July in the garden!! - Page 8

@leggi.. great pics can i ask what that tall plant with red flowers in front of your shed in top piccie called as rather nice.

your passion fruit is doing well.. i had lovely one but when my neighbours moved it and dug our for a patioo right upto our ftrellis fence.. they cut it back and cut right through the main truck.. it died.. had big row with them over it..

Thanks for your comments Yarrow and GF, Yarrow the smaller red plant growing through the Dahlia behind the marigold is a Geum Mrs J Bradshaw it really is doing very well in all this wet, I like the way it's dainty little red flowers seem to float above everything else.

GF the tall red flower is a Monarda (Jacob Kleine) this is the first year I've had it and the flowers are really interesting (as well as being pretty) it was a really cheap plant from a small nursery near here and apparently they self seed readily. I think you should treat yourself to a new Passion Flower, I felt guilty early this year because I didn't find the time to go out and prune it back like the books say, in fact I haven't done anything to it and if it wants to cover another fence panel who am I to stop it!

In desperate need of a bit of sunshine! n once again! Lovely picture's everyone!!

 Once harvested this year! Major clear out n re-planning!

 Got some reward for our hard work

 Inside stuff still slow this year!

 But it will do what it will do!

@leggi.. thanks for that will look into getting one.. as for passion flower might get one will see end of the year.

@dean.. your work has paid off.. those tunnels are looking good doing the job very well..

Cheers GF! It as been hard work if I'm honest! But Building work almost complete! so next year we can concentrate on planting! n with it being an allotment n mainly veggies! I really have missed doing flowers this year! But there's always next year!! 

@Gardeningfanatic I should have googled Monarda Cambridge Scarlet before I replied to you, yes it does look like it's the same plant you first suggested.

Bit silly some of these plants have so many names.

@Dean your veggies look delicious!

hi , i have just emptied one of my potato buckets, one planted in each on 27 march not bad i dont think

Hi Leggi:  thanks for the name of the Monarda.  It's a beaut.  And identifying your Geum.  I love Geums for the reason you describe.  I had a couple of Spring-to-early Summer flowering ones and I have a couple of bright orange 'Prinses Juliana' ones (spelling might be wrong there - my label said 'Prinses' but some websites have it as 'Princess' - the name seems to vary on websites).   According to references I read my 'Prinses Juliana' were supposed to bloom through to September but they suddenly stopped blooming a couple of weeks ago and there's no sign of new blooms since.

I'm not sure about the right way to deadhead them - in that it's supposed to encourage more blooms.  One reference said just pick off the flower heads but another said to cut the stems at the base.  I've done both but I'm still getting no new flower stalks and blooms.  I don't know if it's lack of sun and loads of rain that's caused this or if I have something lacking in my soil which isn't sustaining them.  There's loads of fresh lovely foliage - just no new flowers.     

If anyone knows how I can encourage blooming again I'd appreciate the advice.

little-ann:  fabulous spuds.  What a success!  And thanks for identifying the cream coloured plants in my earlier photo as Californian Poppy.  I should have clicked to that seeing the bright coloured same flowers in the same bed.  I didn't realise that was how they changed when flowering.  Many thanks.

@leggi thanks for that

@dean.. well look on the bright side you have done most of the hard work now, so next year you can take it easier do some flowers to bring the bees in.. hope to god the weather is better.. thou my daughter keeps going on aobut "told ya.. its all going to end on the 20th december.. that why its so bad" she is rather amusing when she starts.. i just grin and nod and the odd "yeah" when needed..

@little ann.. some good look sspuds there.. think thye have done well this year with all the rain.. root veggies.. just the rest that has been dismal.. tomatos flowering.

Thanks, most of the veg i grow are doing OK, i have raised beds and we live on the top of a hill so flooding isn't a problem, slugs, snails and rabbits are. I decided to try the potatoes in pots so as to have more space for other things in the beds, they have been a success but only i think because of all the rain and if we had a drought i would have struggled because we have a private water supply so its back in the ground next year.

 picture of parsnips

the ones on the left were sown in guttering in the greenhouse

middle direct and right in guttering the last lot were put out a week ago

the sweet pees at the back edge of the bed are a complete disaster

little-ann, are those potato containers just those flower buckets? I thought about using them, but didn't think there was enough room in them. Obviously I was wrong. Thanks for the pics!

Yarrow: I have done both with my Geums, last year I took the flower stems off completely and then it didn't flower again. This year I've found just snipping below the flower head and leaving the stems on the plants to be a lot more successful, often the new flower heads are just tiny little buds on the stem about an inch or so below the spent flower head.

Have you tried growing any from seed? I'm tempted to leave a few flower heads to go to seed as they are supposed to come true, I really love Geums and think they're a little over looked.

I've just had a look at photos of Geum Prinses Juliana, and it's the same flower as the one I mentioned earlier but was sold to me as Totally Tangerine, I had wondered what its proper name was, so many thanks!

Great pics, everyone--think I might try spuds in buckets next year. Leggi, your photo inspired me to check on my monarda--I had planted it in the deer garden, and it got pruned, so I moved it inside the fence. It has rewarded me--here is a photo

You can see the vertical garden project is coming along, behind on the left.

This one is called Gardenview Scarlet. But alas, not deer-resistant, as claimed.

 And while there, took some others. Here is my canna, African Sunset

 And the crocosmia are putting on a show--will move some to the deer garden

 And that fuschia that I grew from a cutting is flourishing!!!

Nice pic's again everybody! @ Leggi n GF Thank for your comments n little-ann, nice crop of Tatties from such a little bucket! Good going! 

Well, I called in the plot on my way home from work to water the Toms! Fruit now beggining to set! n at last we have a few female flowers on the courgettes! Yippeee!  Was beggining to give up hope! n the cucumers are setting fruit too! Bonus!! n a slug managed to find a way in to one of my brassica beds in a slight gap I left in the netting after harvesting last week! Devoured the outer leaves only, thank god! but found him n sentenced him to death! 

@Inka On returning home I checked out my potted Cannas n Dahlia's on the decking out back, which are trying, but everything is just so damp! Oh! Did I mention it is raining again!!!!!! Grrrrrrrrrr!!!!!! 

thanks all, yes one potato planted in the flower bucket managed all those they were planted on 27 march

i love that canna might try some next year

I bring the canna in for the winter--it is in a pot.I have given many divisions away. It gets orange flowers later on, but it's the foliage I love--especially with the sun behind it later in the day. The fence is a solid stain called Cherry--house brand of Home Hardware here in Canada. It's a latex stain. I am pleased with the crocosmia--I moved it, and it's doing much better in the new spot.

Hope you all get some sun soon. We actually had a display of the Northern Lights the other night--unusual this far south, but there has been a big storm on the sun. Sitting out at midnight, intoxicated by the fragrance of the star jasmine on the deck. And hardly any bugs!

Love that Canna as well Inkadog.  Fabulous garden.

Inkadog, you are so lucky to have the Northern Lights. We've had a few problems with banking computors and mobile phone networks. I wonder if the sun activity caused this.

I love plants with a fragrance. My mock orange didn't have much smell at all this year. I think it was the lack of sun, although the honeysuckly still smells fabulous in the evening. The weathermen say we are having some Summer weather at last as the jet stream is moving.