We just had another heatwave albeit a short one but it did rain too so all is well in the garden and the pond had a good top up.
I see a couple of shrubs in my neighbours garden have gone totally brown now and look quite dead which is a shame. There are a few poor elm trees in the golf course which are in the process of being felled because they have Dutch Elm Disease. Some of the ash trees have Ash Die Back and have to be felled too at some point. Now the elm is away you can see another dead tree through the gap.
Felling diseased elm tree.Diseased elm gone.
The persicarias and Japanese anemones are flowering away as are the verbena, oregano, agastache and erigeron. The roses have more buds for their next lot of flowers with the exception of the moss roses. The heucheras are almost over, astrantias too. There are a few flowers on some hardy geraniums, campion coronaria, nepeta and the odd flower on the weigelia and hebe. The purple loosestrife is going over but still attracting butterflies. This large white (possibly male) stayed still enough for a quick snap.
Large white butterfly (Pieris brassicae)Anemone hupehensis Japonica ‘Montrose’ pinkAnemone hupehensis Japonica ‘Whirlwind’ white
The honeysuckle is looking good: the flowers have turned to bright red, jewel-like berries. Other plants with berries are the rowan and berberis. The elder didn’t have many flowers this year therefore not many berries.
Honeysuckle flowers at the top of the arch.Honeysuckle berries at the top of the arch.Garden mid August 2026.
There are the first tinges of dark red on the miscanthus ‘red chief ‘ grass which looks good against the acer palmatum ‘Dissectum Garnet’ . There is only one grass flower head so far but soon there will be masses.
Red chief miscanthus grass against acer palmatum ‘Dissectum Garnet’.
There are lots of cracks in the retaining wall of the raised bed which the ferns take advantage of.
Cracked wall with fern.
It is sunny but cooler today so I will just enjoy the garden instead of working in it I think – well, apart from taking more pond weed out and being on the lookout for the Spanish slugs.
Finally some rain! We got a good down pour overnight on the 25th July and a few showers since then so good news for the gardens up here in Scotland. Although there are dreadful wildfires going on in Europe which are desperately in need of rain to help put the fires out but the heat wave continues in France and Spain and England. There is a major wildfire going on in the Cairngorms in Scotland too.
I have been searching for a few small trees to plant in the spaces where a few died last year with some success. I went for another witch hazel for the stumpery area but couldn’t find the one I wanted but settled for Hamamelis intermedia ‘Arnold promise’. It had two labels on it though: one said it has light yellow, slightly sour smelling flowers during January and February and the other said: it has fragrant, bright yellow flowers and blooms a month later than other witch hazels. I am after a couple of Amalanchier trees too (Laevis ‘snowflake’ and Candensis ‘October flame’): snowflake to replace the cherry tree on the patio and October flame for the back border.
The iris Jane Philips in the side border are just annoying me as they look a bit tatty for most of the year and only look good when they flower so I am thinking of replacing them with the erigeron schneewittchen, which I have in a pot on the patio, as it has held onto its tall daisy flowers for a long time and will hopefully clump up nicely.
The other day we heard a commotion while we were eating our dinner. It was 2 pigeons flapping about in the conservatory having wandered in through the open door and then panicked when they couldn’t find the still open door. One must have landed on a cactus leaving behind a lot of downy feathers. We often get small birds like robins and tits popping in and occasionally a squirrel but it is the pigeons that make the most mess. We are forever rescuing butterflies and bees and the odd damselfly too, but the hoverflies just hang around at the top of the roof and sadly they can never find their way out again.
Cactus with feather caught on it’s spines.
I finally got a photo of a meadow brown butterfly feeding on the loosestrife at the back of the pond. There are loads of white butterflies about but they haven’t sat still enough for me to identify what they are. They are most probably large whites and orange tips.
Meadow brown butterfly (Maniola Jurtina).
I have also seen peacock butterflies, red admirals, painted ladies, spotted wood, holly blues, small copper, small skippers and commas mainly on the house wall,but again haven’t managed a photo of them all this year.
It is that time of year we can start to collect seeds for next year and I love my old snappy tray to collect them in. It is meant for using in crafts for messy things like when using embossing powder or glitters etc or even jewellery making but it comes in handy when collecting and decanting seeds. I normally keep the collected seed in those tiny brown coin envelopes in a nice dry room but I have also had success using those old plastic film canisters with lids but your seeds have to be well dried before using them so they don’t rot or sweat inside the canister. The funnel on the bottom corner help pour the seeds into the small brown paper envelopes.
