August 27, 2006

August 2006
The start of August still continues the drought, just a couple of nights have provided a fine drizzle. This of course is better than none at all, but with a fine day following any advantages gained are quickly lost. Watering the garden continues abated. The Japanese Acers in the lower part of the garden have shed a lot of leaves even with consistent watering. The ground under these Acers looks like winter with a thick layer of dead leaves. The Eucryphia milliganii is in full flower as is E. 'Penwith'. Bees and insects love these flowers and on a still evening the scent is noticeable as you walk past. Itea ilicifolia has suddenly opened its individually rather insignificant flowers on their long dangling racemes. The scent is rather sickly, perhaps honey-like. Again insects work these avidly.

Pinellia cordata leaf	Pinellia cordata flower	Pinellia tripartita	Adenophora grandiflora	Tricyrtis formosana
Eucryphia 'Penwith' close up	Eucryphia 'Penwith' 2006	Eucomis vandermerwei hybrid	Hydrangea serrata 'Golden Sunlight'	Filipendula palmata 'Nana'
Pinellia cordata - if heaven smelt like this! - wow, is all I can say, such a tiny aroid and if you could bottle this scent you would make a fortune! However Pinellia tripartita has disappointingly no scent. Strobilanthes attenuata has created a large colony and its deep blue flowers are a delight - easy to root cuttings too!
Crocosmia x crocosmiflora 'Coleton Fishacre'	Roscoea purpurea 'Nico'	Roscoea purpurea 'Nico' side view	Mitraria coccinea from Lake Puyehue	Mitraria coccinea from Lake Puyehue side view
Daphniphyllum himalaense subsp. macropodum dwarf	Roscoea purpurea 'Brown Peacock'	Chlorophytum nepalense	Chlorophytum nepalense another view	Sarcococca balansae
Veronicastrum virginicum 'Erica'	Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora 'Saracen'	Lysimachia clethroides 2006	Digitalis purpurea dehisced capsules	Euphorbia mellifera fruits ready to split
Roscoea purpurea light coloured form	Roscoea purpurea white clone	Clematis texensis	Pinellia cordata again	Leycesteria crocothyrsos fruits
Eucryphia x nymansensis	Eucryphia x nymansensis close up
At last - rain!! Still not enough though, dig holes to plant and you soon find that the soil is still like dust. Where the soil is moist, planting has started in earnest. One assumes that we won't be faced with such a dry spell as we have just suffered. Planting now should allow plants to establish before the winter. In this part of the world where soil is rarely frozen, the roots of plants will still continue to grow. So one hopes that these specimens will be well established before next years droughts(s)!! Showers seem to characterize the last part of this month with a times surprisingly low especially night temperatures down to 9°C.
'"Bugger," said Rose, and dropped the secateurs' - novel by Alice Thomas Ellis.