Last of the summer blooms - Gardening with Brendan
As we head into September I think it’s safe to say this summer has been a washout with below average temperatures, driving rain, strong winds and next to no dry weather at all making for a tricky growing season. But it hasn’t all been bad and there’s still plenty of blooms that will provide late summer colour whatever the weather if you sow them at the right time.
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00:00Well, it's been a terrible summer, but it hasn't all been bad in the garden, so I'll
00:20take you around now and show you some of the late summer bloomers that I have in my garden.
00:24And hopefully I'll get a few ideas for next year, but it's now late August, and a few
00:32surprises sometimes grow on, so I'll just turn the camera around and we'll have a look.
00:42As you can see, most things have started dying back now, and they're getting seed pods here.
00:47I'll wait till these turn black, these poppy seed pods, and then start collecting them
00:53for planting next year.
00:55Still a few calendula, I haven't been as diligent as I should have been in collecting the seeds,
01:04because well the weather has just been so atrocious, but you can see the seed heads
01:08developing here, and once they turn kind of black and look like they're dying off, that's
01:18the best time to collect them.
01:22Here I have godisha, or clarkia, which are beautiful big blooms on these stocky, kind
01:31of shrubby stems.
01:34Very easy to grow, took no special effort at all, just left them outside since they
01:39were seedlings in late February, early March, and they've just come on great.
01:45And there's different coloured ones, you can see over the other side, there's like purples
01:48as well.
01:53Very pretty flower, I just wish I'd brought them up towards the top of the border, I had
01:56no idea how tall they'd be.
02:00See weeds kind of taking over around here as well.
02:02Still some cornflower blooming away, they've been blooming since June.
02:08And here are some pale purple cosmos that were grown from seed as well.
02:21The real surprise, and this has been another surprise actually, this is a love-and-a-must,
02:28and I didn't plant any love-and-a-must, so this may be stray seed from a packet, or it
02:37may have been in the ground when it was dug up, but you can see here these amazing looking
02:43seed pods once the flowers die off.
02:46The flowers themselves are beautiful as well, pale blue, but these are great for dried flower
02:54arrangements if you're into that.
02:58And then up here we have the sweet pea are doing very well, they're probably doing the
03:03best, they like a milder climate, they don't mind the rain, but the wind has decimated
03:10some out the front deck, but out the back they've survived grand, and they're thriving
03:15there.
03:16And it's September next week, so it's great to see them still blooming.
03:21And then just in amongst that, you can see this big tall one here with all the heads
03:26on it, it's over six foot, I'm an inch off six foot, but this is way taller than me now.
03:33And that is a hollyhock that was planted in March, shouldn't really have flowered till
03:37next year, but that anyway.
03:39And just all around it here is more hollyhock, which are starting to open, you can see there
03:45this...
03:46I'm just going to take a little photo of this hollyhock, maybe up like that, and then we'll
03:59go round to the other side and see what's blooming there.
04:06On this side we've got an even paler pink hollyhock, you can see it there, and on here,
04:26oh there's a white one now opening, and these are edible flowers as well, so they're big
04:31big flowers.
04:32And just for comparison, that's my hand beside that one, really really pretty, and then some
04:44dark pink ones in there, and another pale one just starting to open here, and more sweet
04:56pea, some cosmos which has not yet opened, I don't see any heads on it, but a nice white
05:04one, and a beautiful two toned purple one here, and these have been blown over in the
05:16wind, these are gladiola, there's a peach one, and a few lemon coloured ones, and here
05:28we have more goudisha, still more buds on these actually, they've been flowering now
05:41for a good few weeks, and they'll definitely grow again, here we have a lot more calendula
05:46as well, probably the stand out in terms of longevity for flowering, in my garden at
05:54least, and still quite a few cornflowers going as well, so that's everything round that side,
06:01and then we'll go round the front now and have a look, so round here we have a few pansies
06:06still blooming, you can see some of the casualties here from the wind, some of the dahlias were
06:15damaged when the window boxes fell off, more cosmos, first time I ever grew, well nearly
06:22everything here, but the cosmos are very nice flowers, very easy to grow as well, petunias,
06:32these are nice pink petunias, and some starlet ones as well, and then over here we've got
06:42some miniature sunflowers, which were brilliant, and worked really well on a pot, they're just
06:48only about a foot tall, but they've big big flowers on them, there's more of them, they're
06:52kind of dying off now like these ones, but the flowers lasted for ages as well, and abelia,
07:01and alyssum, also great great tiny flowers, they're all summer colour even, and here we
07:10have some two toned angel wings, schizanthus, and some lobelia side by side, and that is some more
07:23sweet pea, but these are a little bit worse for wear, and down here we have oxeye daisies,
07:30which I tried to grow on the ground but they were eaten alive, but I stuck a few in a pot,
07:35and haven't had many flowers from them as yet in a way, but I'm not sure I'd bother with them
07:44again because they're very tasty for slugs apparently, and more calendula there, there's
07:52quite a bit more growing than I thought there was, it's amazing when you actually look in detail you
07:57see things you missed, and more petunias as well, so and these little, these are Spanish
08:06brocade, French marigolds, and these have flowered all summer long, they've been great, a handful of free
08:16seeds that I got, and I'm gonna, I would definitely grow these again, I'd collect the seed heads from
08:24these whenever, some of them are dying back already, but they're very damp so I don't want to bring them
08:29in damp, and that is everything, oh and just one last thing I want to show you is, here's one plant
08:41that absolutely loves the rain, and that is hydrangea, the clue's in the name I suppose,
08:50hydra, water, but it's all these different sort of dark pink and lilac kind of flowers all in the
09:01one plant, so that's the update