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August 1st: Beautiful Pest

The adult Magpie Moth is a real beauty with its black and gold markings on thin, almost see-through, white wings.  Once common it is now less so. Its caterpillars aren't such a welcome sight. Its these that eat the leaves of Gooseberries and Red Currants. 

August 2nd: New Coneflower

Rudbeckia paniculata is a new plant for our garden. We'd never seen it before spotting it on another nursery's stall at the Dorothy Clive Garden Plant Hunters Fair last August.

Its grown to about 3ft 6in tall and seems to be clumper rather than  a spreader.

August 3rd: Cuckoos in August

Cuckoo Bees, like their avian namesakes, lay their eggs in the nests of other species and then, like this Field Cuckoo Bee, go off and have a good time feeding on the nectar of Agastache Golden Jubilee. 

August 4th: Pardon Me

Pardon Me is a lovely Day Lily with small, deep red flowers and ,unusually for red varieties, some scent.  It is also short and neat in the border

August 5th: Hover Flies

Attracting Hover Flies to your garden is a desirable thing - their grubs are voracious predators of Aphids. The adult flies like those on this Fennel here often mimic the patterns of bees and wasps to deter creatures that might want to eat them. 

They love to rest and feed on flat, open flowers like those of the daisy family or the open heads of Umbels like fennel.

August 6th: High Summer view

Despite the dull, overcast weather of the last few weeks the garden is ablaze with colour from Persicaria and Phlox. Stipa gigantea adds movement and grace, as does Cephalaria dipsacoides in the foreground here. A tall plant with thin branches upon which the flowers bounce and swing giving the bees that cling to them the funfair ride of their lives.

August 7th: Red Heleniums

People often ask me if they can grow Heleniums in shady spots. The answer (as always from a gardener) is "yes and no". I've found that yellow varieties will perform well in light shade and flower well; orange varieties to a lesser extent. 

However red varieties like Waldhorn here really need some hours of full sun in the day to get a good colour - not necessarily all day sun but 3 hours or so of full sun. 

August 7th: Windmill Helenium

Helenium Loysder Wieck is new to our Helenium collection and is very striking with it rolled up petals.  According to Martin Hughes-Jones (the other UK Helenium collection holder) the name derives from the town of Loysder in Holland and an archaic spelling of the Dutch for an arm or wing of a Windmill.

August 8th: Calamintha

We've been growing this Calamintha Blue Cloud this year and what a charmer it is with its sprays of pale blue flowers and peppermint scented leaves. Similar in habit to Nepeta, its scent means it won't attract cats.  It likes well-drained soils in sun or light shade.

August 8th: New Helenium

We're proud to be asked to introduce the new Helenium Oldenburg on behalf of its raiser, Hartmut Rieger. The first flowers of the year have just opened and they will get better and better in the coming weeks - watch out for updates. 

August 9th: Dull Skies

August has been a dull month weather-wise, with a distinct lack of sunshine. Never mind, Heleniums like Vivace here give the garden a lift and brighten even the most overcast of skies and moods. 

August 10th: Summer Skies

Just to confound Yesterday's diary entry, the sun shone out today and the garden sparkled in the light. 

August 11th: A dash of red

Isn't it great how little dashes of red liven up a planting? In the foreground is Helenium Bruno and behind is the old favourite Dahlia Bishop of Llandaff.

August 12th: Peacocks' favourite

The Gayfeather (Liatris) must be number one favourite with Peacock butterflies today.

August 13th: Getting ready for Helenium Open Weekend

Tomorrow and Sunday are our Helenium Open Days here. I'm busy trying to keep up with deadheading. The plants are looking great.

August 14th: Not just Heleniums

End of our first day of the Helenium weekend and I've been doing back-to-back tours of the collection which has been great fun if tiring on the voice. Visitors asked lots of thought provoking questions and offered some answers themselves, which always helps!

The Heleniums obliged by looking great on the day with Königstiger (foreground) one of the stars of the show.

But it wasn't just Heleniums raising comments and questions from the visitors. Helianthus Capenoch Star (top right) was much admired, as was Monarda Gardenview Scarlet (left, just behind Königstiger). Other star plants included our Phlox and Persicarias.

August 15th: Tired but exhilarated 

Sunday has proved a brilliant success with lots of enthusiastic visitors wanting to share our passion for Heleniums.  Thanks are due to the Daily Telegraph for giving us a big plug in their Gardening section.

One of my favourites today was Ragamuffin, which really sparkled in the sun.

August 16th: Another New Helenium

Blanche Royale is another new new Helenium we are introducing for sale in 2011.  Raised by our friend Ray Clarke of Macclesfield Cheshire it is a great doer in the border. About 3ft tall and smothered with flower from early August.

Ok, so the weather hasn't been that hot, but try telling that to our "Feeling Hot! Hot! Hot!" border. 

August 18th: The sky's the limit

Gardeners sometimes tell me they can't have tall plants because they've only got a small garden. That's one way of thinking about it. I prefer to  think that the sky's an awful long way up so there's plenty of room to fit in tall plants: tall doesn't always mean wide.  

