Aquilegias

A Happy Saturday to you.  Just a brief selection of the Aquilegias flowering in the garden.  I tend to have the dark ones in the sunny yard, and pinky ones up in the top garden.  I note I am down to just three pure white ones now (must save seed from those) and one of the flowers on my really tall pink and yellow plant (in a tub) has turned out pure pink . . .  Variations of different flower types on the same plant is a regular occurrence too.

I have some seeds started (Tequila Sunrise) which I bought recently, but so far nothing has shown through the soil in the tray.  Perhaps the hot temps were a bit much for them - I have them on the concrete in the yard now, covered in a cat-proof tray . . .

A short and sweet post this morning as my asthma's not very good at the moment - heavy rain on pollen is apparently NOT a good thing for asthmatics.  I am hoping to avoid another course of steroids.  

They adore the gravel and self-seed everywhere.

Finally, some mesh over the strawberry patch which Ghengis DOESN'T fit through!

Aquilegias . . .

An unusual "chocolate" colour. One to identify . . .


I think this is Adelaide Addison.

The palest pink and a deeper shade.



This is a really stunning black stellata form.

This is the form I started with here. I have these- doubles and trebles - in light pink, white, dark pink, lilacy-pink etc.

This is a lilac-blue hybrid I bought somewhere last year - and it flowered on and on until late July.

Purple stellata petal - isn't this a gorgeous colour?

Black Barlow.
Predominantly paler pink in the Aquilegias this year, but I love this darker shade.

Pink Norah Barlow.

I think this is possibly Red Hobbit, or is it Cardinal?

A white Norah Barlow.

William Guinness.

One of my fancies. I think this could be Aquilegia formosa but don't know its 'pet' name.

Above and below. A very old rose - name unknown - which came from a neighbour, who in turn was given it as a cutting (very prolific and easy to take). It came from Golden Grove, the other side of the Towy Valley, and once an important local landowner's house. I am still trying to identify it. It just flowers the once, but is COVERED in blooms, and has the most divine scent too.


Above and below, views across the garden from the front door, looking to the right.

E-bay!

With downsizing in the offing, I am currently listing items we no longer need on e-Bay. So far, so good. Stuff I've sold has paid for the industrial quantities of masonry paint we have needed! I have only bought myself some M&S cords (2prs, dirt cheap) and a Clematis (Elizabeth - "Mile-a-Minute"). I talked myself out of a further bid on some Foyle's War DVDs, but I have now fallen by the wayside by looking up Aquilegias on e-Bay. . . .

In my defence, I have only bought a packet of seeds so far, for the princely sum of £2.19 (I know how to party!!) They are Aquilegia skinnerii "Tequila Sunrise" and absolutely stunning in coral and yellow. I shall probably find that amongst the babies I am growing from the seeds I bought at Touchwood Nurseries last year, that I have this as some of the labels (I used lolly sticks) lost their wording. And the Aquilegia cearulea blue (6 plug plants for 99p) - well, I might have left a bid . . . I shall get some little envelopes today and list some of my Aquilegia seeds too (might as well, I have a lot of seeds I saved from last year). Then it will just be a "swop"!

My garden is starting to look very pretty. I have the arching stems of a little white Dicentra spectablis (prefer the white to the pink one), and a big bush now which was a little slip of Geranium pyrenaicum "Bill Wallis", and I have big clumps of Geranium phaeum "Samobor" all over the place, and am happy to let it self-seed.

I can still remember seeing the first Columbine I had ever seen growing by an old cottage on the Purbecks (Ridge on the Arne peninsula I think). I had only seen it in my Observer's book of wild flowers prior to that and I was smitten . . . They are such beautiful plants and very promiscuous. I love the different types of petals from the big showy clematis-type to the shaggy Norah Barlows and the pom-poms and some I have just like little chandaliers . . .