August 2025

31-8-2025

I planted 6 rhubarb plants in my new garden last year. They've varied wildly. This is the most successful - dwarfing Pippa. 

one of the other rhubarb plants is the left, tiny in comparison, but overwhelmed by grass so I'll trim that back 

it seems the garden is getting ready for next year, new Echium vulgare rosette which will bloom next year

new rosettes of giant knapweed

new woolly thistle rosettes

I need to decide where to put this - bigger pot to save it from slugs or in the ground putting it at great risk from slugs

28-8-2025  I love sea holly and bought this plant at a local plant sale. Wasn't able to plant it in the ground as the ground was rock hard from drought and heatwave but it bloomed well in the pot.

the stem is large and well-established

I would have to destroy a lot of root to get it out of the pot but instead I cut the pot off and most of the roots survived intact. 

One of the things in the pot was this seedling which looks like Verbascum thapsus but I'm not sure. I repotted it and I will leave it to grow and hopefully bloom next year

I had to put this Centaurea montana in intensive care a few weeks ago and it has revived. I removed some seedlings which I potted up. Still some in this pot looks like. Maybe I need to remove more. 

this pot ended up with 4 seedlings as they were so small but I may regret that

2nd flower on this datura blooming when very small, is this because of the drought and heatwave this summer?

self-seeded mimulus, a water plant, which I discovered in a pot - I had them last year but didn't think they'd survived.

fig - not a usual pavement plant, saw this week in Camden Town

also in Camden, a Japanese knotweed I've observed in a front garden in recent years, no flowers yet, guess it's a bit early

26-8-2025

a bee on the cosmos Cosmic Orange

nasturtium with a bee inside

I have a few lavender plants, all have been attracting bees

After I moved I found I didn't have any foxgloves even though I brought lots of pots with me and would have thought there'd be some seedlings but there weren't that first year so in the second year when I found a foxglove had self-seeded in with the agapanthus I let it grow, joined by water figworts. Now the flowering is finished it's time to think about the agapanthus.

I removed the spent foxglove and the water figworts (I have enough of them elsewhere), now the agapanthus has room to recover.

22-8-2025

Guizotia abyssinica and Guizotia scabra from niger / nyjer birdseed. I see buds, may get some flowers, only possible in hot weather in the UK in my experience. I had a plant last year but it broke before flowering. Gardeners may complain about this but can be a useful food during times of famine in some parts of the food - sobering thoughts.

buds just showing

8-8-2025

Sulphur cosmos Cosmic Orange, these are very popular in Seoul where I was lucky enough to see them and was inspired to try growing them. In Seoul they were tall, in comparison mine are very small but at least I got some flowers (unlike so many seed packets).

in contrast, nasturtium which are easy to grow, in fact, this and a few other nasturtium plants self-seeded from last year's plants, still blooming despite caterpillar damage

this cornflower also self-seeded and has produced lots of flowers

this rudbeckia was an impulse purchase at the garden centre and has been a real hit with the bees and hoverflies so I'm really please with it