And of course there's tall and there's tall. Take the orange Helenium Westerstede here which is 5 - 6ft tall. Put it next to Rudbeckia Goldkugel  however and it shrinks down in comparison. 

Neither plant is to wide and both look great against the clear blue of a late summer sky. 

August 19th: Followers of the colour wheel, look away now

Colour themed beds and borders are great, but sometimes you just have to throw caution to the wind and let it all hang out. Here cheek-by-jowl with our Feeling Hot! Hot! Hot! border is a bed of Vivid pink Phlox, Lythrum and Centaurea. My little Christopher Lloyd moment!

August 20th: Perfect Partners

Salvia Pink Friesland is quite new and is now having its second flush of flowers. It looks good in front of Monarda Elsie's Lavender, although the Monarda would probably like it a bit damper than the Salvia both are performing well and there is a great association of colour, height and form between them.

August 21st: Perfect Partners

Another plant getting its second wind is Kniphofia Vanilla with its Cornish Ice Cream coloured flowers. Doesn't it look great with Salvia Belhaven? 

August 22nd: Nights closing in

It always takes me by surprise how quickly the nights close in at this time of year and we get caught by the encroaching dark whilst weeding or deadheading. Tonight just before 9pm it was the honking of the homeward bound Canada Geese that woke me from my reverie (weeding is a great time to think!).

August 23rd: Zebra grass

Grasses are really coming into their own now in the garden and the Zebra Grass (Miscanthus sinensis Zebrina) is looking great in the border. 

August 24th: Watch where you step

I was weeding out a bed today and found this little fellow on my finger.  Froglets are now leaving their ponds to found food and shelter, so mind those big feet in the border!.

August 25th: Echinaceas

Echinaceas (Cone Flowers) have been looking good for some time in the garden.  There's a lot of discussion about hardiness and getting them through their first winter which I won't comment on.  Lots of the new one are very expensive so its worth looking at the merits of some the older varieties. We like Rubinstern and White Swan. We did try this one - Double Decker - from seed. Its supposed to have a second layer of petals growing out half way up the cone. It never has for us but it does have interestingly recurved petals that catch the sunlight. Seed grown plants are sometimes inferior - seedlings from Rubinstern often revert to the normal species form with pale petals. Seed from White Swan often comes up as pink flowered. With these you can tell the ones that are going to be white as they have paler green leaves with no hint of dark green.  

August 26th: Perfect Partners

Erodiums (Storksbills) like Princess Marion here are lovely little plants for the garden. Normally in our exuberant plantings little plants can get lost but at the front of one our borders she is flowering again and again. She loves dry, well-drained soils and is a perfect highlight in front of the tiny flowers of Calamintha Blue Cloud with its peppermint scented leaves.

August 27th: Perfect Partners

Another lovely partnership today made by the bold yellow heads of Patrinia scabiosifolia and the red heads of Persicaria amplexicaulis Atrosanguinea. Both are adaptable plants: dry or moist, sun or light shade.

August 28th: Variegated Phlox

The variegated-leaved Phlox, like Norah Leigh are lovely at this time of year. Some people think that the flowers don't go with the leaves but they work well for me - its all a matter of opinion (not taste!). If you want to propagate them you must either divide them carefully or take cuttings as shoots from the roots come up plain green.  Any plain shoots should be pulled off at the roots as these are more vigorous and can take over the plant.  If you are taking cuttings you will probably need to keep the plants in a greenhouse over winter as it is a bit late to ensure strong new basal buds are formed now, but fingers crossed for a good autumn.

August 29th: The Dorothy Clive Garden Plant Hunters' Fair Day 1

No garden photos today as we at this lovely event. Cold, wet and winter - not a bad day for October but its August! Still gardeners are as hardy as our plants and over 650 braved the elements to come and support the Willoughbridge Garden Trust that maintains the garden and select from some brilliant plants. 

Despite the cold our Heleniums still look jolly!

August 30th: The Dorothy Clive Garden Plant Hunters' Fair Day 2

What a difference a day makes!  Summer is back, the sun is shining.

Today over 1100 people thronged to the event and really enjoyed a perfect day in beautiful setting.

What we enjoy is meeting so many garden and plant lovers, old friends and new at this friendly event.

August 31st: Staking Heleniums

People often ask me if they need to stake Heleniums or not. Its another of those "it depends..." answers.

There are a few varieties I know that I'll have to provide some support for: Moerheim Beauty, Kupfersprudel (NL) and Sahin's Early Flowerer. These need a few pea sticks (twiggy branches) at lean against.

With most of the others its a case of watching to see. Sometimes on a first year plant the heads of flower become so heavy that the plants start to lean over. When you spot this its time to get a cane in place.

Sometimes tall plant against a hedge, wall or fence will lean out or get blown away from the barrier by the wind. Single plants can be staked with a cane, groups can be held upright by a string between two canes.

Lastly in extreme weather, like we had on Sunday the wind might blow over individual stems. This is often rescuable as it is possible to carefully pick up the stem and support it with a cane, although sometime they do break off in which case you'll have a vase of flowers for the house!