Once No Mow May was over, we mowed paths through the long grass.
It was good to see the red campion, cow parsley, buttercups, ox-eye daisies and yellow rattle in flower.
Yellow rattle is a key plant in a wildflower meadow patch as it suppresses the growth of grasses by as much as 60%, giving more space for flowers to grow.
Although we have some cultivated foxgloves in the garden, my favourite is the native foxglove – Digitalis purpurea. The plant is poisonous but the extract from foxgloves, digoxin, plays an important part in the management of heart failure and abnormal heart rhythms.
It’s also much loved by bees. Looking at the flowers close up, you can see why. As well as being really beautiful, they also have a natural landing pad at the lower lip of the flower, with plenty of room for larger bees to seek nectar.
Anyone who walks past our garden in June will know that we love roses. We have them in pots, borders, growing up walls and around a large pergola. They take quite a lot of looking after and this year, I was very late pruning them. They were later than usual blooming and then with the very hot dry spell, they seemed to come out all at once.
Francis E. Lester is a single-blooming rambling rose that’s quite vigorous, so is climbing well up and around the pergola. It has simple, single flowers and a wonderful perfume. Although it only flowers once, it does then form hips to provide winter colour and food for birds.
It’s difficult to choose a favourite rose, but one of them is definitely The Lark Ascending.
The colours of this one have to be seen in person to be appreciated (the photograph doesn’t do it justice) as the blooms have a luminescent quality to them. It’s also strong and healthy and, like almost all of the roses in our garden, has a lovely perfume. One possible exception to this is Claude Monet, grown for its striking good looks rather than its perfume.
Sitting in the pergola, enjoying the scents and beautiful rose blooms is one of the highlights of blooming June!
Maggie Kirk
Garden: Pitton
We aim to post a garden blog each month. Let us have a peep into your garden – a favourite corner, a favourite plant, what’s growing, what’s not – and share your photos and comments. Please get in touch by email (rhossilihwb.cymru@gmail.com) or contact Maggie or Isobel directly and we can chat about bringing your garden to life on the Hwb!