Feasting the senses

This is going to be a long post, but I'll try to do it in pictures rather than words as I think you'll enjoy it more.

In the cottage garden near the house is a venerable old crab apple tree with a huge honeysuckle growing through it. In the evening the garden is bathed in scent, accompanied with the steady hum of a thousand deliriously happy bees.











The wildflower meadow is heading for its summer peak, the grasses are thigh high in places and studded with buttercups, clover, vetch and and a few nursery escapees such as Thalictrum aquilegifolia. It's difficult to capture it on camera - this is as good as I can do.

This plant has been a revelation. Yes, it's variegated ground elder. Yes it's invasive (but not as bad as the plain green stuff), but it is just fantastic in the impossibly dry shade of very large conifer and I think it is the prettiest variegated leaf in the garden - better even than Astrantia 'Sunningdale variegated' because the variegation is white, rather than yellowish. And the flowerheads are airy, delicate and long-lasting.

The oriental poppies have been strutting their stuff beautifully for a few weeks now. This is one of the best - Raspberry Queen. Very pink indeed, each flower keeps a strong colour for several days and it forms a good vigorous clump. And we sold out some time ago - it's on the list for next year.

This garden has a bit of a Thalictrum thing going on. There are 20 different varieties on the nursery and a new one comes into flower each week in the garden. Thalictrum aquilegifolium has been a real hit, again all gone, I'm afraid. This (I think) is T. aquilegifolium var. Album. It is in the garden under the shade of a larch and is very delicately lovely.