Summer in the garden

Enjoying the fruits of our labour - the garden is looking good

"What is one to say about June, the time of perfect young summer, the fulfillment of the promise of the earlier months, and with as yet no sign to remind one that its fresh young beauty will ever fade."
- Gertrude Jekyll, On Gardening

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  Echium pininana

  In the William III bed an Echium pininana blooms with its 13 ft tall flower spike. It is also called the Pride of Tenerife, Tower of Jewels, Giant Viper's Bugloss, or Tree Echium.

  Anybody who has been on holiday to the Canary Islands will have probably noticed the flower-heads of this plant growing out of the lush undergrowth.

  Echium pininana is a stunning plant for any sheltered border providing a tropical touch to the summer. In its first year echium forms a low rosette of silver, hairy, spear-like leaves. The following year it suddenly spurts into growth and produces a single 4m (13.1ft) high flower spike festooned with blue, funnel-shaped flowers. After flowering the plant dies, but not before scattering its seeds.

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  Rosa ‘Mary Rose’

  In the main lawn bed, in full fig. Wonderful perfume too.

  "The serene philosophy of the pink rose is steadying. Its fragrant, delicate petals open fully and are ready to fall, without regret or disillusion, after only a day in the sun. It is so every summer. One can almost hear their pink, fragrant murmur as they settle down upon the grass: 'Summer, summer, it will always be summer."
  - Rachel Peden

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  Cardoons

  On high in the main lawn bed.

  The cardoon (Cynara cardunculus), also called the artichoke thistle, cardone, cardoni, carduni, or cardi, is a thistle-like plant in the sunflower family. It is a naturally occurring species that is sometimes considered to include the globe artichoke, and has many cultivated forms.

  It is native to the western and central Mediterranean region, where it was domesticated in ancient times.

  The cardoon was popular in Greek, Roman, and Persian cuisine, and remained popular in medieval and early modern Europe. It also became common in the vegetable gardens of colonial America, but fell from fashion in the late 19th century and is now less common.

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  William III bed

  William III bed in full bloom.

  - Phlox paniculata (tall violet)
  - Evening primrose (tall yellow)
  - Spikes of Teucrium hyrcanicum (kittens tails)
  - Antirrhinum (yellow)
  - Linaria vulgaris (toadflax, yellow)
  - Purple sage.