Snappy tray.
The poppy seeds were the first this year with the astrantias coming along now. I have loads of collected seeds that I keep in a metal tin and I often try previous years collected seed first and if they don’t germinate I go onto the newer ones. I often swap the seeds with pals or the Duddingston Kirk Garden Club members. I do let some plants self seed too (like the snowflake primula and honesty) in the hope that they come up without me having to sow them. With the foxgloves: I collect the seed and then sprinkle them where I would like them to come up. I still save a few just in case.
Every time I wander around the garden, usually when on slug patrol, I keep finding things that need doing, and usually things that I can’t do myself. The pond is looking very congested as there was only 1 pond lily there but now there are a few self seeded so I tried to pull one out the other day and it just snapped and I battered my already sore arthritic knuckles off the wheelchair push rim. So I needed help (Amy) bringing a few of them out of the pond. At the right hand side of the pond there is rather a lot of cotton grass, random other self seed grasses and a large rush which has expanded over the years and also self seeded. In amongst all that are a few iris plants which don’t stand a chance in flowering. I may take the rush out and put in a flowering rush: Botomus umbellatus (which isn’t actually a rush). The raised bed has quite a few areas where the bees have tunnelled down from the top and made large holes which just funnels rain water straight through and out through the holes in the wall which were made for plants. I did go around the raised bed just after the rain the other day to mulch it, but what I really need to do is put a plant in the top holes and try and plug up the side/bottom holes just now until the plant roots mesh together and plug the top holes properly. (The dry-ish mulch was just coming out the bottom holes).
Now the Japanese anemones have started to flower, and still in flower are the agastache, potentilla, nepeta, some hardy geraniums, persicaria, achilea, heuchera, verbena, the orange geum, rose campion, oregano, and a couple of hellebores have just started to flower. The white astrantia still in flower but that is going over now., whereas the red one hasn’t flowered at all due to the slugs and snails. The marigolds sitting on top of the half barrel are flowering away quite happily as long as the slugs and snails don’t find them. In the pond there are still the purple loosestrife and a couple of the pond lilies. The irises didn’t flower yet again – not even the new ones at the front of the pond.
The view from the patio: I have left the clumps of water lily by the edge of the pond to allow any beasties to get back into the pond.
Fatigue had kicked in and I found I had very little energy to do anything at the beginning of July. I tried to do about an hour every day in the garden but all I could manage was to keep the conservatory, house plants and patio plants watered. The fatigue was due to overheating, lack of sleep, dehydration and maybe Sjögren’s related fatigue too (I think). Now I am feeling a bit more energised and can do a bit more work in the garden which is just as well as loads of plants have finished flowering and need a tidy up so they don’t spread seeds everywhere. I know some gardeners leave the spent flower heads on but I only do that if I want them to spread.
The thalictrum is over now so the pollinators are all over the meadowsweet which is nearly over. They are also enjoying the huechera, nepeta, astrantia, lavender, astilbe, loosestrife, honeysuckle, erigeron, spirea, geranium ‘Rozanne’, and campanula garganica . The roses have finished their first good flush and some are looking a bit bare but the moss roses ‘William Lobb’ are looking great and the ‘Generous gardener’ is also doing well.
Rozanne looks good beside the grass ‘Briza media’. They kind of intermingle with each other. They will soon look rather straggly though. Not a single bee in this photo but normally they are covered in them.
Rozanne and Briza media.
The sempervivums in the conservatory are all looking healthy but only a couple have flowered this year (unlike in June 2023 when loads of them were flowering at the same time). ‘Chocolate kiss’ has finally flowered (only one) and only one of the ‘Cinnamon starburst’ has flowered.
I have Chocolate kiss outside too and only one is about to flower. The colour in bright sunshine is fab and goes really well with the astilbe ‘Fanal’ red. Sadly the astilbe are about to finish flowering so I have been dead-heading quite a few plants.
Sempervivum ‘Chocolate kiss’ with astilbe ‘Fanal red’.Sempervivum ‘Mint marvel’.
The sempervivum ‘Mint marvel’ looks very similar to ‘Sir William Lawrence’ except Mint marvel is much larger.
Remember that Small Copper butterfly I was trying to photograph in June (small copper) – well I spotted another small orangey butterfly called a small skipper too.
