Thursday 15 May 2014

May flowers in London

For us gardeners it seems difficult to talk about anything else than our gardens and the weather, yet – we seem to have a rather short memory when it comes to past weather. Do you remember what kind of weather we had last spring or the spring before? Well, I do, because I have written it down, but I also do because it was so extreme! I suppose for many of us, EXTREME is the word we could start using to describe the weather by in the future, no matter where we live.

Just to recap, if you don’t remember :-) Last spring was that really cold one here in UK that seemed to go on for forever and meant that at least in my garden, most plants were 4-6 weeks late. The spring before that one was the one that rained away. We had a winter drought and first week of April a hosepipe ban was introduced, 2 days later it started raining and didn’t stop until late August. Well, THIS spring has been rather cold, not too wet, pretty average I suppose, but it followed a really unusual winter where it rained non-stop for 4 months and at least in my garden, without any frost at all. So what has that meant to the plants in my garden this spring? I am pretty much average with most things, not early and not late. Some of the roses started flowering 2 weeks ago, the rest are just waiting for a week of a bit warmer weather and they will all be out. The really unusual thing has been all the plants that didn’t go into dormancy during the winter and therefore has either flowered all winter or started flowering much earlier than normal. More about that later.

Here on my patio is the only really sunny space in my garden, the sun-loving plants are fighting for the space here and apart from the big fuchsia which is soon to be moved down to the bottom of the garden, the rest of the plants have a rather distinctive Mediterranean feel.

Turning around is my seating area, and give it another month and this space will be filled with flowers!

Up from the patio are my nursery shelves. Mine has this rather unique ability to refill seemingly all by themselves whenever I manage to plant some of the plants out in the flowerbeds. I keep looking forward to the empty space on my shelves but as soon as I turn around they are full again!

Many of the cuttings are already flowering here on the nursery shelves, a sure sign they would rather like a bigger pot and a permanent space. OK, OK....can I please apply somewhere for a few more hours in the day? 4 or 5 extra would suit me very well!!

Do you remember the miniature fuchsias from last month? They are all doing well and in full flower, this is Fuchsia bacillaris 'Cottinghamii' and the plan is to turn this one into a Bonsai tree. It will take oh....4-5 years or so, so don’t expect to see any instant result here on my blog!

And this is Fuchsia 'Fuksie Foetsie', another lovely miniature that might end up as a Bonsai, not sure, it grows veeeery slowly, even I might get a tad impatient.

And this fuchsia is probably the most exciting I have bought this year, possibly ever! I am not sure if I can manage to keep it over winter, but that will of course depend on what kind of winter we get – another one of those we just had and it won’t be a problem at all. This is Fuchsia boliviana 'Alba', a fuchsia not really grown for its flowers but for its edible berries. If you have never heard of Fuchsia boliviana have a look at this page and tell me if this doesn’t look exciting?! I hope to be able to grow it in a large container so in case we do get a really bad winter at least I could take the container indoors for a few days, or wrap well with fleece.

Well, speaking of fuchsias, if you have been visiting regularly here on my blog, you will have noticed that all my fuchsias have been in flower since last July or so – right through the winter, and none of them got the dormancy period they were supposed to have, nor did they lose their leaves. I decided not to cut down my fuchsias, and just see what happens. So far that seems like a wise choice, they are all flowering like mad, and it’s been fun having fuchsia flowers at the same time as crocuses, daffodils and hyacinths! This is Fuchsia 'Snowburner'.

I hope you are not tired of seeing my fuchsias, because there is a whole season of flowers in front of us – I hope all my fuchsias are going to continue to flower until Christmas, possibly even longer if we get a mild winter! So yep, I hope you can stomach a few more fuchsia photos :-) This is Fuchsia 'Marcus Graham'.

And this is Fuchsia 'Deep Purple', all these three are trailing fuchsias, which I planted together as cuttings last spring in one pot. It is now a huge plant where all the branches are mixed together so it looks like one plant producing three different flowers. It is difficult to take photos that really shows you what an enormous plant this has become so here is a short video instead. If your download speed allows for it, please view in 720p or higher.





