A good tidy up

A little bit of rain and plenty of hot sunshine in the past week has meant lots of plants are in bloom or bud and some of the shrubs have gone berserk! So this weekend I've had a good tidy up and a bit of a reorganisation.

Ornamentals

The first of my longiflorum Lilies, White Heaven (photo), opened yesterday. This plant has a very strong, lemony scent which is just gorgeous. It has been a bit of a Lily beetle magnet this year I'm afraid but I've just about kept on top of them by squishing the beetles and removing the larvae with damp kitchen roll. A disgusting job but very necessary.

Another plant out this week was Monarda didyma, also known as Bee Balm. It has the most beautiful flowers which bees love but sadly is very prone to powdery mildew. I've been spraying the leaves regularly with a bicarb solution which helps but doesn't cure the problem.

I've had four surprises on the flowering front this week, only one of them pleasant. First was the Dianthus 'Siberian Blues' which was billed as the first true blue Dianthus only it isn't: it's deep lavender. Second was Nasturtium 'Empress of India' which is supposed to have deep wine coloured flowers. I thought this would look lovely in front of some of my Fuchsia Beacon plants but unfortunately the flowers are deep orange so there's an awful clash. Third was Fuchsia Ant & Dec which rather than white and dark purple is in fact pink and pale lavender. Then finally the self-saved seeds of simple yellow pansies came up the most wonderful creamy-yellow with a lilac tinge to the petal edge and with very distinctive markings. You win some, you lose some.

I have finished potting on the last of the Tagetes and these are now dotted around the Tomato plants, each one standing in a tray of horticultural sand to see if this will deter the slugs. I also potted on Hebe, Fuchsia Rocket Fire, Calendula and some Sage cuttings I'd rooted in water.

Now that the Strawberries have finished I've taken them off the ornamental iron pot stand and replaced them with six Pelargonium Quercifolium plants which are in full flower. They look really attractive there and as you brush past (something you can't help doing in a garden as narrow and packed as mine) you get a lovely whiff of their Cedar scented leaves.

The shady corner needed a good reorganisation as some things have gone over and others (like the Monarda and Fennel) are coming into their own. As I moved the containers around I found dozens of slugs and snails clinging to the pots so I 'rehoused' them over the fence!

As the first of the flowers on the Buddleia are fading I'm cutting the stems back by two-thirds. This will bring the plant back to a more manageable six feet of so, rather than the ridiculous 10 feet plus it's reached in the last week. And I've also cut back some of the Jasmine nearest the house as it was casting too much shade over the plants on the patio. This has also had the added bonus of letting more sunlight reach the Passiflora which I have growing through it.

There are quite a few plants temptingly showing colours to their buds now including Agapanthus, Eucomis, Galtonia and Centratherum. A few new Poppies open every day but I do wish they would last a bit longer. It's been quite breezy and I'm lucky if they last a day.

Wildlife

The garden has been full of large white butterflies in the last few days, favouring the Nasturtiums and Buddleia. The bumble bees are enjoying the Digitalis and Jasmine and I have too many Harlequin ladybirds to count. The latter is good news on the aphid front but bad news for our native species and lacewings too I gather. I've read that there's nothing that amateur gardeners can do about them to make any difference so I'll leave them be.

Georgie