Our weather is very unsettled at the moment – blazing hot one day (well, hot for us!!) and then a drop of 15 degrees, thunder and hail the size of £2 coins the next day! The poor flowers don’t know whether they’re coming or going! I managed to take a few photos before the hail hit them…

My roses are just starting to look good, they’re a bit late this year as I was so late pruning them. This one is called Lark Ascending, it’s a beautiful delicate rose with a gorgeous scent, it’s up in the autumn bed at the top of the garden. It will be quite a big shrub when it going.

You can see it from the amber & Amethyst garden, mingling with the foxgloves and the perennial cornflower …

The foxtail lillies are looking quite spectacular, I’m still quite amazed that I’ve managed to grow these! Next to them is another David Austin rose called Port Sunlight and behind it you can still see the little dark orange flowers of a geum, that one has been flowering it’s socks off since early spring!

Along the back border of our garden I’ve planted a hedge of wild roses, they’re just coming into flower now. Underneath them I’ve planted varius perennials to try and keep the weeds from creeping in from the old railwayline behind. There’s alchemilla mollis, geraniums, self sown feverfew. It looks rather pretty at the foot of the roses…

One of my favourite roses in the garden is called Champagne Moments, we bought it when we got married. I think it’s a great rose, it’s tough, healthy and flowers well, it hasn’t got the strongest of scents, but it’s still smells nice. I’ve given quite a few as presents too. There’s actually three rose bushes here, planted closely to look like one big bush. It’s something David Austin recommends and I’ve done it several times when funds allow, it does make for a good show!

As well as roses, we have lots of self-seeded annual poppies at the moment, the lovely purple ones, they come in all shades from almost white to quite a dark purple. I let them come up all over the garden, even in the middle of paths. I make sure they’ve set seed before I pull them up at the end of the year.

Another plant I have dotted about the garden is veronica, I do like the intense blue spires, they pretty much look after themselves too. This one is in the amber & amethyst garden, it looks quite striking next to the alstromeria and the pieris.

One of my friends is a professional gardener, I’ve finally succumbed and asked her to come and help me, just a morning a month. We’re tackling the front garden at the moment and it’s made such a difference, we’ve cleared the top area, she’s bringing her rotavator next time, then I can put some membrane down, make a path and plant some shrubs. Just having someone working along side is such a motivator and it’s great to have someone else to bounce ideas off. In the meantime, I just need to try and keep up in the back garden!