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July 1st: Summer Scene

When we open our garden for the National Garden Scheme a lot of people comment that "it must be a lot of work", which of course it is but not in the way some people think.  Planting densely means there's not a lot weeding to do once the planting is established (there is a lot for the first year or so though!) Staking is reduced too by close planting and a few twiggy branches are usually enough. Dead heading is gentle work and enjoyable on a summer's evening. The work comes from dividing plants, refreshing the soil (carting 4 tonnes of mushroom compost through the garden) and cutting back in winter. Now is the time to relax and simply breath it all in.

July 2nd: Day Lily Time

Late June and early July is Day Lily Time in our garden. With 300 varieties growing in our beds, borders and pots there's plenty to see.

Day Lilies are very adaptable plants growing in most soils from very boggy through to bone dry. They like sun but will put up with some shade. 

They are of course not Lilies being completely unrelated to true Lilies. This means they don't get affected by Lily Beetle. 

People often ask me when they can divide their Day Lily clumps.  The simple answer is any time in the growing season but I usually avoid flowering time as I want to see those flowers. 

July 3rd: Day Lily colours

Day Lilies come in tremendous range of colours and patterns and its easy to be seduced by the wonderful bright colours and edge patterns.  The reality is wonderful but quite so "over the top" in our climate here in Cheshire. 

Take "Fooled Me" (right) for example. In hot sunny climates the edges of the petals as well as the eye are this bright red. Here we just get a hint of the colour, but for me the Cheshire effect makes the flowers more acceptable in the border. The key is knowing what you are going to get so you're not disappointed. So ask the nurseryman where his or her pictures come from (all of ours are from our garden) or see the plant in flower. 

The other point to bear in mind is that sometimes the first few flowers are not up the standard so be patient. Also a newly planted small plant might not be capable of producing top class blooms in its first year, so patience is required again. Lastly plants purchased on the cheap from garden centres, DIY stores or Supermarkets are often propagated from tissue cultures and in our experience can take one, two or, in extreme cases, three years to settle down and produce proper flowers.

July 5th: Perfect Partners

We use Day Lilies in our beds and borders quite a lot but this year I decided to try planting this lovely Spider form called Old Fashioned Maiden at the edge of a gravel path alongside Achillea Hoffnung and what a splendid show they've put on.

July 6th: Tigers and Dragons spotted in Cheshire!

Well ok, its Hemerocallis Raging Tiger in front of Persicaria Red Dragon. But what an exciting pair they make! 

July 9th: Double Day Lilies

We've bought quite a lot of so-called double Day Lilies to try out over the years. Most, except the sterile naturally occurring ones like fulva Flore Pleno, are not reliably double in the Cheshire climate. Firecracker is an exception and is always a good performer with us.

July 10th: Phlox in the border

Our border Phlox are just starting to get into their stride and looking (and smelling) good with their large heads of showy flowers on tall stems.  This year hasn't been ideal Phlox weather - dry and hot, but the established plants are doing well. Newly planted examples have struggled a bit more and really need a good soaking at least once a week.  Where some have dried out too much I am cutting them back to the ground and hoping they will regrow in better shape now the rain ha returned.

Right: Phlox Othello with Stipa gigantea, the Giant Spanish Oats 

July 11th: Persicarias

Persicarias are valuable additions to the border with spikes of flowers from mid Summer onwards. Others have boldly patterned leaves.  All spread somewhat but usually by surface rhizomes or stolons but are quite easy to bring back into bounds with a pair of scissors or a chop with the spade. Bees love the flowers.  They are best in moist soils but do perfectly well in dry conditions. 

There are lots of varieties Persicaria amplexicaulis, like Atrosanguinea right, becoming available. Many are quite similar and all are variations on the pinkish red theme from a near white through to deep blood red. Heights of varieties can vary considerably from 1ft to 4 or 5ft tall. 

We've always loved Kniphofias and Safranvogel (Saffron Bird) is one of our favourites. Said to be one of hardiest, it has fairly narrow leaves and 2ft 6in spikes of what are often described as pinkish flowers.  Now, seeing it here in our garden against the pink background of Nepeta Dawn to Dusk there's no way I'd describe it as pink. Still it makes an interesting, if somewhat Christopher Lloydesque combination.

By the way does anyone know which bird is the Saffron Bird and why an orangy salmon flower would be named after it?

We will have a few of these for sale by mail order over the summer so get in quick if you want one.

July 13th: Heleniums performing well

This year has been testing for Heleniums. A late dry spring and a hot dry summer means that the taller varieties based on Helenium autumnale have struggled a bit and will be 1 - 2ft shorter than normal.  However varieties with Helenium biglovii in their make up have performed vary well. These include Abbeydore Bronze (right), Vivace, Meranti, Red Army, Waltraut, Gelbe Waltraut, Fata Morgana, Pipsqueak, The Bishop, Kupfersprudel (NL), Luc, Sahin's Early, Wesergold and Moerheim Beauty. 

