What's loving all this rain?

Yet again it's pouring down here in sunny Kent, like it seems to have been for weeks, and I'm having to potter around the forum trying to stave off boredom for a while whilst my garden and allotment disappear further under water.

It started me wondering about which plants are loving all this wet. In my little patch Foxgloves have romped away and had it not been for the wind would have been perfect, the Hydrangea (as it's name suggests) is looking the best it's done for a few years, the Verbascums have coped admirably and continued to flower regardless, two Geums (Mrs J Bradshaw and Totally Tangerine) have masses more flowers than before and the Verbena Bonariensis plants stand upright and tall like collective purple middle fingers to the grey sky above.

If we get our heads together we can work out which plants love all this rain, if not I'll meet you round the back and we can use that wood, which was supposed to be at the allotment today, to start building an ark.

What's doing well where you are?

Foxgloves, definitely. Also campanulas, calendulas, and fuchsias. Oh, and all trees are verdant, though not necessarily fruiting.

Non of my plants are loving this rain, they have been eaten by the armies of slugs and snails.

Hi, my red leafed acers have never looked better, and my verbena bons are at least 6 foot tall with many side shoots, best they've looked in 5 years.

Edinburgh has had 96 mins of sun this month lots of slugs & snails plants soggy loads of couch grass garden a mess as too wet to work in it, fed up

My carnivorous plants are loving the rain . I'm putting them out everyday and they're putting on loads of growth - 2 new traps on the venus fly trap and the others growing well . I'm bringing them in at night cos I don't trust the slugs - they seem to be eating everything . Like everyone else though the garden in general is suffering a serious lack of sun. Still no flowers on the sweetpeas but strangely the morning glory 's flowering .

All the shrubs and trees are doing well. I think this wet weather will have saved a lot of them. The daylilies, penstemons, hardy geraniums, foxgloves, rambler roses, in fact most of the roses except for 2 climbing roses that are slowly giving up the ghost. I think the last 2 winters were just too much for them.They are looking decidedly sick. I don't know whether to prune them hard and feed, and hope for the best next year or remove them and replant next year. Most of my perennials look good, but the annuals I use for infilling are not in full flower as yet, just the odd bloom. We have had 2 relatively dry days with some sun so perhaps that will encourage them to get a move on.

Vegetables not so good. Potatoes are good, as are broad beans, runner beans, onions and lettuce, but the only carrots we have managed to grow are in a pot, nearly ready to harvest, we haven't any beetroot, sown it 3 times and got nowhere. Soft fruit has cropped well, blackcurrants and gooseberries especially. We are going to sow some winter/spring cabbage to see if that does any good.

You need to be an optimist to garden, just hope for the best tomorrow, it's a new day.

Hostas, golden hop, hardy geraniums, these are all delighted with the weather - oh, and the ever spreading many varieties of oregano than have self seeded from one end of the place to the other.   Much of the rest is very unhappy about the persistent wet and dark indeed, me too. 

Our lavenders are looking great, and the climbing hydrangea looks the best it's ever done - it's growing in gravel against a wall, and we clearly haven't been watering it enough. We have several little conifers growing in planters, and they're putting on more new growth than usual (again, showing us they were thirsty). A huge viburnum has put on masses of new leaf. Buddleias look happy, and honeysuckle flowers are bursting out the top of a huge holly bush in a hedge.  Gooseberries amd raspberries are prolific. The lawn is green, if soggy. A couple of our apple trees are cropping well, while others are not. Nettles flourish everywhere, which must be good for some butterflies etc.

I will not list the miserable plants and failed crops that are not responding well to the rain, it's all too sad. But it's good to remind ourselves that some plants are having a great summer!

Foxgloves, calendulas and my self sown snapdragons

Two weeks of no TLC and loads of rain has brought everything on in my garden. The bird station hasn't been filled with food for two weeks and I swear there is no greenfly or caterpillars on any of my plants or veg planted outside.

Most of the veg outside is doing well. Runner/french beans have some yellow leaves on at the bottom but are romping away over arches and now in flower, onions are refusing to die back and are huge. Spuds doing well and outside toms in flower. I've a rambling rose and lillies in flower, the lawn is green, gladiola looking good, ferns have done well too.

Veg and plants not doing well for me this year is more about overgrowding in the beds rather than too much rain and other plants shading those which need more sun. 

I'm quite enjoying the fact that I'm not spending hours watering the pots each evening! 

The bamboos, hostas & grasses are all loving it. The campanulas, lilies, lavenders, honeysuckle are all fine to name a few. Some of my roses are fine. 

The peas I started very early are great. Some of the leaves on the banana are wind shredded, but the newer ones are lush green & enormous. 

The thalictrums are the tallest they've ever been & the particular light after a rain shower is making the mauve one almost glow.

Clematis seem to be romping away, newly planted this year. New shrubs have grown far more than I thought they would, they were very small when planted early spring. Brassicas are leaping out of their raised bed.

Roses although growing well, flowers are a soggy mess.

One water butt is actually overflowing today - must check connection if it ever stops raining.

Me, I'm so bored I'm going start decorating!!!!

Never mind the rain, did ANYONE especially in Surrey get attacked by hailstones the size of mothballs.....millions of them and HEAVY too. I have NEVER seen it in the last 50 years!! They were lashing against the windows and the lawn was white for a while. The leaves of my plants are in shreds. Please someone, tell me I am not dreaming as it was very frightening.

Never mind the rain, did ANYONE, especially in Surrey get attacked by hailstones the size of mothballs.....millions of them and HEAVY too. I have NEVER seen it in the last 50 years!! They were lashing against the windows and the lawn was white for a while. The leaves of my plants are in shreds. Please someone, tell me I am not dreaming as it was very frightening.

the only thing loving this rain is the slugs, snails and plants and animals of the web feet variety.. i certainly am not

My rhubarb is loving the rain. It's enormous. Not very red, but tastes fine.

Emma

gardenersworld.com team.