Back to the seating area in my garden and the bench where I often sit.

From this corner, my garden looks rather full already and very different from just a month ago. I can no longer see the path down to the end and the seating area feels nice and secluded.

And how about this shot, this is a view you perhaps haven’t seen of my garden before. The 9m tall cedar tree is so tall that I struggle to get the whole of it in this shot.

And while I am still sitting here, let me show you this lovely Dicentra  formosa 'Bacchanal', one of the best bloomers in my garden. I think it possibly should have been divided earlier this year, I hope it will survive another season in this tub and then I promise to split and re-pot. I could probably get 4 plants out of this one, anyone want a piece?

Next to the bench is also my lovely, late flowering Rhododendron ‘Dopey’, one of the 7 Disney dwarfs. I wish I could invite his 6 brothers into the garden, but I have no idea where to accommodate them so for now it’s just Dopey who resides here.

The flowers are really beautiful, but because it flowers so late, they don’t last very long. My Rhododendron ‘Christmas Cheer’ flowers for several months, but finished long time ago, ‘Dopey’ flowers for 3-4 weeks max, but looks oh so pretty when in flower.

Looking down in my garden, the camellia still have some flowers left, although the masses of flowers it had last month is gone. I also gave it a hard prune 3 weeks ago which did away with a lot of the flowers, but the prune was a rather overdue one. It looks so neat and compact now!

Just to remind you, this was the camellia a month ago. I filled 3 big rubbish sacks full with leaves, branches and flowers from the camellia and a lot of it was dead branches just hanging on the underside – good to get them off.

The hard pruning made the camellia go into to a frantic new growth, there are new shoots on every tip I have cut. Since I have done the pruning so early, each of these tips will produce flowers for next year and even such a massive prune won’t affect next year’s flowering, on the contrary actually. In the past when I have done similar pruning, I have had even more flowers the following year. But I think pruning like this has to happen early enough, even if it means sacrificing some flowers. I prune the camellia every 5 years or so, just to maintain shape and keep it from toppling over - it grows against a fence  so it really is just ‘half’ a camellia or a half-circle and when in full flower I am afraid the sheer weight of it one day will make it simply topple over :-)

Standing next to the camellia and looking back towards the seating area, the flower beds are filling up so quickly!

Did you notice the beautiful new collection of Heucheras I have? Some of these come from my blogging friend Angie’s garden when we did a plant swap earlier this year.

And this little beauty is Geranium sylvaticum 'Album', also one of the plants from the big English/Scottish plant swap :-)

Oh, more fuchsias to show you! In this bed I have 4 Fuchsia 'Annabel' in amongst the other plants, they were considered tender originally, but I think they have been upgraded to ‘semi-tender’ as people have found them more hardy than originally thought. In my garden the 4 'Annabel' plants have been green and sparingly in flower the whole winter and now they have stepped up a notch and are covered in buds. I never cut these down, but normally they lose their leaves and grow new ones from June or so and then flower from July to frost. It will be interesting to see how long they will flower this year when they haven’t had a break at all – I have no idea, I have never had ‘evergreen’ fuchsias before!!

'Annabel' is a beauty, and the leaves are a bit unusual too, with that zingy, lime green colour.

OK, enough about fuchsias for a while, let’s talk roses! I wish I could show you a garden FULL of roses, but I am afraid it’s a bit early for that. I have had all roses in flower before end of April in previous years, but that’s a good few years since last time. The mild winter hasn’t affected the roses, but the cold March and April, especially the cold nights and mornings has. They are not exactly late, last year they were late! I had just a few roses for the GBBD post in June last year, now we are in May so a month earlier and at about the same stage. This is ‘Rob Roy’, not usually an early one but he has been flowering for a good week already.

My trusty pot rose has been flowering for about 10 days and has lots of buds, too many to count!

This is Rosa 'Susan Williams-Ellis'  here with the first fully open flower.

Although there are lots of buds on 'Susan Williams-Ellis' too. I like the buds on this rose, it’s amazing that they can be pink with red stripes - and then open as completely white roses!

