GBBD March 2014 - mellow yellow

Spring has arrived with a rush - and a couple of weeks early. The countryside is a mass of Yellow wild flowers and the garden too. 
 

 Little species daffodils are a delight both in colour and fragrance.

Corinilla glauca is flowering profusely - although the less bright Citrine is still just coming out - and the Euphorbias are going great guns.

 In the shade are little Periwinkle and Anenome Blanda in cool blue

 

but the taller Anenome Coronaria are bright and bold in the sunshine

 
 The Lonicera fragrantissima is still flowering and full of scent

Happy springtime to all Garden Bloggers
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GBBD February 2014

 Continual rain and wind but warm ... this has brought out the little species Crocus and a great many other flowers besides.

 The Hellebores ares a welcome sight and the Lonicera fragrantissima is as fragrant as its name suggests.

 Coronilla glauca is extremely early but the old stalwart Vibernum tinus we have come to expect its faithful blooming right through winter.

Best wishes to all gardeners participating in Garden Bloggers Bloom Day this month, hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens.
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GBBD January 2014

Mild wet, foggy weather has kept the garden green and lush. Bright sparks of colour are most welcome on gloomy days: winter flowering Jasmine and Iris Unguicularis are a joy but difficult to photograh in the dull low light. Bright red berries on the wild Dog Rose too. But then the sun breaks through and lights up the olive grove and there is a sense that spring might not be far away.

Best wishes to all Garden Bloggers on this mid winter day.

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GBBD December 2013

 December has been chilly with thick frost and fog in the mornings. But somehow the China roses have taken this as their signal to bloom as never before. Mutabilis is famous for year-long flowering but Sanguinea and Hermosa have also been exceptionally generous.

 Event he Teucrium Fruticans has gone on blooming right into winter this year, the deep blue of 'Azureum' being especially welcome.

 And the oak trees are gradually turning to golden and dropping their leaves into the pond.

Happy Garden Bloggers Bloom Day to all gardeners especially to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for hosting the meme.
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Winter sun

December and a few days of chilly but bright sunny weather gets me out into the garden busy planting those shrubs and bulbs that really ought to have gone in ages ago. And a new ornament for the garden - a rather large but sophisticated terracotta pot, seen here with the China roses in full bloom and berries of Pyracantha. 
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GBBD September 2013

 There is an autumn feel to the air and the Sedums are out in splendour. I have decided that these tough plants deserve more representation and so bought a dozen new varieties at the Murabilia flower show in Lucca last weekend. I have selected ones which are not too tall and have interesting dark colours and/or variagation - so let's see how they get on.
Otherwise the theme here is blue at the moment: Nepeta having a second blooming; Perowskia still with us despite having bloomed all summer; Caryopteris and Ceratostigma.
Happy Bloom Day! and thank you to Carol at May Dreams Garden for hosting.
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GBBD July 2013

 The last month has flown by - here unusually wet and cool with many thunderstorms. Whilst some plants have enjoyed the extra water the weeds have gone into overdrive.

 But at least those blooms that would normally have been burned off by now are still in evidence.

 

Agapanthus is particularly good this year. I find it best in pots where the constrained roots are more likely to send out flowers. The gravel garden is also continuing to produce new blooms with bright red Epilobium particularly striking.

The lush growth of Stipa, Perowskia and Buddleja glows in the evening light.
Happy Bloom Day to all,
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GBBD June 2013 (late again ....)

The China roses continue to bloom - some now, others earlier, some already on a second flush. Cecil Brunner really comes into its own now.

The dry garden is a blaze of hot colour, partly thanks to wild poppies I have allowed to set seed but largely a mixture of Achillea: Paprika, Terracotta and a yellow one on short stems with nice silver foliage (? Flowers of Suphur?). Also a red form of Gaura. The addition of Nepeta, Verbena venosa and Salvia barrelieri calms the fervid intensity. I am trying Salvia 'Alan Chickering' for the first time and very much admire the spires of spikey flowers but worry that it will been seen off in the winter cold. But I have finally managed to get an Eryngium to grow and flower - must do more next year.

 
 

 Belated greetings for Bloom Day.
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Cistus - why do we see so few in Italian gardens?

Wild cistus

 Cistus is a wild flower that grows on the scrubby rocks or 'garigue' along the roadside here.
In the garden cistus is invaluable: it will tolertate extremely poor conditions and drought. Most cistus also seem to be resistent to the cold. I could not have managed without this plant to cover unsightly piles of rubble and to underplant shrubs not to mention the colourful planting on the teraces. But many Italians do not even know that it exists as a garden plant. Colours and patterns of flowers are very varied and some grow tall whereas others as low growing. There is even a later flowering Yellow 'tardiflorens'. What's not to like?
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GBFD - leaves on a wet day

I went with the Giardino Romano yesterday to visit the garden of the late and well respected gardener Joan Tesei. The weather was pretty grim and either raining or about to rain. Whilst the flowers & roses were pleasant and just about holding up under the wieght of water, the foliage really carried the day. Here is a Vitex agnus castus silhouetted against the cloudy sky, perhaps all the more dramatic under the dismal conditions. It had been placed here on a corner very carefully so that its foliage could be appreciated in profile. Happy Gardeners' Foliage Day. 
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Reflections on Paul's Himalayan Musk

This rampant rambler blooms for a short time but what other plant can give a display like this? The rose has climbed up over the roof to the chimney and down the other side! Y

Late season Iris

I had not appreciated how varied Irises can be, not just in terms of colour and petal form, but also growth habit and flowering time. This group of late flowering irises are rather pleasing, arriving at a time when the first rush of May blooms is starting to relent: Iris 'Riverboat Blues' with darker Iris 'Indigo Princess' behind. I bought a selection of irises produced by specialist grower Giardini Toscani in Cosentino, near Arezzo. Sadly the labels have been lost so I have had to search the on-line catalogue to remind myself of their names: Giardini Toscani   Y