Small Skipper butterfly (Thymeicus sylvestris).Small Skipper butterfly (Thymeicus sylvestris).
The poppies didn’t last long but I am going to save the seed so at least I should get plenty next year. I just had them in a pot and I don’t think they liked it. The bees loved them.
Papaver somniferum ‘Lauren’s grape’.
The space behind the wall has been neglected over the last few years and I really need to get on top of that. I had bought some weed suppressing material a couple of years ago and had planned on spreading that in some areas and topping it with large boulders and stones to keep some weeds at bay. There are tree seedlings from the golf course that are trying the damnedest at getting through the fence and some have been succeeding. Also the sticky willy (Galium aparine) is over 5ft high! It has been using the wire fence as a climbing frame and goodness it really does live up to it’s name. I have been covered in the seeds and needed help picking them all off. Hopefully this year I can get on with what I had planned without life getting in the way again.
We haven’t had much rain at all in the last couple of weeks and I don’t know when we will get some so it is all quite dry out there despite me watering those plants that need it most. There is less floral colour in the garden in July but there is still a lot of interesting foliage colours: greens, yellows, silvers, bronzes and purples.
Yep we finally got the heatwave and yes it was very hot, but thankfully not nearly as hot as it got down South. I tried to do any watering in the morning and most of the work before lunch time as I don’t do well in the hot weather. Just now in the garden it is mostly dead-heading and weeding and I have made the decision to get rid of the viola as they are an absolute headache. They are popping up everywhere and spreading like wildfire. It is going to take quite a while before the garden is rid of them. I will need to find some clump forming perennials to replace them rather than ground cover plants. There is/was a pink astrantia in a pot on the patio which I thought would do ok in the stumpery where we pulled out the viola but it had been totally eaten by snails! I will give it ago anyway and see what happens. I have given some hardy geraniums a chop back and left a few others still for the bees. I will chop those back shortly. The heavy, thundery, showers that came along with the heatwave have brought down most of the petals from the philadelphus, some roses and some poppies. Luckily I had asked Amy to put up some canes to tie in the thalictrum just in time so they stayed more or less upright.
Sadly when we moved the potted astrantia Harry found a New Zealand flatworm sitting near it. Now I have to pull all the patio pots out and check underneath them! Huge job.
The bees are loving the yellow thalictrum and the campanula and the foxgloves (when they can get into them). The foxglove below is actually a nice apricot coloured foxglove but the colour didn’t photograph well.
Snoozing snail in a foxglove.
The astilbe are in full flower now, as are the roses and the campanula (which I really aught to trim back). The foxgloves are always a joy but after the heavy rain and wind they are now all at a jaunty angle – this photo was taken just before the wind. There is a mixture of pinks, purples, white and apricot.
Foxgloves in the stumpery.
A couple of foxgloves however which are growing nearer the back wall are being shredded by the snails! The flowers are ok but the leaves are now only midribs.
The other plant which has succumbed to slugs and/or snails is the Scot’s lovage It did still manage to flower but I am not sure if I will keep it as it never does very well. However some wildlife likes it. The ladybird and some kind of longhorn beetle shown here.
Longhorn beetle and ladybird on Scot’s lovage.
We used to be able to have our dinner on a nice sunny patio, but with the increasing height of the golf course trees it gets very shady by 19:30 which in a heatwave is rather nice but I think I would rather be able to enjoy the sunshine a bit more on the patio in the evening.
Shady afternoon in the garden.
In the conservatory the Echinopsis eyriesii (only just found out what it is called) has had 2 flowers this year and the scent is amazing. It is always a shame the flowers only last a day.
Echinopsis eyriesii flowers.
And I treated myself to a couple more succulent plants – lets hope I can keep them alive.
Titanopsis calcarea and Haworthia cooperi v pilifera.
At the moment It is a case of keeping an eye on beasties, keeping things watered, and getting rid of unwanted plants that have become unruly.
They say we are heading for another heat wave – well not so far. Still waiting for some sunshine and warmth without that chilly wind. We have had yet more rain which at least means I don’t have to water the garden but we didn’t get enough to fill up the pond. It is baby frog time so they will enjoy the damp weather I am sure. I am so happy to see damselflies again at the pond. There were a few red damsels and the odd blue one too. I saw a couple who had mated and the male was holding onto the female with his grippers while she laid her eggs in the pond by some vegetation. A third one (probably a male) kept trying to butt in. There was also a lone blue one hanging about.