My ‘Crimson Cascade’ is usually one of the earliest bloomer but the squirrels have eaten all the new shoots so there are no buds at all on the top! This one is far down and away from the fence so the squirrels could not reach it. The rose is putting on new shoots so I hope that means new buds too, ‘Crimson Cascade’ is my pride and joy of the roses, it would be sad if I had to be without any flowers a whole season. Pesky squirrels!

I am afraid there isn’t any more fully open roses, they are all at the same stage, waiting for a good week of warm weather and sunshine – which we are promised now! Just not in time for my photos. This is my pink pot rose, a beautiful, strong growing rose.

And this is Rose, 'Mildred Scheel', I guess you can see the theme here, lots of buds ready to pop, but not quite there!

OK, final rose almost flowering – this is Rose, 'Wildeve', another one of my David Austin roses.

What about peonies? Nope, they are tall, very tall. Note to self, must stake them soon!

But not flowering yet. A good week of nice warm weather and sunshine – oh, you get the drift!

Something that is flowering for a change? This is my tender geraniums, 'Pink Chiffon', which originally were in the window baskets in my front garden. I dug them up in December when I planted my winter bedding plants (yes, I know it’s late, but I go by the weather, not the calendar!) My plan was just to keep them in these pots until they died, instead of chucking them straight away, at least I would get some joy of them until winter took them. Except that never happened – winter I mean. These 7 geranium pots stayed outside on my patio all winter, since I don’t have a greenhouse I didn’t have a choice in where to keep them – and they never died. They didn’t even lose their leaves. And in March they started to put on new growth so I cut them down by half. The result is that I now have tender geraniums in flower in middle of May. These were new last year, bought as small cuttings in March and last year they started to flower in middle of July.

Another plant in flower is my lilac. I have raised it from a tiny seedling and I am not entirely sure what type it is, except it is NOT a Syringa vulgaris. From photos and info I have found online I think it possibly is Syringa komarowii reflexa, does anyone know this lilac?

The flowers are rather different to the common Syringa vulgaris and the scent is different too.

Down at the bottom of my garden it is seemingly green, green and more green!

But there are other colours here too, these two dicentras make a good effort and with the support I set up this year, none of them has had any amputations by passing cats either. Hurrah!

This is Dicentra spectabilis 'Valentine', a favourite of mine. Did you know Dicentra spectabilis has changed name? To Lamprocapnos spectabilis. I hate it when plants get new names! Anyway, for me they will always be Dicentra.

'Valentine'

And this is Dicentra spectabilis 'Alba' or Lamprocapnos spectabilis 'Alba'.

'Alba'

There are other flowering plants down here at the bottom of my garden, some of them considerably less showy than Dicentra, but that doesn’t mean they are not exciting. This is a small clump of Arisaema amurense. The mature plant has the typical leaves with 5 leaflets whilst the baby next to it has only 3 leaflets and will need a good few more years to reach flowering age.

The flower of Arisaema amurense is rather special, with like a little umbrella over the opening to cover from rain!

The colours are rather amazing too, and in the autumn it will develop bright orange berries which develops into more babies.

There are more plants in flower down here at woodland area, and oh, more fuchsias! I promise this will be the last fuchsia today. This is Fuchsia 'Mrs Popple' and she was the only one of the fuchsias that got cut down to the ground in early March.

But being such a fast grower it doesn’t seem to have hurt at all, 'Mrs Popple' is already flowering again.

Last month I showed you my Acer in flower, something that has only happened once before.

Well, here is the result, the seeds of Acer palmatum 'Garnet'  looks just like any other Acer, just rather small. I wonder if I will get any seedlings this time, I didn’t last time.

Stepping back a bit, the bed where the Acer is growing is also filling up very quickly. Right behind the acer are two of my clematises and despite both being pruning group 3 they are both in full flower. The are both 10 years old and way too big for the obelisks I have them on, I really should have given them some taller and wider support as I don’t really get to enjoy them much the way they end up growing.

But let me first show you what’s growing under the clematis and camellia in this bed. Not easy to show you the whole lot, but here is a photo of one of them - Lily of the Valley. They are in full flower now.

