I suppose we gardeners are never happy, but to be fair, in the east of Scotland summer weather sometimes just fails to appear and that can be a bit depressing. This year though we’re having a wee bit too much of a good thing, the heat and bright sunshine have been scorching some of my plants and everything has sped up with flowers going over far quicker than normal. It’s sad to see things go so fast when you’ve waited a whole year for them to arrive again. Anyway, I can’t complain about the crop from my apple tree. I was sold this tree as a Bramley and got quite a lot of apples from it last year for the first time. I’m sure I harvested them in September but this year they are ready and most of them have turned red in parts, the Bramleys in the shops are all green, so I’m not sure what variety it is. It has so many apples on it that I had to remove quite a lot to give the others space to grow, but still the branches are bending alarmingly with the weight. I made apple crumble for pudding on Sunday, the only day we have a pudding, it tasted good.
The irises below seemed to just last a few days. I just didn’t get out fast enough to take photos of flowers before they were over.
I was thrilled to bits when my peony rose flowered as I’ve been waiting for at least three years and had only had leaves before, just one flower but I hope for more next year.
The climbing rose below is called Firecracker, and it is a cracker, but it just wants to grow straight up and is quite brittle if you try to tie it down, sadly it has no scent.
The rose below is a similar colour to Fieracracker but it’s a bush rose and was just labelled ‘orange’ rose when I bought it, here you can see it at all stages, from buds to dead heads, my dead-heading this year hasn’t been fast enough! This rose has a lovely scent, something which is quite rare nowadays and I’m really pleased that the cuttings I took from it earlier in the year have been successful and are actually beginning to flower already, I thought I would have to wait until next year for flowers.
It has been too hot to do any gardening in the daytime, I’ve managed to do some cutting back in the evenings though. For the past few days it has been 26 Celsius/78.8 Fahrenheit, that might not seem very hot to you, but around 65 F is my comfort zone.
I was just thinking I was wanting to see photos of your garden (truly). The fire cracker rose is gorgeous and I am happy you have so many apples.
It is true that gardeners are never happy but I most unhappy this year because I have not spent enough time on the outdoor plants. The front looks mostly good anyway, although strange things are happening to some of my pelargoniums there. The back is pretty shabby but still keeping the bees and hummingbirds happy.
tracybham,
My front garden is so unlike the others in the neighbourhood as most people just have a patch of grass and compared with that mine does look untidy with masses of lavender, rosemary and roses, but of course the bees adore it all. The planters in the front garden which have my pelargoniuns in them aren’t looking great, they are drying out so quickly. I’m so envious of your hummingbirds, we don’t have them in the UK and my garden has mainly sparrows in it although once we did have a red-headed woodpecker.
I always enjoy seeing pictures of your garden, and I must admit to being envious of your abundance of apples! Your temperatures sound just lovely to me especially since it’s typical summer weather here with temperatures in the 90’s. I am hoping to move just a little further north once my husband retires….
Paula,
We’re just not used to those temperatures plus my back garden has the sun the whole day so it has been too bright to garden until after dinner time. I hope you manage to move a bit further north – when he retires. I can only see a handful of plums on my Victoria plum tree, maybe next year will be a good one.
That peony rose is gorgeous! It looks just like a peony flower, which I suppose the name gives away 😀 It’s been another hot year in my garden with lots of scorching. I am going to break down and buy some shade cloth next spring to provide some protection to tomatoes and squash since global warming is only going to keep getting worse. 🙁
Stefanie,
It probably is exactly what you call a peony, they don’t have thorns but the flowers look like old-fashioned roses hence the name. There are also tree peonies but I think they are too brittle looking to withstand the winds that we have here. We have to grow things like tomatoes in a greenhouse, but at this rate with global warming, we might be able to grow them outside. It’s more than a worry!
Peonies may be my favorite flower, although mine have weak stems and need lots of propping.
So nice to see your garden. Mine is better than usual in some ways but the local drought has really stifled my roses.
Constance,
I’m hoping for more blooms next year. We now have a hosepipe ban, but I wasn’t using mine anyway, I’ve just been watering plants in pots or newly planted things, using a watering can. We are supposed to get some rain tomorrow, I hope so as the local burn has dried up, it looks very weird.
How about them apples?! Whatever they are, you got a good crop. I agree with you about roses: there’s something missing if they don’t have a scent.
Joan,
The apples were in danger of breaking the branches before I started to harvest them. They’re tasty, whatever they are!
Katrina,
I can’t believe I missed this post–I love it. So interested to hear about your apples. And the irises–the heat did them in quickly for us this year, too. And what a stupedous peony! And the roses! You can never show too much of your garden for me. I think I missed commenting because I was knee-deep of the last 10 days of my writing class. (Not a good reason.)
Judith,
Thanks, things have cooled down here, but gardening wise it’s that gap time when the summer stuff is over but autumn hasn’t begun. I hope it brightens up again soon. Life just gets hectic as we get older I think, I can’t get over how quickly each week passes and wonder what I’ve done in that time!
Ooooh, you’ve hit a sore spot there, Katrina! How quickly each week passes and what to show for it! Well, you have your 20 Books of Summer, and THANKS to you, I have the 20 Books of Summer to show for it. I’m more than halfway through Books 18 and 19 now, and wondering what I’ll do about Book 20.
It’s been hot and very humid here, and my writing class is now over, so I have plenty of time to devote to reading, because I’m telling you, with temperatures in the mid-80s and high humidity, I’m NOT DOING MY BELOVED HOUSEWORK!
Judith,
I’m on book 19 so I should manage to complete the list, I’ve read more than those ones though as a few that I had requested arrived at the library, there have been days here when it was too hot to do much but read. I can find any excuse to dodge housework!