Six on Saturday. July and Something Special.

Well , I call back it ’s special . Today all I want to talk about is my stunningMichauxia campanuloides . Plant World Seeds describes this as one of the world ’s most astonishing and dramatic flowers and I agree . The flower are huge , up to 12 atomic number 96 across , like giant white catherine wheels cross with a passion heyday . They have a long pistil . I have never realise this plant for sale so you have to maturate it from seed . I first grew it years ago and was so surprised and delighted with it that over the years since I have tried now and again to acquire it again . It is a biennial or short lived perennial . Since that first success , I do n’t screw why , but until now I have fail to get it though its first winter . Last summer I planted out one works and kept the others in pots . I do n’t think it is reliably fearless but the gamble paid off and I have a magnificent plant in the garden , 140 centimetre tall like a Brobdingnagian candelabra , with flowers emerging from big guide slightly furred buds .

When I grow it previously the flush were thoroughgoing white but this meter they are tinge with lilac . The plants in pots survived the winter too and will credibly bloom next twelvemonth if they survive . This glorious flora would be revel me anyway , but like your own children , plants you have grow from seed are always adept and more beautiful than any others . Michauxia campanuloidesis named after André Michaux who was an explorer and the Royal botanist in the avail of Louis XVI . Apart from a trip-up to Persia most of his traveling were in America so I do n’t know why this plant is nominate after him . It is a aboriginal of Greece , Turkey , Syria , Israel and Lebanon .

OK , rules are rule and we are supposed to feature six plants , not go on and on about one . I love roses and I have lot of them . I particularly get it on peach and apricot roses and Bathsheba is growing on the treillage in my mysterious garden . She is gorgeous ; peachy - apricot with a elan of icteric . David Austin launched this rose at Chelsea Flower Show in 2016 . It is key out after the heroine in Hardy’sFar from the Madding Crowd . commend Bathsheba , the one with the appalling mouthful in men ? She should have puzzle with Gabriel Oak , at least he eff how to bring around sheep bloat , a very useful skill in Hardy ’s world . Bathsheba is a crampoon and was launched in 2016 . It is fully double and a delicious specter of lulu . It is healthy and flower all summertime as long as you keep deadheading . It is said to olfactory property of myrrh but I am not certain what sweet cicely smells like . This is delicious though , it is more honey with floral undertones to me .

Michauxia campanuloides

At number three I haveZantedeschia aethiopica . I will tell you a tale abut this arum lily in which I do n’t come out very well . Years ago I had it in my garden but the soil was far too dry and it never looked great . I should have moved it to the margins of my pond but I did n’t get round to it . I used to reach the garden for the National Gardens Scheme and one daylight a dame who see just like Les Dawson in drag came in with her friend who was clearly a nurseryman interested in everything . Les Dawson looked very world-weary until she total upon myZantedeschia aethiopicaand fell upon it with delight , tell her friend and anyone else who would heed that she had an aroid lily at home that was much better and double as big . And for the next three twelvemonth she make out back , quite uninterested in the garden , looking neither to the left over or veracious , but heading directly for my inadequate littleZantedeschia aethiopica , where she stayed for at least tail of an time of day crowing with pleasure and order everyone that hers was three times as expectant . After three years I had had enough and I dug the blame thing up . I watched out for her the espouse year and enjoyed the look of dismay as she searched all over for the plant . Eventually she came to me with some expiation and said‘I see your arum lily died , I always consider it looked sickly . Mine was four time its sizing . ‘ To which I replied:‘Oh , you stand for theZantedeschia aethiopica . No , it did n’t exit , I dug it up , I do n’t like them , they are so plebeian ’ . I know , that was mean , but in those days I had a huge garden that was pretty awful , although I say it myself , in fact it was in The Good Gardens Guide . I really resented an annual visit from someone who amount just to sneer at my arum lily . I never saw her again after that . Anyway , no one can sneer at this one because it is sitting at the edge of the pond where it should be because in its native South Africa it grows on the bank of flow and ponds . I believe it is an invasive pain in persona of Australia and New Zealand . There is no risk of that happening in my garden . But it looks very stately with its large showy parting and huge white-hot spathes . OK , spathe singular , but there are several buds . I like it in front of the Wedding Cake Tree , Cornus contraversa .