Back to the clematises, not easy to photograph but these two are a right tangle already having grown to the top of the obelisks and then toppled over, growing together and then reaching for the camellia. Last year the camellia was full of clematis flowers – but that was long after the camellia flowers were gone. This year I have two types of clematis flowers in the camellia at the same time as the camellia is flowering – that’s new :-)

Taking photos of the ‘Niobe’ is becoming a challenge, and by the way, I agree with those commenting on my last post that this might not be ‘Niobe’, I have wondered myself for years as ‘Niobe’ is supposed to be much darker red. I hate it when nurseries are wrongly labelling – I still have the label where it says ‘Niobe’ and where I bought it!

But the flowers are lovely whatever they are called, and now that they are a bit tricky to reach I make sure to have some on my table too.

The second clematis here is Clematis texensis 'Gravetye Beauty' and this one I am sure has the right name, it is such a distinctive one. If you think it looks very much like ‘Princess Diana' it does, another texensis clematis.

And this is a newcomer in my garden that I am expecting a lot from,  Clematis 'Mon Amour'. I looked for a long time after a blue clematis, and found one as blue as possible, this one. But now that I have seen its first flower I don’t really think it looks blue at all. A new search reveals that different websites show this clematis in rather different blue/purple hues. It is pretty enough, but not exactly blue!

And here is another new purchase from last autumn, Aquilegia vulgaris 'Ruby Port'. It is rather young still, with only one flower stalk. I hope it will grow bigger over summer and plump up nicely.

I haven’t showed you my front garden yet, to be honest there isn’t much difference here from a month ago, the fuchsias are flowering like mad and the window baskets on the wall are full of flowers – although the winter pansies are getting a bit leggy and tired now so I will soon change to summer bedding plants and chuck out all this.

And today the summer bedding plants arrived! It is always exciting when deliveries turn up but I can’t think of a more exciting delivery than plants. This is from a company called plantmenow.co.uk if you live in UK and haven’t used them yet, here is my absolute warmest recommendation. The plants are great quality, much bigger than you get anywhere else, and delivery....oh well, if every company used a delivery service like them there would be far less frustrations in the world!

And here is what’s destined for the front garden wall in a few weeks time. I’ll tell you next GBBD post what they all are :-)

All photos were taken during Tuesday 13th and Wednesday 14th this week, Tuesday was particularly challenging as the weather kept changing every few minutes and the wind that has plagued us for weeks on and off was pretty bad. I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to try to take close-up photos of plants in windy weather! And every now and then the heavens opened up to all manner of precipitation…..




But the weather hasn’t been all bad, and starting from tomorrow and lasting a whole week we are promised some really good weather. My roses will  like that!

The sunset tonight gave the assurance of good weather tomorrow.

That was some of the plants in flower this middle of May, I have many more but I simply can’t show you all of them, I don’t want to keep you reading into next week! If you do want to read some more you can head over to Carol at May Dreams Gardens, where you can find gardens from all over the world and see what’s in flower right now.
Until next time, take care.

50 comments:

  1. OMG Helene, your garden really grows so fast, and you have a lot of photos too! It's amazing how people rhere need some warmth, while we here needs some cold! And if I have that trellis in my garden my hoyas will love it. I fully remember your nursery shelf ang the cylinder stones lining the curves. Beautiful garden!

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    1. Thanks for your kind words, the warm weather came today and it is staying for a while, although ‘warm’ in May means low 20s so not exactly tropical weather – but great for being outside and working in the garden. So much to do!
      The edge on my path is made of wood and I painted it before I buried it so it won’t rot as soon as it would if untreated.

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  2. Unbelieveble how many different plants are growing in your garden. And you are so right the weather seems to be extreem. March and april were beautiful month's and see what kind of weather we had overhere the last two weeks. Overhere a lot of people have a cold and are coughing. Well I hope the summer don't forgets to visit us.
    Have a wonderful day and I have enjoyd the beautiful vieuws out of your garden Helene.

