Category Archives: scent

a view of a garden in mid June with colourful plants and bird feeders.

Mid June 2026

flowers, scent, wildlife

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 damsel fly on a curled up lily pad.
Single red damselfly.
male red damsel fly clasping the female damsel fly while she lays her eggs.
Red damselfly couple – female laying eggs.
Male red damselfly clasping the female red damselfly while she lays her 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 on a variegated holy bush.
Small copper butterfly 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.

Bright green acer leaf with red keys (seed) on it.
Acer shirasawanum Aureum leaf with red keys.
Red acer leaves with red keys (seeds) beside them.
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.

Yellow flowers on a stonecrop plant which ahs some purple, some green and some silver leaves.
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.

Yellow and purple honeysuckle flowers with green leaves on the very top of an arch.
Honeysuckle.

Overall the garden is looking good just now with a few areas that are dissapointing.

a view of a garden in mid June with colourful plants and bird feeders.
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.

green leaves of persicaria popping up behind some broken white harling on a wall.
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.
Lithops splitting.
three small succulent plants in small pots.
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!

Dark pink tulips in front of white hellebore flowers speckled with dark purple.

Beginning of April 2026

flowers, plants, scent, spring

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.

tiny bright yellow floers on a background of prickly dark green leaves of Mahonia shrub.
Mahonia
Dainty yellow flowers held on a wiry stem of the epimedium sulphureum plant.
Epimedium 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.

Tiny white bell shaped flowers of the Pieris shrub.
Pieris forest flame
Bright peachy orange coloured tiny flowers of the berberis shrub with tiny prickle dark green leaves.
Berberis darwinii
Dark pink tulips in front of white hellebore flowers speckled with dark purple.
Tulips in the sun.
White wood anemone in front of a log on a woodland floor.
Wood anemone
Narcissi Actaea with large pale petals and tiny dark orange corolla in the centre.
Narcissi Actaea with only one eaten so far.
Narcissi Segovia pale petals and small pale yellow corolla.
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.

Mostly white with purple checkered pattern fritillary flowers.
Pale coloured version of fritillary.
Dark purple version of the fritillary flower against grey milk churn.
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.

Large dead branch on a cherry tree Shiroto Mount Fuji.
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.

Yellow flowers of marsh marigold been eaten been by something.
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 that has lost its leaves from one branch out of 3 branches
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.