Something else that needs plenty of wet to reckon salutary is the hydrangea . The hint is in the first part of the name . You often happen hydrangeas featured on SoS and expect wonderful specially in garden in the West of the land . Here in the driest part of the UK it is unmanageable to keep them looking good because commonly we just do n’t get enough pelting . But this yr we have had scriptural amounts of the stuff and my hydrangea are calculate really good . I have n’t even had to water them . Most of mine are grow from cut that I have beg or take over , ( not stolen , although I have been influence sometimes . ) Hydrangeas are so easy from cuttings . I am not certain what mine are although ‘ Annabelle ’ is distinctive with her openhanded snowball read/write head . ‘ Ayesha ’ is straight off recognisable too with clusters of small cup - shaped prime . The dark pink one with dark leaves was a gift from garden acquaintance , Ozzie who is sadly all in now , so it is a lovely reminder of a nifty gardener .

I love the colourful leaves of heucheras which keep the garden looking bright now and right through wintertime . Last twelvemonth I come across my favourite yet . It is really a heucherella which is a cross between a genus Heuchera and a tiarella . x Heucherella‘Sweet teatime ’ has big palm-shaped leaves which are the brightest burnt orange or would you call them peppiness ? It is the good colour of any I have seen and quite resistless . The heart and veins are a deeper shade .. adorable foamy flowers are a incentive . I lie with this plant life , and so far the dreaded vine weevil do n’t seem to have detect it . Heucheras are caviare to the vicious weevils .

Michauxia campanuloides

Let ’s cease with a garden pink . I am usually a stickler for using the correct name for works butdianthusincludes mellifluous williams , carnations and pink . I do n’t much care for carnations unless they are the resplendent and very rare Malmaison carnations . But garden pinks are wondrous . In French they are calledOeilletwhich means ‘ eyelet ’ . I am not sure if the name ‘ pink ’ comes from pink eye , an unfortunate eye complaint or the frilly petals which look as if they have been cut down with pink shears . A love of pinks is nothing newfangled , gardeners have loved and care for them for C . My favourite are the tied pinks with maroon or wine color marking on a white flower . I have loved and recede many beautiful pinks over the years , but I have always managed to keep ‘ Gran ’s Favourite ’ go . This one attend as if it could date back to the 16th century but it was in fact born in the sixties . I do n’t know who engender it or whose Gran it was , but it was a firm darling of my Gran and it is mine too . really there was no excuse but carelessness to lose so many pinks over the years as they are very easy from slip . I shall verify never to be without ‘ Gran ’s Favourite ’ with its strong clovey aroma and its adorable laced flowers .

I seem to have gone off on several tangents or ‘ off on a tandem ’ as my friend ’s female parent used to say . But I lastly catch there and we have my Six on Saturday . If you would wish to join in with this popular meme go over to Jim atGarden Ruminationsand see more July beauty .

46 Responses toSix on Saturday. July and Something Special.

Wow , thatMichauxiaIS stunning ! And all the other works you ’ve shared here are arresting , too ! I LOVE Calla Lilies ! Mine are finished blooming ( I think ) for the raise season ( I start them indoors in recent winter ) , but the foliage keeps on fit until fall . Re : Hydrangeas … we are having a bully class for them , too . commonly , I only get a few flush ( deep freezes in wintertime / former fountain and dry / hot summer ) . But this year we had a mild winter and shipment of rain this spring / early summer . do it them , especially in this type of class . Yours is gorgeous ! Great office . 🙂

Beth@PlantPostings

Michauxia campanuloides

Six on Saturday. July and Something Special.