Single red damselfly.Red damselfly couple – female laying eggs.Male red damselfly clasping female.
I am still trying to get a good photo of a small copper butterfly but this one will have to do in the mean time.
Small copper butterfly (Lycaena phlaeas)on a variegated holy bush.
The red keys on my acer are tiny but very pretty against the bright green of the leaves. My next door neighbour has a large red acer which has bright red keys and they glow when the sun catches them.
Acer shirasawanum Aureum leaf with red keys.Neighbours red acer with red keys.
Lots of things are in flower just now and the place is absolutely buzzing with bees. However just gone over are the honey lilies, weigela, syringia, stonecrop, rhododendron, azalea, weigelia, aquilegia, hebe, saxifrages, forget-me-nots, and irises.
The stonecrop had amazing colours: bright yellow flowers, some green leaves, some purple leaves and some almost silvery with a coating of farina.
Colourful stonecrop.
I do love Pattie’s Plum poppy and there were a few planted next to the cirsiums but I only have 2 left. I don’t think they live very long so I need a few more.
In flower right now are: most of the roses, philadelphus, erigeron, purple clematis, nepeta, some hardy geraniums, briza grass, astrantia, some primroses, cowslips, lavender, foxgloves, deutzia, cirsium, thalictrum, orange geum and honeysuckle. The wonderful fragrance in the garden comes from the honeysuckle, philadelphus and deutzia. You do have to be closer to the roses to catch their fragrance.
Honeysuckle.
Overall the garden is looking good just now with a few areas that are dissapointing.
View from the patio mid June 2026
The damp area that runs along the side of the ramp just annoys me now. It looks great when the persicaria are up and flowering in august but until then it is just an eyesore and now the harling is split again and some persicaria is coming up behind it.
Persicaria coming up behind the harling.
Snails (I think) have demolished the 3 agastache I had planted behind the garage and have had a good go at the eupatorium and marigold on the patio. One marigold was totally stripped but I saved a couple by putting them on the patio table. I had used crushed oyster shells on the surface of the eupatorium pot but that did nothing.
In the conservatory 2 of the lithops have now split but the smaller one has not done anything this year so far. ( I have now found out that they should had have a pot of their own as they are not all the same species so I have given them a little pot each now.) I treated myself to 3 tiny new succulents when we went to the cactus and succulent show Saughton Park and how anyone can remember the names of these things is beyond me – I am still learning how to pronounce them. I have another couple in the post – who knew I would get interested in succulents?
Lithops splitting.3 new small succulents.
So the weather forecast for today was 90 – 95 percent chance of rain all morning and we didn’t get any!
Thundery storms, hailstones /rain – then sweltering heat! But soon there will be some respite from the heat with a little rain. So far this year the majority of butterflies I have seen have been the orange tips and speckled woods and one small copper (I think) and one red damselfly. Lots of little bumble bees and a few large bumble bees. The tadpoles have grown bigger and I have spotted a few newts. Thankfully I have noticed far fewer slugs this year.
The Jock Tamson’s Gairden (JTG) plants sale went well and most of the plants were sold. I had propagated too many bronze fennel but that is ok as any unsold will be used at JTG. At the sale I got talking to a lovely lady, Naomi, who, after blethering about our mutual love of gardening and plants gave me a few plants from her own garden to try. Thank you Naomi.
At the beginning of May we found more blanket weed in the pond so gave the pond a treatment of Aquaplancton which made it all look a bit cloudy. The tadpoles, frogs and newts didn’t mind at all although we did get some on some lily pads so they look a bit grey. I am still waiting for signs of the Typha I planted a couple of years ago and I planted a variegated iris just at the beginning of the year so I hope they will appear and flower this year.
Amy, my garden help, re-located a huge cyclamen from behind the garage to underneath the spirea where is should do well as it doesn’t get too moist there. We took out a couple of old limbs of the viburnam as it was quite congested and was resting over the purple acer so that some of it’s branches had died off.
Also re-located is the hardy geranium Mavis Simpson which hadn’t really got going in the stumpery so it is now beside the heuchera in the middle bed where it will get a bit more sunshine.
I noticed that there are flowers for the first time on the acer Shirasawanum aureum and they are so tiny but really show up against the bright, golden-green of the leaves. The flowers are produced in small cymes. Soon they will turn into a pair of winged samara (keys). A samara is a winged achene which is one dried, seeded, fruit encased in one wing.
