I am so happy to have sea holly - that I haven't spent a lot on in the garden centre. Slugs have eaten those from last year as soon as they started coming up this year - but I collected and planted seeds from them last year and now this year, they are blooming. Not as exuberant as those from the garden centre last year but they're getting established, have the challenge of growing in pots and coping with drought (which they'd be able to cope with after getting established). The stems are starting to turn purple, in that fantastic electric way they have of doing so.

close-up of one of the flowers starting to turn purple

I am intrigued with these new forget-me-nots. They have appeared in these "garden in a pot"s I tend to have with things that have self-seeded, this example with stachys byzantina, ox-eye daisy, hollyhock and this tiny-flowered forget-me-not, much smaller than my usual forget-me-nots which have all finished now for this year.

these are my usual forget-me-nots flowering back in April, the flowers are enormous compared to the one above, I'm wondering if common or wood forget-me-not??

close-up of some of my usual forget-me-nots

close-up of the recent tiny-flowered plant, field forget-me-not??

close-up of the flowers

I love buds, sometimes more than the flowers. These phlox buds are great. I got 3 small plants but the slugs got 2 of them so this is my only one left.

the blue of these cornflowers is exquisite

scabious

red admiral butterfly on the echium blue bedder

all purple / blue flowers today, here's a chicory I saw the other day in Allen Gardens, east London, one of my favourite flowers

I don't know why some morning glories flower so quickly when they are so small. Most are still growing and no flowers yet.

the flower seems to be glowing

flower bud of my Big Daddy hosta

I can't believe it can still flower with this kind of damage - and the Japanese anemone is untouched

I am still surprised when I get flowers from seeds I planted. I shouldn't be but it's so often hit and miss. Black Swan poppies and echium Blue Bedder. The poppies only last a short time so in just the last few days I have 3 seed heads without petals. The terracotta pot on the right on the bricks has an echium vulgare which I put next to the echium Blue Bedder to compare the flowers, difference in size but otherwise extremely similar.

the bees are loving the poppies

I have one largish red poppy plant after sowing seeds the last few years. One of the more difficult plants to grow from seed.

the bees are loving the poppies, and the tomato flowers but so far haven't managed to get a photo of one on a tomato flower

View from my stairs down to the garden, flowers: cornflowers, delphiniums, verbena bonariensis, foxglove, knautia, scabious, corn cockle, tomatoes, poppies, honeysuckle, nepeta; buds: globe thistle; still awaiting buds: lupin and monarda.

I love veronica. The fancy cultivars are nice but don't last. The bog standard ones at least come back every year. The bees will visit but not when there are exciting things like poppies.

harlequin ladybird I noticed yesterday (22-6-2018)

nice acanthus spinosis flower this year, none last year because of slug damage

Sadly no iris flowers this year. They were choked by green alkanet and too dry. The weather has been terrible. Drought in my garden unless I water it and I'm only watering my pots. I can't water the entire garden.

the daisies and forget-me-not are finished in the compost pile garden, now teasel, morning glory and the blackberry hanging basket (I have no place to hang it)
