Since the end of August the garden has strike one baste after another . In Broadstairs we have experienced gale from every point on the ambit , backbreaking rain and unusually chilly nights . By the end of September both the Jungle Garden and the Gin & Tonic Garden looked more like they ordinarily do in early November . Any hopes of an Amerind summertime were dashed by some of the soggiest October twenty-four hours since records began .
When consideration change for the spoiled in autumn , the garden quickly reaches the point of no return . In some ways this is a benediction . I stop accentuate about everything attend characterization - perfect and get to think about how I might sensitively manage the journey towards wintertime . The tenderest plant are steady moved inside , others are make out back so that they do n’t act like a cruise in the wind , and others are put in to keep the dream alive for a few more week . Late - flowering ginger , nerines , passion flowers , salvias and Brugmansia are a gravy at this time of the year . They flourish in nerveless , wetter conditions than we ’ve enjoyed for many months . Some of the flame nettle are still good too , especially the smaller - leaved cultivar such as ‘ Lord Falmouth ’ and ‘ Burgundy Wedding Train ’ . Those with larger leaves are already starting to look like ancient handkerchieves that have been boil for too long . The wilted and faded will soon be cleared to make way for bulb planting . Over the arrive days I ’ll need to regain new homes for a grow aggregation of bromeliads , including the airplants that adorn the trees in the Jungle Garden . They are considerably more bouncy outdoors than one might expect , but they wo n’t like it when it grow decent inhuman .
The allotment take the same pummelling as the garden . In some respects our plot of ground , being on an candid site , is more uncovered and therefore more vulnerable in tempestuous weather . In other respect the lack of obstacles funnelling the wind and deepen its intensity level is a blessing . Half the Jerusalem artichokes were toppled ; one industrial plant was lifted clean out of the background , tubers and all . The main Dahlia pinnata bed , planted three cryptical , was pushed over to one side with several plant break or twisted at the base . No amount of staking was going to save them from 60 mph winds from the compass north . This is enough to deplumate single blooms clear off their stem .
Our chrysanthemum and genus Helichrysum have prove very resilient . I have not grown either since I was a teenager and it ’s been big to reacquaint myself with these wonderful , long - lasting flowers . The chrysanthemum appear to be rudely felicitous on the allotment . Most were grown from cuttings delivered in June and they have made substantial plants . ‘ Spider Bronze ’ has yet to flower but is cover in buds , whilst ‘ Blenda Purple ’ , ‘ Dixter Orange ’ , ‘ Bruno Bronze ’ , ‘ Littleton Red , ‘ Smokey Purple ’ and ‘ Patyon Blaze Red ’ are all put on a upbeat show . I know chrysanthemum are not everyone ’s cupful of tea . They ’ve been disgorge into the horticultural phantom by dint of the their ubiquity , but surely they must be due a comeback soon ? If Dahlia pinnata can do it , so can chrysanthemums . Personally I hump the aroma , it ’s one of the top note in the semisweet perfume of autumn . There will be more chrysanthemums next twelvemonth , that ’s for sure .
I was on the road for much of this week ; in and out of the car , on and off with the wretched facemask , watch people I ’ve not seen for months . It was refreshful but I lack home . How speedily I have become used to staying put ! On the journeying through Hampshire I stopped off atLongstock Park Water Gardens , lovingly maintained by the John Lewis Partnership . I have visited these elevated garden on the River Test many times , but always in May . It was marvellous to bask them in a dissimilar guise – a small scruffy , a fiddling more natural , pompous and fading . aspect were fuzzier and the body of water surface sprinkled with fallen oak leaves . As I progressed ducks set ashore clumsily in the chilly water supply and salientian plopped in to its shallow gray from the slippy grassy banks . It was all splendidly magical , if a tad melancholy ; a different perspective on a garden I thought I knew well .
Back at home my list of jobs to do in the garden is broad . I ’ve buy more bulb than ever before ; what possessed me ? Now I shall have to plant them at the same time as rise Dahlia pinnata , finding homes for ever - larger ginger and Brugmansia , repair the edge of allotment beds , pull in out the shop and so on . The Beau find out a list on the dining room table and scuttles off in the opposite direction . Whatever I do I am always on the back metrical foot in fall . This year I do n’t have the tortuousness of being in China , so whatever I accomplish over the next two calendar week will be more than I would have execute normally . I shall press on with the somebody intention of staying one step ahead of wintertime . By Christmas everything should be put to bottom . TFG .
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Categories : chrysanthemum , Dahlias , Flowers , Foliage , fragrance , Large Gardens , Our Allotment , Weather
put up by The Frustrated Gardener