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    1. I am glad I didn’t have lots of roses fully sprung last weekend because if I had they would probably had blown off in the windy weather we had.
      The summer came here today, I hope it came to you too. Let’s hope it is staying for a while :-)

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  3. What beauty lives in your garden this month. I especially love those fuchsias, but everything looks wonderful. Happy Bloom Day!

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    1. Thanks Dorothy, I must admit I have a special relationship with fuchsias, and I have lots more unusual ones to show, once they get a bit bigger – I have been fuchsia-seedling shopping this spring!
      Happy GBBD to you too!

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  4. I see your rhododendron is very well and in bloom, love this bright colour! On photo of white dicentra there is another rhododendron, isn't it? Is it blooming? The dicentras despite if changing their names are wonderful, Helene!
    Of the plants were sent you, some annuals dahlias and begonias are, am I right? What about your book, perhaps you have no time for it, having much to do in your beautiful garden!

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    1. The rhododendron next to the Dicentra is Christmas Cheer, it is a much earlier one, started flowering in early February and finished flowering long time ago, you can see it here from GBBD in March: http://graphicality-uk.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/march-flowers-in-london.html
      And you are right, the plants for my front garden baskets are these, 5 plants of each:
      Dahlia Happy Days Cream
      Dahlia Happy Days Pink
      Dahlia Happy Days Purple
      Calibrachoa Double Can Can Magenta
      Begonia SuperCascade Vanilla Cream

      They will probably be in their baskets by June GBBD :-)
      My book is going slowly, but I have so much to do!

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  5. Helene, your garden plays larger than most spaces with larger measurements, as you have such diversity and myriad features. You and those fuchsias are soul mates. Your nursery shelves are a clever touch of utility. And I like that touch of black where your mondo grows. Nice to walk via video, too.

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    1. Thanks Lee, that birdbath where the mondo grass is, is very well visited, so much so that I have to refill it most days when I come out because the birds have splashed out most of the water when having their morning bath! My garden is mostly visited by larger birds like blackbirds, magpies and woodpigeons, the blackbirds and magpies absolutely love the birdbath and it is hilarious to see when two birds at the same time try to have a splash in that tiny bath :-) No wonder there is no water left when they are finished.

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  6. As always, Helene, your garden is an inspiration for me! I love your fushias and the photos of the giant one made me try to grow fuschia. I can see the paeonia you mentioned about in your comment- I think it stays only in my dreams to experience a plant as effective and grand as yours!

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    1. Hi Aga, great to hear my fuchsias inspired you to grow fuchsias too, I remember you had some initial issues with yours, hope they have settled and grow nicely now. I inherited my peonies with the house so I have no idea how old they are – but they were very different back then when I moved in, over 12 years ago. The peonies where growing at the bottom of my garden, in the shadiest part, and only produced 3-4 flowers every year. After some years I decided to move it, despite all warnings never to do so as they sulk and don’t produce flowers after being moved. Sure enough, the peonies didn’t produce flowers for FOUR years after having been moved, but look at it now! Twice as tall and last year I had more than 50 flowers, so I am not so sure it’s always about how many years a plant is –giving it good conditions matters too!

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  7. You are inspiring to have front and back yards with no turf. Such a variety of blooms, and it is still spring. I feel like I have been on an estate garden tour.
    Ray

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    1. Thanks, and welcome to my blog! I had a big revamp of my garden in 2011 and took away the last bit of grass. I have never regretted that decision and I am so happy I can fit even more flowers now that I have no grass anymore!

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  8. Oh my goodness Helene! You are so far ahead of us and your gardens are so beautiful, full and healthy. I especially like your Rhododendron ‘Dopey’,Roses and Dicentra. Happy Bloom Day and thanks for the wonderful tour!

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    1. Thanks Lee, I hope you will soon catch up over there, now that the warmer weather has arrived :-)
      We had our terribly cold spring last year and never really caught up, everything was just that bit later throughout the spring and summer so you never know. My garden is pretty average this year, has been earlier some years, but also later. The unusual thing is of course those plants that didn’t go into dormancy and therefore are now flowering, much earlier than normal. That’s mainly the fuchsias and the clematis’. Have a good week and happy GBBD to you too!

