses are old-fashioned shrub roses chosen for their perfume. The one at the top of this post is Reines des Violettes and above is Ferdinand Pichard. The new header photograph is a single bloom of this, it's hard to choose favourites among the roses but Ferdinand has to be near the top of my list.



The seedheads of clematis alpina 'Rosie O'Gradie sparkling in the sun.



Felicite Parmentiere is flowering beautifully this year. She hates the rain and for the last few years has sat there miserably dripping wet and covered in brown flower buds that never actually bloom. At the moment though she looks wonderful. This is my favourite of all the rose scents in my garden, I wish I could share it with you.


This is Rambling Rector flowering on the front of the house. It was cut back hard in the autumn of 2008 and appears to have enjoyed the experience.



The old roses have such marvellous names, this is Koenigin von Danemark or Queen of Denmark. One day I intend to have Ispahan, Belle de Crecy and Quatre Saisons simply because I love the names. I have others besides the ones shown here - Rosa Mundi and Louise Odier are still to flower so there is still pleasure to come especially as these two are new this year and I don't yet know what their perfumes are like. Meanwhile Comte de Chambord is spilling over the terrace steps making every trip down to the compost heap a pleasure and my Apothecary rose is getting bigger every year, it creeps steadily along and I suspect I may have to curb its exuberance eventually!