Show-stealing sidalcea!
A family garden in Astley Burf, Worcestershire, with recentlydeveloped beds and borders.
We’ve just enjoyed a very successful Open Gardens weekend in
the village. The week leading up to the event was blisteringly hot
with temperatures in the 30s; weeding was abandoned and the only gardening I achieved was watering very late at night. However, luckily the temperatures cooled down just in time and the garden still looked presentable.
Plant of the weekend was a beautiful pink sidalcea, with many visitors asking about it. By the end of the weekend the whole family was able to identify it when asked!
Another plant that generated interest with visitors was a pale pink veronica. This is currently smothered in flowers – and bees. Deadheading it can be a little tricky – something I tend to do late in the evening when the bees are safely back in their hives.
I was also really pleased that the hollyhocks came out just in time. Some years they’re badly affected by rust, but this year they’re fine and the flowers are as beautiful as ever.
Daylilies are looking good. I’ve several varieties, in fact more than I thought, ranging in colour from pale creamyyellow through to deep maroon and all shades in between. Looking around the shed one day we realised we had quite a few ‘ vintage’ tools, some bought at antique fairs but several inherited. We decided to display them in the open-fronted shed for visitors. This seemed to go down well and will be repeated next time we open for charity.
The old-fashioned roses are still flowering well and I’m also pleased with ‘Desdemona’, which is a David Austin rose, planted this year. It’s recommended for growing in a container so I’ve put it in a huge terracotta pot on the edge of a terraced area.