The garden in July 1

Another month has slipped past, barely making an impression. Fortunately, I took photographs here and there, when I happened to have my camera in the garden, or when something caught my interest in particular. So here's another photoblog of the garden. This first part covers flowers - the early summer stalwarts passed away, and were replaced by tender annuals I sowed back in spring, finally reaching maturity (part 2 will be vegetables and fruit).

The peony had its best-ever year, with two or three dozen huge pale pink flowers. When they opened, the plant flopped over, despite having a metal support - the stems are just too flimsy for the huge, blowsy heads (photographed here after sunset, hence the odd tone).

 I got a tray of petunias from the greengrocer. They turned out to be a mix of red, salmon pink, deep burgundy (that I didn't plant in time, so I lost them), and these awesome magenta and white stripes (another after-dark photograph). The ones I put in containers have done well, and are producing fresh blooms almost daily.

 

Roses! The top two photographs are New Dawn, which has produced dozens of bouquets on the end of long rambling stems (it's supported on a freestanding cane structure). All these have had their best season ever, with no aphids or disease, and lots of healthy growth, and plentiful flowers. The bottom one is Redouté.

Cosmos and sweet peas have thrived - although not all the cosmos have flowered, some taking a long time, and one just producing lots of foliage. I've picked bunches of sweet peas every few days - they are richly fragrant. Elsewhere, lavender is bringing in bees, Eschscholzia (Californian poppy) produced a bright but brief splash of colour, and the last alliums (A. sphaerocephalon) provided continuity from the early summer garden.