A Rose by any other name...

This year we made a conscious decision to leave the roses un-pruned.

Most of them have kept a reasonable shape

But not all. I don't mind this informal, floppy look.

This New Dawn for several years climbed on the house front and along the edge of the greenhouse and last year it started climbing up the greenhouse roof.

Now I am intrigued as to how far it will climb. Look how the heat from the greenhouse has promoted the flowers compared to the buds on the house front.

The Art of the Cottage Garden

This morning I will be presenting my new talk "The Art of the Cottage Garden" 11am at Essex Meadows. Below are a few photos and comments from the presentation.

The design aesthetic of a garden is often driven, and rightfully so, by the style of the domicile which it aims to enhance

In our garden we are partial to sowing seeds of poppies and other self sowing annuals.

An aged patio, into a corner of which is arranged an assortment of mismatched and weathered planters and pots filled with color.

The importance of water.

This is a good comparison between two Nasturtium plants.

the first has a constant supply of moisture.

 The second has rain only.

Yet the two plants are only a few feet apart.

Fall's bounty

Today feels like our first Fall day and Summer is closing. but we do have bounty from the garden and orchard to soften the blow.

and the flower borders are still full of colour.

All we need now is for Sooty to hatch.

 Then we can fire up the oven and get back to enjoying hot Pizza.

Planning for next year.

At this time of year and throughout the summer is a good time to take photographs of your gardens. comparing colour texture and form for possible future plant combinations.

One of our plant combinations, pastel colours for spring, will be supplanted by more vibrant colours to compete with the mid-summer sun.

Perhaps a combination of a pure pink rose

with a clear blue hydrangea.

A selection of Kniphofia  after the German physician Johann Hieronymus Kniphof (pronounced nip HOE fee uh, not ny or nee FOE fee ah) 

with a combination of Hemeracallis.

Lemon yellow 

with the blue and white Geranium Splish splash.

 Golden yellow

with a blue/purple salvia

 I'm always reluctant to prune the greenhouse overwintered Pelargoniums of their early spring blooms, but by doing so pays dividends as they grow into domes full of flowers, this one is 30 inches across.

One should never be content or satisfied with what is and always be thinking what if.

A cut in time is fine.

When your Spring shrubs are looking like this, and you want next year's flowers to be at eye level and not sky level, especially when those flowers are fragrant (Lilac, Philadelphus, etc) Now is the time to get out the pruners.

The traditional way is to take a third of the old stems, and cut them back to near the base. This gives a more open, natural look,

or you can cut them back to a more formal looking bush with a hedge trimmer or garden shears. New growth will soon hide any bare spots and both methods will produce a glorious display of flowers come next Spring.

For less compact shrubs, I prefer dead heading and cutting back old stems.

If the shrub, or small tree has showy berries, then simply shorten any branches that are getting to high, or wide.

During this yearly pruning, you may come across unwanted guests.

Like these tent caterpillars, remove the branch, making sure to get all the caterpillars and burn.

 Sometimes a shrub maybe rather wild and the flowers insignificant, but wonderfully fragrant, a must for keeping at nose height.

Occasionally a shrub will have wonderful flowers, vibrant seed heads and colourful leaves.

Prune as little as possible and give it room

 This stunning Philadelphus, planted to hide the utility pole, when in flower has this rather relaxed, draping habit, but when pruned, becomes upright, allowing the underplantings to grow and flower.