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The glory of mid/late Summer in southern Britain.

Mid to late August is, for me, one of my more favourite times of the
year.  Apart from taking cuttings and regular watering, I have time to
sit and enjoy the plants as they continue to produce their flowers and
in many cases, beautiful foliage.  

For the first time, despite one of the coldest winters for many years
with temperatures nearly hitting -5C. for a few hours on several
occasions, my Hedychiums have opened early, to spill their rich and
sweet fragrance out into the evening air.  This mingles with that of
the Brugsmanias, Jasmine and Boronia heterophylla to create a spicily
heady and intoxicating brew that almost defies description.  

Heavy, persistent rain for nearly 4 days, a week or so ago, was too
much for a large clump of Zantedeschia, which collapsed under the
weight of the water on its huge leaves.  I decided to cut the whole
plant back rather than have its neighbours smothered and already a
flush of new shoots, accompanied by fresh flower buds are thrusting
their way up into the sun.  In no time, these will add to cocktail of
fragrance for me to enjoy during the cool of the evening.

The weather men would have us believe that once more, we are having
one of the 5 warmest summers recorded this century and although the
earlier part of the year was a bit uncertain, regular days of around
30C with night lows of approximately 23/25C in my garden have enabled
plants to make up for their slow start.  The hybrid Passiflora x
coeruleo-racemosa is a sheet of intense reddish purple, whilst a small
cutting of the scandent, late flowering, Diascia patens planted early
last summer, has continued to defy the experts and again, is producing
prodigious quantities of small, 'crushed strawberry' flowers on long
spikes.  This plant grew astonishingly quickly to over 2 metres by
last autumn and ignored all cold weather, flowering almost throughout
winter, giving a riotous show between February and early June.  It is
now a burgeoning mass of slender, almost grass-like leaves nearly 3
metres high and across, threatening to swamp all bystanders.

A 'hedge' of the very beautiful Euryops chrysanthemoides, planted in a
thin scrape of soil on top of an old stone wall, has been bearing its
long, thin-stemmed, large golden yellow daisies since March and still
continues to look as though swarms of golden butterflies are dancing
above the rich green foliage.  Beneath these, clumps of the
Argentinian cactus Echinopsis multiplex defy logic and tall, slender,
chalices of palest blush are thrusting their way through the lower
branches. 

Abutilon 'Patrick Synge' drips with coppery orange lanterns and has
now grown tall enough for me to be able to train the shoots over into
an arch, through which I can walk from the back door and view their
pendent blooms to the best advantage.  Fuchsia fulgens and F.
boliviensis 'Alba'  form soft, tall mounds of lush foliage, flowing
around a young Musa basjoo, producing their handsome bunches of either
scarlet and green, or palest pink cigars which peek out from under and
between the sail-like leaves of the banana.   

Nearby, the spectacular Canna 'Durban' is a kaleidoscope of some of
the hottest colours that I've ever seen together on one plant.
Intense ruby-red leaves which, when young, fluoresce in the sunlight,
each with veins of bright coral red.  These slowly fade to a pale
salmon-orange as the rest of the leaf darkens to rich, velvety purple.
As if this wasn't enough, dense spikes of large brilliant
mandarine-orange flowers shot through with blood red as they open,
finish the display.   A young plant of the golden veined, Canna
'Striatum' (this time in a pot), bears immense brilliant green,
striped leaves - each finely edged with plum purple and promises to
reward with orange yellow flowers later in the month.

Below 'Durban', Tradescantia albiflora 'Maiden's Blush' forms a thick
cushion of white-tinged magenta leaves whilst the Himalayan, Polygonum
capitatum spills out to form a carpet of bronzed leaves and sugar-pink
bobbles.  Maurandias do very well in this part of the country and
self-sown seedlings of the royal-purple flowered Maurandia barclayana
wind their way through any convenient support.  This year, I
transplanted one against a 7ft high obelisk of canes and now, it is a
dainty pillar of wihite-throated flowers laced with small, delicate
foliage.  A new hybrid released last year - Maurandia 'Red Dragon' has
also been planted against another cane obelisk and continues to
produce quantities of waxy red, long throated blooms with great
abundance on a more substantial and vigorous plant.

Elsewhere, daisies from Australia and South Africa abound - my
favourite being a clump of scarlet Gerbera that ignored last winters'
cold and has been flowering since May.  An old plant of Brachycome -
the 'Swan River Daisy' is flowering itself silly once more, having
been a carpet of soft blue for months on end and contrasts with the
white and pink of the 'weed' Erigeron mucronatus - a garden escape
from Mexico, which finds its way into everything around here.  Other
'errant' seedlings have been especially welcome - earlier this year,
Pelargonium peltatum (Ivy leaved geranium) came up in the gravel and
between pavers like mustard and cress.  Transplanted to pots and
window boxes, they are now tumbling out and down in a froth of lilac
mauve and white.

After a long and hot day in the office, it is a blessed relief to be
able spend an hour or so unwinding amongst all of this and with the
soft chirrup of crickets as the sun sinks in the west, it is easy for
me to imagine that I have been momentarily transported onto one of my
favourite mediterranean islands.

David Poole
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