Picnic and fireworks under the stars

I have just come inside after a lovely evening concert with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at their yearly ‘Under The Stars - Proms in the Park’ event in my local park here in East Ham. As many of you know, I am housebound and only leave the house to attend my hospital appointments so walking to the park and sitting there for 3 hours is out of the question for me – I haven’t been there for many years, but the park is so close to me so I can hear the music in my garden!

My August garden

It has been an absolutely wonderful summer here in London, best I can remember for a long time - although the weather has cooled down a lot the last couple of weeks and we no longer beat heat records. It is already middle of August and it’s time to join the Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day and show you all what’s flowering in my garden. I have a lot to show you, as usual, so grab a cup of what you fancy, feet up, and let me guide you through my tiny paradise.

The most important room

I often say that the most important room in my house is my garden, and I use my garden as if it was one of the rooms in my house – all year round. I probably spend almost as much time there as I do in my bedroom on average and certainly more than I do in my living room. It was therefore about time I did a spruce-up of my seating area this summer, it has looked the same since I moved in almost 12 years ago.

My lilies

My oriental lilies are finally flowering! I wish scented blog photos were invented so you could smell my garden right now, it is like standing in the middle of a flower shop, with your face buried in a sea of lilies! All the plants in my garden has been very late to flower this year, thanks to the exceptionally cold spring we had, it seems like the delay has just continued and still is. I never thought I had to wait until August to get my oriental lilies in flower!

Bring in the passion!

My garden has taken on an autumnal feel in certain parts, as the last couple of week’s battle against spider mites now is well and truly lost. My crocosmias are still flowering, but the leaves are completely brown and dying and look more like they do in late November. One of my hydrangeas at the bottom of my garden hasn’t even started properly to flower, but the leaves are dropping at an astonishing rate and many of my fuchsias and most of the dahlias are beyond rescue. My only consolation is that none of the plants will die from this attack, the leaves and flower buds will just drop much earlier than normal and next year the plants will recover and look just as beautiful. The chances of getting such a hot, dry summer next year, and the same problem again, is probably around close to zero, so I am not being too depressed about the devastation all around me, it’s just what gardening is about – you never know what each season is going to throw at you!

Unwelcome guests in my garden

The hot weather is still going on here in Britain, the longest spell of fine weather in 7 years so far. I think we can safely say we deserve this weather, after many dismal summers and extremely cold winters lately. The hot weather has made some unwelcome guests reappear in my garden though, I haven’t seen them for a good few years and they caught me a bit off guard - I have an infestation of spider mites!

Hot colours for a hot July

I haven’t written a post in 10 days, between a stay in hospital, recuperating and taking care of my garden I simply haven’t had the time or energy. But it’s Garden Bloggers’ Bloom day again so now is the time to show off what’s in bloom, and the last two days I have been taking pictures of everything in flower. I have had a hard time selecting what to show you, I simply can’t show you everything, it would be a too long post - some of the pictures will come the next couple of posts. But this post is quite long anyway so go and get your choice of brew and get seated, here is my middle of July garden. As always, please click on the photos to get the big version, it is so worth it!

My roses

I have waited a long time for my roses this year, a very long time, but finally I have roses in my garden! The first flush of flowers is always the best with the most flowers, but all my rosebushes are repeat flowering and will go on producing roses until February next year when I cut them down. Normally it takes around 8-10 weeks from cutting the bushes down in first week of February until the very first flowers appear, and the first big flush usually comes sometime in May. But this year nothing is as usual in my garden and everything is late, many things very late. All the more welcome though, now that the roses finally are here :-)