wendyswonderlandgarden

My passion in life is gardening and specifically growing flowers from seed

Tag: dahlias

Summer 2026

This summer in northwest England has been one of trying to keep myself cool and the garden watered. We collect a lot of water here and have properly more than 6 water butts and have still struggled to not use the tap. We also have a lot of garden so not everything can be watered every night. It’s definitely got me thinking what flowers I can grow in future that can cope with the dry summers. However, in previous years we’ve only had extremes of all weathers. Extreme heat, extreme dry, extreme cold and extreme rain so what flowers like this I ask and what’s more do I like them!

I have noticed many things starting earlier and finishing earlier meaning my autumn tidy up is already underway. You never know it might get finished this year.

I am glad I’ve decided to grow less from seed and have less pots because that would have been even more water. I’ve also hardly bought any new plants in months as our clay soil is very hard to dig in this weather.

However, we’ve had some lovely roses and a pot of pansies that I planted last October are doing better than ever. Here are some highlights.

Dahlia Cafe Au Lait

Wordless Wednesday- Dahlia Moonfire

Dahlia Cafe Au Lait

Dahlia Mystic Dreamer

First Dahlia to flower in 2021

June in my garden

So, this morning I did something I don’t do often.. and that is garden in the rain. Here in the north-west of England we’ve had more than our fair share of rain in the past week or so – fortunately we haven’t been flooded here but I know people who have. Anyway, I had some cosmos and agrostemma (corn-cockle) grown from seed in the greenhouse desperate to be planted out and as we’ve had so much rain I wasn’t sure I could wait until it stopped for me to do some gardening so I got out my special new garden wellies and out I went very quickly. I didn’t even water them in as, well the weather was doing that for me!

This afternoon, however, its dry so I guess I could have waited but I wasn’t to know! My garden is coming on really well at the moment with all this rain, with some things flowering and fading away too fast because of it, but its saved me watering the garden lately. My poppies have nearly all finished now, and lupins are fading fast too, not helped by the pesky aphids that I keep spraying but still keep coming. Don’t they understand they are just not welcome in my garden!

Last month I showed a picture of a bright pink shrub I named an azalea, however, it has since been pointed out to me it is in fact a rhododendron! Sorry about that.

This month flowering in my garden, are gorgeous white foxgloves, definitely one of my favourite colours in the garden (if white is considered a colour), a valerian which strictly speaking I moved to the front but is still in the place it came from and in the front garden! A dark red trailing pelargonium on the wall and my red lupin with a purple flower (I do have a purple lupin in a separate flower bed). Lastly my first dahlia to flower – mystic dreamer I think its called

Lastly, some exciting news. A lovely girl I know who blogs her paintings and poems is currently painting one of my garden pictures. If I like it and I’m sure I will, I will post it here when its complete. Watch this space….