Acer shirasawanum aureum flowers.
My purple acer, acer palmatum Dissectum Garnet (which is much older) has never flowered whereas next door there is a purple/red acer peaking over the top of the garage which already has the purple/red samaras . I have never seen the flowers on it, and it is getting pretty wide now, growing over both sides of the front of the raised bed and growing down to and along the ground now.
Purple acer palmatum disectum Garnet in the raised bed.
The clematis montana is doing well but has now started to pull off the support at the top. We are soon to start work on the garage roof so it isn’t the right time to do anything about it.
Clematis montana on the garage wall.
Below the clematis along the back of the garage wall is only a narrow border so it can be tricky to get it to look good. I am trying out nepeta Junior Walker, hardy geranium Vision light pink and silene coronaria on the left hand side just to see how they do. So far the cats have been stomping all over the nepeta so I have had to put an upturned basket on it for protection and this has done the job.
The middle bed is coming on nicely just now with the hebe in flower and the other plants are looking colourful. There are are a few different colours of foliage in the middle bed with silvery white, dark green, bright golden-green, bronzes and purples which can make a lovely palette.
Colourful foliage in the middle bed.
When viewed from another angle.
Layers of colour.
The new fronds of the athyrium otophorum var. okanum fern look like a right old tangle but they always open up perfectly.
Athyrium atophorum var. okanum tangled looking fronds.
I am so happy that I finally bought some geum Mai Tai as they look so pretty next to the rose and fill up that gap nicely. I did spot another geum right in front of the rose which was looking huge and healthy and wondered what I had planted but it turned out to be a weed (wild geum urbanum) so it was pulled out but now there is a bit of a gap in front of Gertrude Jekyll.
The damp corner where the geums are thriving.Geum Mai Tai.
I bought and planted three verbascum Peach champagne last year and only one was in flower at the time (buttery-yellow colour with purple in the centre). However I was not prepared for the colour of the emerging flowers this year. The first two to start flowering started a deep dusky pink, then went peach and finally to the buttery-yellow colour. The last one to flower bypassed the pink stage – it started out peach. Hey ho.
I thought I had bought the wrong verbascum. Pink instead of yellow.Verbascum Peach Champagne changing from dusky-pink to peach colour.Finally the right colour on the Verbascum Peach Champagne.
The red peony is looking good right now. Normally when they are looking their best we get a deluge of rain which knocks all the petals off.
Red peony (unknown variety).
The poor old witch hazel had to be taken out as it was indeed totally dead. It didn’t take much pulling and it was very wet at the base. I am now looking for another large shrub or small tree for that gap. There are a few more gaps I could fill in the stumpery but otherwise it is looking fine.
Stumpery at the end of May.
It is so nice to work in the garden just now with the warmth of the sun and the gorgeous scent of the syringia that fills the air.
Syringa Josiflexa Belleicent
The view from the patio right now. Over the grey winters we have in Scotland I really miss seeing all this glorious, lush colour. Of course it will all change over the next month.
We had a pretty wet and windy start to April but now there is a lot more sunshine around. There is still a chilly breeze though, and with clear nights there is still the chance of frosts.
Sadly the Duddingston Kirk Garden Club has ground to halt now but the good news is that Jock Tamson’s Gairden (JTG) is taking over our annual plant sale (May 2nd in Duddingston Kirk manse garden). I have loads of seedlings and cuttings to take along for sale so a lot of my time has been spent tending to them. Right now that means hardening them off by taking them all out during the day and bringing them all in again in the evening. Once the plant sale is over I should have a lot more room in the conservatory and the patio tables.
House plants for sale 2026.Plants for sale 2026.More Plants for sale 2026.
In the conservatory the cactus bumps have flowers on them which I didn’t expect. I thought the bumps would have to get larger before they flowered. Hey-ho. Oxalis triangularis is just starting to bloom now with its very dainty flowers and dark purple foliage. One of my neighbours brought some old pots that she no longer wanted and would I want any? I spotted this deep red one that goes really well with aeonium Voodoo now that it has its deep red, summer colours.
Old mother cactus flowers.Oxalis triangularis.Aeonium Voodoo in a dark red pot.