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  9. Beautiful Flowers! Love the colorful roses, so flourish! Again, your fuchsias always make me happy!

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  10. A veritable cornucopia of flowers!

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  11. So many exciting things blooming in your garden Helene! Those bleeding hearts are so dainty! Thank you for sharing it all with us.

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    1. Thanks Donna, the garden is growing like mad now!

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    2. just Lovely :)
      and do not miss

      SATURDAY SHOW OFF

      it is FUN :)
      Welcome
      The Roseman

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    3. Thanks, and welcome to my blog :-)

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  12. Helene, I'm sure I'm running out of adjectives to describe your garden. I am in awe of just what you achieve in your small space.
    The blooms of course are amazing and if I had to choose a favourite, it would be the Lilac. It's a beauty. Coincidentally, I was out looking for a 'nice' Lilac today, sadly didn't find any and certainly none that resembled yours or else I'd have snapped it up!
    It's certainly summer down there in London, enjoyed seeing all your blooms and thank you for the mention. Glad to see the Heuchera are doing well.

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    1. Thanks Angie, I am so happy you chose the lilac as your favourite, it is not your average, run of the mill lilac and looks rather unusual – and doesn’t have the same smell, but it does have some scent. But I have taken care of it for 10 years, since it was a 15cm twig, so I kind of have a special relationship with this lilac! If you want to, I would be happy to snip off a piece for you and in 10 years time, you can have something like this too!!

      We had 26 degrees in my garden today, and now, at 12:45 am it is still 17 degrees in my garden. Now how about that – it isn’t that long since we had 4-5 degrees at night :-)

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  13. Hi Helene
    Your patio area looks so welcoming! Probably your favourite spot to sit and enjoy the Eden you have created. Glad to see my favourite rhodo "Dopey" is in bloom. Love that colour and love that name :)

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    1. Dopey is looking better and better every day in the hot weather we are having, glad you like it, he is one of my favourites too – although I have many favourites in my garden, it kind of changes with the season :-)

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  14. I'm amazed by the number of plants you pack into your garden, Helene. They all look so healthy too! I'm envious of your nursery shelves - I wish I had a source of plants on hand to fill in the unexpected vacancies in my garden. Plants in pots don't hold up especially well when our heat ramps up as it has done recently but I think I need to give serious thought to turning one of the raised planters in my vegetable garden into a nursery bed.

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    1. I have placed my nursery shelves deliberately where they are, so they get only late afternoon sun and gets sheltered from being baked in the sun. In the winter, this little passage down from my house is 3-4 degrees warmer than the rest of my garden so that helps my cuttings too, as I don’t have a greenhouse. My garden is in its 13th year so I have lots of mature plants, I could have had 10 times as many plants in my nursery area if I divided and took cuttings more often – but I have no more space, and not enough people to give my plants to :-)

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  15. Hi Helene
    Thanks for that wonderful walk through your garden. You just have created a little paradise in the middle of the City. Roses and fuchsias are also started to flower here in Switzerland, that is much too early compared with other years. I can remember 10th June 2010 when I opened my garden for friends, fellows and relatives. It was so cold and not one rose was in flower! Well, I have to say that I prefer springs like the one from this year :o).
    Have a great Sunday with lots of Sunshine for your garden.
    Take care
    Alex

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    1. Thanks Alex, I prefer a winter and spring like this one too!!
      Some things in my garden are very early, other are just normal, like my roses, they are not early and not late, as I cut them down the same time as usual and the weather has been pretty normal – so the flowering is pretty normal time.
      I hope you had just as warm Sunday as I had, 29 degrees in my garden today!
      Have a good week, take care.

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  16. Your garden is just amazing, Helene! Until I started visiting here, I had no idea there were so many types of fuschia--just beautiful! The rhododendron is beautiful, too, but I wonder who thought to name it 'Dopey':) Thanks for this tour of your garden--it's always such a delight.