Helenium biglovii grows of rocky hillsides and imparts some drought tolerance as well as dwarfness to its hybrids.

July 14th: Strangely beautiful

Campanula takesimana Beautiful Trust has one of those flowers which some love and some loathe - we quite like it (sitting on the fence?)   

July 15th: Anyone for a pot of Earl Grey

Monardas are known as "Bergamot" because of the aroma of their crushed leaves is reminiscent of Earl Grey tea and the tea is flavoured by the oil of the Bergamot Orange. The Monarda variety "Earl Grey" (right) has particularly aromatic leaves and these lovely crimson pink flowers. All like moist soils and some sun. Our plants are not suitable for herbal use but make great garden plants, straight from the pot!

July 16th: Beauty is in the eye

Any visitors to our garden and readers of this diary will know our passion for Day Lilies and looking into the eye of Dan Mahony (right) who couldn't help but be swept away!

July 17th: Phlox Franz Schubert

This is one of our favourite border Phlox. it was raised by the great nurseryman Alan Bloom and named after his favourite composer. The flowers are large and fragrant on mid-height plants. A true garden symphony!

July 18th: Perfect Partners

I love this combination in our garden of Phlox Miss Kelly and Hydrangea Annabelle. The fresh green-white of the Hydrangea sets off the violet and white of the Phlox.  Two lovely ladies in perfect garden harmony.

July 19th: Gatekeepers

Gatekeeper butterflies have just made their first appearance in our garden this year. They are recognised by the black spot with two white dots on the forewings. Other patterns on the wings can vary between individuals but the double white dot distinguishes them from the similar Meadow Brown.

The butterfly population has just exploded in our garden coincidental to the burst of bloom from our Helenium collection.  This lovely Peacock is really enjoying Helenium Pipsqueak.

July 20th: Perfect Partners

Phlox and Monarda are looking great at the moment and both flourish in moist, rich soil in sun or light shade.  Both will take a year to get their roots down and then perform well. 

Here is Monarda Raspberry Wine and Phlox Othello in our garden. 

July 21st: Scabious 

I love the feathery pincushion flowers of Scabious. I have happy memories as a very young lad of a pale blue one (possibly Clive Greaves?, far paler than Stäfa on the right) growing in my family garden. I use to love pulling off the petals one by one. I wasn't quite so content if my Mum caught me!

Scabious make great garden plants particularly in Cottage Garden plantings. They have a couple of requirements for success - good drainage particularly in winter, space to grow (they don't like being crowded in or flopped over), good light and by preference an alkaline soil. having said that we do well in our slightly acid soil since we can provide their other needs.

Deadhead regularly to keep them blooming.

July 21st: Sunny Side Up 

Perennial Sunflowers (Helianthus) are one of the joys of late summer. They all just starting to open and Capenoch Star (right) is one of the first and one of best with its anemone-centred flowers on 4ft - 5ft stems. 

helianthus are quite drought tolerant and can stand some shade. 

Most do spread by rhizomes so keep them in check each autumn or spring by cutting round the plant with a spade and then using a fork to lever up the unwanted portions.

July 21st: Heleniums  

Every day sees another Helenium variety in bloom here as we grow about 100 varieties in our garden.  Here is Goldlackzwerg looking rather grand with its orange and gold stripy flowers.

July 23rd: Increasing your Phlox  

Monte Crystalo  is a lovely new (to the UK) Phlox we are trying out in our garden this year and what delicate shade it is: white iced with pale rose. 

We received one small plant from a friend in Germany and now we'd like more.  

There are many ways of increasing your Phlox plants. During the summer the only suitable way is by cuttings. Cuttings can be taken from new shoots appearing at the base of the plant but these are few and far between at this time of year. However you can use one of the main stems which can be cut into sections with two pairs of leaves.  The topmost portion of stem will have leaves forming part of the flower truss. These are more tricky but can be formed into cuttings consisting of a piece of stem and a leaf. 

If you don't mind removing the flower truss the dormant buds on the stems will sprout giving lots of cutting material.

Of course you should only take cuttings from plants that are healthy and not showing any sign of eelworm (distorted, whip-like leaves, stems swollen and calloused). 

Rooting hormone powder will increase the success rate. 

Don't leave it too late to take cuttings as they need to form good roots and some dormant buds before winter if they are to survive. 

Cuttings are the only way to propagate variegated varieties.