It is the time of year that the vine weevil grubs are chomping their way through plant roots so we have given the whole back and front garden, patio pots, conservatory and the plants for sale, a nematode treatment. This at least keeps them at bay. I just need to keep the earth moist for the nematodes to do their job.
I love wandering around the garden at this time of year spotting all the new shoots and being thankful for the plants that have come through the wet winter. The emerging fern fronds (fiddles) look especially nice and they are all very different. My favourite one just now is the very hairy looking Polystichum polyblepharum. I love ferns!
Polystichum polyblepharum fern.
All around the garden are little purple violets that have just spread wherever they want. I do have to keep an eye on them or they would just take over. The same goes for the ajuga and the periwinkle.
Viola riviniana purpurea (labradorica)
As for the forget-me-nots well they are popping up everywhere too. The rain seems to have washed them down to the edge of the borders. And under the rhododendron is a patch of dicentra formosa ‘ bacchanal red’ which has to be kept under control or it would spread everywhere. The yellow erythroniums are needing dead-headed now to prevent them seeding everywhere as I already have 3 large patches of them. One patch is under the crab apple which is now blooming away. It hasn’t produced any more branches to the back of it so it is going to be drooping heavily to the front once the blooms have been replaced by the heavier crab apples. I have to keep an eye on Harry otherwise he would just hack it back! Although someone of FB told me about a method call Notching which can induce the bud bellow the notch to start to branch so I may try that next year and see what happens.
Erythronium yellow.Crab apple tree Malus Sylvestris Evereste.
The berberis is in full flower now and if you peek up the right hand side of the garden you can see it with the white spirea flowers in the background and a few yellow tulips behind it and just in the foreground are the narcissi actaea pheasant eye. Most of the narcissi have gone over except for a few Segovia on the patio, the small narcissi pipit in the stumpery are still in flower. Narcissi Pipit are always the last to come through.
Berberis and spirea.
The view from the patio just before the cherry blossom fell and the narcissi had gone over,
Before the blossom all fell and the narcissi ha gone over.
Most of the tulips have gone over but the ones in mum’s planter are still in flower. They look nice next the narcissi Segovia and the pink silene Flos-Jovis Peggy. The wild garlic looks pretty too.
Silene Flos-Jovi Peggy.Unknown tulips with narcissi segovia and silene Flos-Jovi Peggy.Wild gar;lic, allium ursinum.
Just beside the conservatory door to the patio is the skimmia japonica which has a really nice scent when in flower. It is just about over now.
Skimmia Japonica.
Somehow I have managed to have anemone coronarai Bordeaux popping up in pots in amongst the plants I actually planted in the pots. I don’t think they seeded themselves there so I must have re-used to compost that the anemones came from to top up the pots? Gardeners World had a bit about an anemone grower who said the corms get bigger with age but that you get the best flower from the smallest corms – well I never knew that so I will keep that in mind.
And remember the marsh marigold being eaten by something – well I found the culprit and it totally demolished the plant! Bloody wood pigeons! This may also be the creature that has broken a few of my nepeta plants. I have found a lot of broken off stems but nothing eaten. It may well be a cat too as it is also known as cat mint but we get lots of cats in the garden and only this year has there been a problem. I have had to put upturned baskets over them to protect them. Such a pain. But now, I am off to enjoy some sunshine while I can.
Ahhh sunshine at last – it makes such a difference. The birds are singing and there is lots of colour and fragrance in the garden now. In the stumpery the sarcococca and the winter flowering Lonicera fragrantisima are smelling lovely, as is the viburnum in the raised bed and the skimmia japonica on the patio. In the front garden it is the mahonia giving the very strong scent.
MahoniaEpimedium sulphureum
The leaves on the possibly dead witch hazel have finally tuned brown and shrivelled up. There are flowers appearing everywhere now. The epimedium sulphureum out the front is covered in tiny yellow flowers and although the big yellow daffodils have gone over, the bright yellow mahonia is taking the spotlight. The white periwinkle under the front hedge is covered in flowers and the odd little grape hyacinth is still hanging in there. Out the back the pieris is looking good with all its little white bells, all the hellebores are in full flower now as are the fritillaria, some tulips, some narcissi, berberis, corydalis, wood anemone, pulmonaria and pink flowered heather. The hebe always has a few flowers open.
Pieris forest flameBerberis darwiniiTulips in the sun.Wood anemoneNarcissi Actaea with only one eaten so far.Narcissi Segovia in a pot.
