Stargazer lilies (?) are normally long finished by now. Forgive the alliteration but the bulbs for these beauties were found in a B & Q bargain bin for something like 25p a pack. The label was missing so I am not sure of the exact variety.
I promptly forgot to plant them up and came across them at in the height of summer. Eager to not miss the boat altogether, I shoved them in the nearest pot and promptly forgot about them again. There was no life whatsoever until mid August when some shoots emerged. Since then I have squashed the odd lily beetle and since last weekend have been enjoying these gorgeous blooms.
Another delights now is Clematis 'Ernest Markham'. A group 3 cultivar it gets cut back hard in Spring and takes the best part of the year to to green up again. By September it is covered in medium sized flowers that drape itself nicely over my hanging seat.
The flowers are more dark pink then purple. Speaking of purple, the absolute stars of the cool border are these New England Asters. Swaying gently in the breeze and covered in masses of flowers (and nearly as many bees), they make great cut flowers, too.
A few weeks ago I started to sow some seeds, another attempt to propagate Astranthus which I find difficult to raise from seed (and which are reported to not often come true to type). No signs of life there yet. The other seeds were from useful gapfiller Cerinthe major Purpurescens (blue shrimp plant). They have germinated but I really don't think they are Cerinthe.
Rather than sporting two oval waxy seed leaves, I have rather thin and paper seed leaves. Now that the first true leaves are emerging, I am thinking that these may be Delphinium seedlings. I did collect seeds of these at the rectory which in turn were given to me by Mrs U-turn so they hold a special meaning for me. But I am baffled as to why I have them the wrong label, especially when the seeds look somewhat different.
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