NEW FLOWERS AND RE-FLOWERS

Having finally finished my homework I had a chance on Sunday to catch up with the garden. It's been a strange year...the weather alternating between long periods of drought and torrential rain. It's no wonder the garden's not sure which season it's in. I mentioned a few weeks ago about the Clematis Montana re-flowering....well the same has happened to the Philadelpus

and I've never had my AUTUMN flowering Cyclamen in flower at the same time as my SPRING flowering Aubretia.

There are also a few new flowers in the garden.....my Clematis Sieboldii started flowering quite a while ago but yesterday I noticed that the "Alba" variety had started to come into bloom.

Two plants that were mere cuttings and seedlings at the start of the Summer I hadn't expected to flower until next year......................

This is Alison Patricia...one of the upward facing flower Fuchsiasand this is one of the Phlox seedlings...................

and "joy of joys"a third variety of Ginger Lily has come into flower and the scent is heavenly...

For those who are interested in the course; yesterday was Literature again and we learnt about plots, themes and symbols. We read an extracts from "Jane Eyre", "Oranges are not the only fruit" and "Bluebeards Egg" analyzing the evidence given in the text to work out characters and relationships.......... the homework is a similar task using an extract from "The remains of the day".

My computer certainly seems to have a bad "limp"...it's taking AGES to get anywhere on it.

Is there a doctor in the house?????

BEFORE THE RAIN COMES

Things are starting to slow down in the garden as far as new blooms go and some of these are "late starters" this year; this last week besides the toad lilies that I showed in my GTS post the only new flowers are the white Phlox (the pink one started flowering some time ago), the blue Agapanthus (like the white one this is a dwarf variety)........................the dwarf lilies...unlike my taller varieties these only reach about 2 feet high but still have the most glorious scent............in the pond the Lobelia Cardinalis has started to flower....I have tried to plant it in the ground but have never had any success as after a couple of years it disappears.....this piece in a pot in the pond has been ok for about 4 years now.Another pond plant we have is what Mick and I had always called our Mini Gunnera....we picked it up a few years ago at a Boot Fair and it was just labelled Pond Plant...if anyone knows what it is I'd be grateful.....................the second photo shows the flower spike that comes on it....the flowers are very tiny.......
After waiting so long for the Eucomis to flower I've been rewarded by three more blooms...... and the orange flowered Durban Canna has now opened a bud (the red one started last week)...this must be a good three weeks later than previous years.....................
The Morning Glory is later this year too......though to be fair I did sow the seed later than I normally do..............I've only grown the one colour this year and I'm pleased they've survived at all as the slugs and snails have had a good feast on them!

The fact that the temperatures have finally risen this last week or two means that the wall manger (mostly petunias) and the begonia tub in the front garden are finally putting on some growth................ The Lantana too are starting to look happier; they really didn't like those long, grey, rainy days of a few weeks ago (I do understand that this week may be quite rainy but I won't let them know in case they start to sulk....LOL) The finer weather also brought a few nice sunsets with it..............
And just in case the weather does turn really rainy again...a quick tour round the garden while the sun's shining.....

BTW.....beautiful clear night and managed to see some of the shooting stars; made a wish or two..................