There used to be three wood anemone plants there but now only one is left. I have a few little ones growing in a pot so once they are a bit bigger I will plant them out.
I learned the other day that the beautiful colouration on fritillaries is known as tessellation – a geometric pattern and they don’t have petals or sepals but instead has tepals like tulips and lilies! They come in completely white versions, pale, darker and very dark version and I have every variation in my garden somewhere even the pure white ones.
Pale coloured version of fritillary.Dark purple version of fritillary.
I t hasn’t all gone according to plan though as it looks as though the choke berry shrub has died and the beautiful flowering cherry (Shiroto Mount Fuji) is not looking very happy. One whole limb is dead and I think it is very waterlogged and there may not be anything I can do to bring it back.
Cherry tree Shiroto Mount Fuji with one dead limb.
The geum mai tai, which is in a sunny position, is looking lush whereas the orange flowered geum, which is in a more shady site, has been eaten down to the leaf margins. One of the huge cyclamen out of a row has rotted so has left a large gap in the row. There are smaller ones that I can put in its place but I am not sure why that one rotted yet none of the others did – they are all planted at the same depth and are slightly proud of soil level so they shouldn’t get waterlogged in theory.
Something – possibly pigeons – has been eating the marsh marigolds.
Eaten march marigold.
In the conservatory my ponytail plant has 3 branches and one of them suddenly dropped all of its leaves and I don’t know what to do about it. I do know that it is pot bound and that may well be the cause but it is welded into that very large pot so it probably wouldn’t come out without damaging it further.
Ponytail plant (Beaucarnea recurvata).
The good news is that in the conservatory my seedlings are doing ok and hopefully they will be big enough to sell at the plant sale in early May. Our Duddingston Kirk Garden Club is folding but the Jock Tamson’s Gairden will be taking over the plant sale.
Mid March and it feels like we are still in winter. Rain, more rain, wind, frost, tiny bits of sunshine then more rain. The patio pots are all still water logged but most of the plants look like they have survived although some are covered in moss like the red astrantia. But I am hoping the astrantia will soon pop up through the moss.
Moss taking over the astrantia.
The crocuses that were eaten when they flowered in the trough last year have survived as I put one of the seed tray lids over it this time. They looked great in the little bit of sunshine that we did get.
Crocus sieberi ‘Firefly’ in the sun.
Most of the hellebores are in full flower now so here are a few:
In the stumpery: the small white erythronium are almost flowering. The pulmonaria are looking lovely with their spotty leaves and pinky/mauve flowers. The tortured hazel looks a little half and half as the side that gets the most sunshine has the most catkins on it and the shadier side is looking a bit bare. Even the dead witch hazel that is still clinging onto it’s dead leaves has some colour – the leaves look almost red. There are some very fragrant flowers now on the sarcococca and also on the winter flowering honeysuckle.
The best news is that we spotted the first lot of frogspawn on 6th March this year and the other day I counted at least 30 frogs and loads of frogspawn – at least 11 clumps! And even better than that- Harry saw loads of newts in the pond at night (he counted at least 10 but they move really fast so getting a photo was tricky).
Frogs and frogspawn 2026.Frogs and newts.
The mouse plant that we are trying to get rid of in the raised bed came back with a vengeance so Harry dug down and got most of the soil out of that corner. Before we put and soil in there we will wait and see if any more reappears. We have already waited over a year to get rid of this stuff. Right next to that area is a small clump of tete-a-tete narcissi and at the other side a clump of hardy geranium so I am hoping the mouse plant will not appear in amongst them.
Tete-a-tete narcissi next to the dug out hole.
With a bit more sunshine the rest of the narcissi out the back will bloom while the large yellow daffodils out the front garden are flowering away and the mahonia it just about to bloom. I can’t wait to get out and enjoy the garden without having to wear about 6 layers of thermals. I have just got over a horrid cold and am still struggling to keep warm even in the house. On the plus side – I haven’t seen any huge slugs yet this year – it is only a matter of time.
It’s the end of February, and the end of an era for my family. This year has had such a sad beginning, with the passing of a friend, then my dear mum, followed by my mum’s remaining sister. Mum loved her garden and pond and also many houseplants. I have taken a few of her houseplants to care for them as I think it is a lovely way to remember people by. As you tend their plants you can reminisce about happier times and even talk to the plants as though you were talking to the person themselves. Here are some pictures of my mum’s garden.