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    1. Hi Rose, there are thousands of fuchsias! I have a very small selection :-)
      The story behind Dopey’s name is this:
      Dopey is a dwarf rhododendron and when they made this cultivar they made 6 other dwarfs very similar height but with different colours. So 7 dwarfs needed names – they just had to be called the names of the 7 dwarfs from Snow White!

      You can Google the other to see what they look like:
      Rhododendron ‘Sneezy’
      Rhododendron ‘Dopey’
      Rhododendron ‘Bashful’
      Rhododendron ‘Grumpy’
      Rhododendron ‘Doc’
      Rhododendron ‘Sleepy’
      Rhododendron ‘Hoppy’ (not sure why, but this is instead of Happy!)

      They are all really beautiful, and that’s why I wrote that I would like to invite the rest of his brothers to live in my garden, if I only had room for them. They might be dwarfs, but they are rather big all 7 together!

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  17. Helene, I am impressed with the quantity of plants you manage in a relatively small space! It must have been wonderful to have flowering plants right through winter. One thing about weather is that once we think we know its patterns, it will take a turn and surprise us! I will never grow tired of your fuchsias, and I enjoyed the video.

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    1. Thanks, the weather here is sure to give us some surprises – the last 5 years, every winter, spring and summer has been completely different! I enjoy gardening and really appreciate being able to be outside among flowers all year round, even in December and January :-)

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  18. A blog does help you make note of the weather year to year. I agree that extreme does seem to be the new normal. Here the weather continues to be unseasonably cold.
    So many things to comment on I am not sure where to begin! Your fuchsias always amaze me. I love the little miniature blooms especially. So darling! The ‘Niobe’(?) clematis is pretty whatever its name is. My peonies are mere shoots and my roses barely have leaves. That is how cold it is here! At least there are fewer mosquitoes for all this cold weather!

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    1. Hi Jennifer, I feel for you, you have the kind of spring we had last year! I hope it improves soon :-)

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  19. Beautiful, so very beautiful, roses, clematis, and so much more!
    I especially like the Fuchsias. I had not heard of the dwarf ones.
    Thanks for your comments on my blog.
    Lea
    Lea's Menagerie

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    1. Miniature fuchsias are new to me too, I discovered them online and just had to have some! Some are hardy and some are tender – we’ll see what will survive the next winter :-)

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  20. Your garden looks quite wonderful. Even your nursery shelves are meticulously tidy--how do you do that? I envy your organizational skills, not just your Fuchsias. Thank you for the tour of your garden.

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    1. Thanks – I often get asked how I keep my garden tidy :-)
      I guess I am a tidy person, my house is also tidy, this is just how I do it. But I have made my garden so it is quite easy to keep it tidy, everything has its own space and whenever I bring something new into my garden (or my house) I make a conscious decision of finding a space for it.

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  21. Helene, I think your success with Fuchsias is down to a lot more than the clement London weather. Looking at your video made me think, I have had Fuchsias looking like this in Aberdeen, (yes, in August) I had never heard of Fuchsia boliviana, your link was well worth opening up.

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    1. Thanks Alistair, the fuchsias from last year are growing like mad and I have lots of cuttings taken last November which will soon get into flower – I will have a garden full of Fuchsias!
      As for Fuchsia boliviana, I bought it as a cutting a month ago and considering how big it is supposed to be I am a bit concerned, it didn’t say how long it would take to grow to that size but I assumed it would grow fast. It hasn’t done anything yet so it better start growing soon.

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  22. It's always amazing to me how efficiently you cram so much into your garden without it ever looking out of balance or proportion! You are quite the wizard! I've had plants delivered in those green tubes before, too. They work really well. I love your fuchsias but just can't grow them here. I really wish I could!

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    1. Thanks, when I redesigned my garden in 2011, I had a lot of cuttings, seedlings and pots waiting to go into the flowerbeds made larger by removing the lawn. I also bought a lot of plants during winter and spring 2012 and in June 2012 I declared that my garden was full – no more space. Since then I have managed to put an incredible amount of plants into the garden, and I am still planning more. Just goes to show, there are always room for more plants!

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  23. Wonderfull garden, best regard from Belgium

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  24. Lovely garden wonderful that you have spent the time to share it with others.

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