Stained glass and plenty of colour

As well as the colour there’s plenty of green, and texture and height. A pristine path runs through the centre of this garden which was one from the Chelsea Flower Show in 2018, and as you can see in the Pavillion.

There’s plenty of flowers too, but what I like about this garden - apart from the colour - is how the green provides a backdrop for all the colour, which complements the stained glass window. The window itself, for me I see a landscape, the sea and the sky, but maybe you see something different?

It also shows how height makes a garden work, whether that’s through mixing the plants, or adding sculpture. Though the obelisk above looks like it could really do some damage.

In some ways the photo above is what I dislike about gardens, it’s all a bit matchy- matchy. For me, the colour in gardens need to be a bit clash-y, I think they work better - what do you think?

A bit more than a hint of lavender

For this burst of lavender and today’s flowers on Friday we’re heading back to the Chelsea Flower Show last year, and into the Grand Pavilion, which if you’ve been to Chelsea will know it’s an assault on your senses. Often a pleasant experience, but confusing at times too with the sheer array of exhibits on display.

And while we’re not in traditional lavender season, there is some rhyme to my logic, as in the autumn sun on my morning walk to work, I’ve been smelling lavender. There’s bushes edging the boundary of a development as I head towards Greenwich Park, and when the sun’s out the air is filled with lavender, which I’m sure the insects, and residents alike are enjoying as much as me.

So when I headed into my flower photo store and stumbled across, rather than brushed past, this lavender from that moment on there was only one flower I was sharing today. And when I say one flower, I clearly mean one sort with many varieties. No longer is lavender just purple, or lavender.

But often wherever there’s lavender, there’s bees and the Chelsea Flower Show was no different, although these were probably the best behaved and inside their hive, or it was empty. One or the other. Though imagine if you were a bee and stumbled upon the whole flower show, surely too much for one bee to cope with.

But, ah, just breathe in - can you smell the lavender?

In the Dry Garden at Hyde Hall

The flowers for today’s Flowers on Friday post were taken in the summer last year at the RHS garden in Essex. Usually I head there while MOH does a mad, hundred mile cycle around the Essex countryside, but I didn’t make it this year as after dropping him off, I headed out for lunch. So in a belated attempt to get my Hyde Hall fix, and to remember how warm the sun was on my visit, here’s a selection of photos from the Dry Garden, which shows how plants can cope, or adapt to cope, with less water.

They can also look pretty too. The allium heads, which have gone to seed above echo the heads of the blue agapanthus below. Yes, more agapanthus, they’re taking over on my blog at least, as the replacements for hydrangeas, and they’re lovely too, but I have less opportunities to photograph them these days. Maybe it’s the gardens I’m visiting, or maybe there are fewer of them around following their peak as the plant trend a year or so ago. Who knows.

The yellow fronds of the plants below reaching towards the blue skies make a great photo, but looking at the leaves, I’m pretty sure many of us would give them the weed treatment, I’m certain MOH would!

The grasses which edged - and colour matched - the path which winds its way through this garden. They look, and were, sun baked - and so was I on this visit.

Did you know?

The smaller and thinner the leaves of the plant, the more likely your plant will cope with less water. Think heathers, rosemary, thyme and of course succulents which buck the small, thin leaf advice! Even cistus though are good in coastal and are also drought tolerant, their leaves adapt becoming smaller and more lustrous than they would be in the UK. The ones we saw in Portugal, in the Alentejo region were outstanding, and the fragrance was more concentrated too.

The photo above is one of my all time favourite photos. To me, it just shrieks summer. When I first saw it I thought I could enter it into a photo competition, I forget which now, but in the end the deadline came and went. Maybe another time, or maybe I’ll just keep popping back to this post and “ahhing!”