All systems grow!
Summer rain and new varieties keep me busy, says Peter
AUGUST used to be a quiet month, but not any more – with two major flower shows moved to the autumn (including Chelsea) and trade events opening up, too. I’ve got four columns a week to write and a podcast to record, overseeing and caring for Floral Fantasia (pretty well a fulltime job). Add the warm, showery weather giving everything lush summer growth, and my own garden is like the shoemaker’s children – not very well shod! Visiting one of our leading wholesale seed and young plant companies, we were presented with over 400 new plant introductions for next year.
How can one keep up with such a rapidly changing world? I did take a couple of hours off, when visiting the
London offices, to make a family visit to Buckingham Palace Gardens. If you are buying tickets, go the whole hog and pay extra for the conducted tour; then you will see the rose garden and hosta beds, which we were told are kept pretty well slug-free using wire wool (that is a new one on me, and not sure it would work for all cultivars), plus seasonal flowers, including lilies on my visit. If you only pay the entrance fee then you will just see the large top lawn and the long herbaceous border, and get to the edge of the lake. We have two sowings for the Fleuroselect Year of the Calendula 2021 Trial, with 80 different cultivars from leading breeders around the world. If you are anywhere near RHS Hyde Hall, they are well worth a call, with the second sowing flowering well into the autumn; if not, we will be producing a video in due course. The range of flower shapes, heights, sizes and colours from traditional orange through all shades of yellow to cream and brown tips makes for gorgeous viewing, and all from a modestly priced packet of seeds.