July 24th: Chance Seedlings  

The cold winter we experienced here created ideal conditions for seed germination with all sorts of plants popping up in the garden. For the first time ever, we've had lots Achillea seed germinating in the garden and so we've had to take care to remove seedlings amongst our plants. However a few seeded some way away from the their parents and a few have come up to flower. Most were very similar to their parent or to an existing cultivar but one has taken our eye - pictured here.  We think its parentage includes Terracotta and probably Fanal.

It is similar in colour to the variety Fleur Von Zonneweld but has a pale centre (rather than dark) and has a pleasing blend of rose and brick orange.  

Now before we get too excited there's a long way to go before it can be considered as a new variety worthy of introduction - we've seen too many "new" Achilleas that are neither good garden plants nor indeed new by any considered judgement being too tall in their second year, not winter hardy, prone to revert or just plain the same as another variety.  So we need to grow it on for two or three years to make sure its going to perform in the garden year after year. Otherwise, well we have a very big compost heap!

July 24th: Let the men do the shopping  

All of a sudden in our garden we have scores of male Red-Tailed Bumblebees foraging for food. They are all over our Centaurea nigra, Heleniums and Monardas and for a few days no Queens or females were to be seen . The males can be distinguished by the lemon yellow strips on their jerseys - the females have plain black tops. 

All the information I've ever read tells me to take cuttings of Cistus in early winter to root over the winter period. I've tried this and had very little success probably because my greenhouse isn't heated over winter. 

I had a large bush of Cistus x.purpureus that need severe pruning because of winter damage. After it finished flowering a couple of weeks ago I cut it back and had lots of cutting material that i just couldn't waste. 

I'm happy to report that rooting has already happened and the cuttings should be ready to pot up in a couple of weeks. 

July 26th: What's the difference? 

In our Helenium collection we have many varieties that look remarkably similar to each other.  Take Margot here. We have another variety called Biedermeier that is more or less the same.  Why does this happen? 

Normally its because two people raise plants independently of each other, think they are great and introduce them in all innocence. National Plant Collections are a boon in this respect as they provide a chance to compare plants side by side. Unfortunately most nurserymen are in too much of a rush to introduce a new variety to bother asking the opinion of the Collection Holder. 

Sometimes the reasons are not so innocent: perhaps the name isn't commercial so a nursery "renames" the plant, or the unscrupulous wholesaler wants a "novelty" and simply pretends the renamed plant is new to the market later resulting in the same plant circulating with two names catching the unwary collector out. As a collection holder I hate this as I get "conned" into having to buy and grow two plants that are the same. I wish flowering plants were covered by the same laws as vegetable plants that are designed to prevent this.

Of course this is all a bit finicky. For the average person this lovely bicolor Helenium is just the same as say a Gaillardia, just its grown a bit taller and so it is. Its too easy for an anorak like me to get so carried away with minor differences and forget the bigger picture.   

July 26th: Architectural Angelica 

Angelicas are one of the best architectural perennials with their tiered branches of large, hand-shaped leaves, column-like stems and domed heads of flower. 

Angelica gigas with its beetroot red stems and flowers is a short-lived plant - nearly always biennial but easily resurrected from saved seed sown fresh in Autumn. 

July 27th: Double Geraniums 

The double forms of hardy Geraniums, like himilayense Plenum (aka Birch's Double) are always very popular in our garden.  They have the added attraction of being sterile so that the flowers last a long time and they won't seed around. Watch out for this one in our range soon.

July 28th: More exotic beasts 

July 6th (above) saw tigers and dragons in our flower beds, now Leopard's have been spotted (pun not intended) lurking amongst the exotics in our hot bed. More exactly its the Leopard Lily, Belamcanda sinensis Freckle Face., a lily relative growing to 2ft tall and despite its exotic look completely hardy.

July 28th: Even more exotic beasts 

Its become a bit of a challenge now to find more exotic beasts in our beds and borders. Perhaps I'm stretching it a bit, but what about Zebras? Miscanthus sinensis Zebrina to be exact with their lovely striped leaves, although a green and yellow Zebra is a little beyond belief! 

July 29th: The Twilight Zone! 

I used to think of Asters as plants for the moist sunny border with their great late flowering impact.  However in the last few years we have discovered a few varieties that love dry shade.  Amongst these Aster macrophyllus Twilight (now properly, but boringly, called Aster x. herveyi) is my current favourite. 

July 29th: Another Star in the shade 

Aster schreberi is another great shade-loving Aster. Growing in terribly dry soil under a Crab Apple tree.

July 29th: Perfection in white 

Scabious White Perfection is just that! 

July 30th: Even more exotic beasts 

One last exotic beast for the month: this is Helenium Königstiger - "King Tiger" meaning Bengal Tiger. 

July 31st: More Angelicas 

Angelica Vicar's Mead is lovely at the moment with its heads of pink flowers and deep purple-red stems and leaves. In our dry garden it has grown to only 3ft tall.

We hope to offer some plants for sale in 2011.