The Delargo Gardens - June

Here we are again me dears and to misquote the song,

' June has busted out all over'

The garden is full of colour.

The Solstice is over and it is 'Mid Summer'.

It is the time for Dahlias. New for us this year; Dahlia 'Bishop of Llandaff'

With our old reliable Dahlia behind.

 also new for us last year, our spectacular Hemerocallis 'Crimson Pirate'

 Coreopsis has never done well in our garden and this little thing is all that has survived from the plants we had. We stuck it in a small pot and put it on a sunny shelf and it has rewarded us with some bright and jolly flowers

 Our Phlox is looking and smelling amazing. This was taken mid month and now it is just all flower

  The last flush of our Rose - Veilchenblau

All the different Pelargoniums have done especially well this year - These are both regal

 and this a lovely coloured 'Ivy' Leaf'

 I am often told by a friend that our Petunias are a little vulgar!

Well - We don't care, we love them.

 We bought a New Guinea Impatiens and loved the colour so much we took cuttings. 

They came through the Winter on window sill.

 Elegant Clarkia is a difficult colour but we love it

Ipomoea Purpurea 'Kniola's Black' on the other hand is a fab colour and sits well with any thing

We grow it every year with the seeds we collect the year before 

 I love this plant  Nicotiana Mutabilis.

Why it is not grown more widely I have no idea .

Another plant that refuses to do well in our garden is Scabious. 

This is it's last photo!

It is now compost

 Verbena Bonariensis -

and yellow umbels of Bronze Fennel remind me that we are in mid Summer

even if the weather does not.

 Almost all of the Salvias are coming into flower.

They will take us right through to the end of Summer and into Autumn.

 Salvia Coccinea

 Salvia Amistad

 Salvia Love and Wishes

and Salvia Patens 'Oxford blue'

 Time for a proper look around

Fuchsias are doing so well this year and we are over the moon with our ferns

 This is my  'Wine Time' spot

 From there I get not only a fab view of our amazing Lily 'on Stage' but get to enjoy the scent too.

and trust me it could blow your socks off

 Well there tiz me darlins

just time for you to meet a very good friend of ours.

In fact it's every ones friend. It is a Lady Bird larvae.

together with the Hover Fly larvae they eat all the green fly.

We call them our little dragons

There are a few more stars waiting in the wings to take their turn in the spotlight next month.

So do pop back for a little visit.

I'll pop the kettle on when I see you.

ttfn

Random Gorgeousness.

Hello me darlins

I am not early with the garden post, but it has dawned on me that when I started this (my second) blog I did promise  -

"a pot-pourri of bizarre random objects d'art from the dusty attic of my mind. There will be a good smattering of Divas, gayness, gorgeousness, history and music"

I have been rather amiss in fulfilling that promise. My one and only non-garden post was 'Bona Sparkles' back in  November 2018 click here to have a look

So without any more waffle, here are a few gems that caught me eye on my more recent trolls around the World Wide Web.

The modern ballet

 Grace Jones, 1978 by Kate Simon

 I would be happy to give him a hand

 Dolores del Rio by Edward Steichen 1929

The adorable David Tennant as Mr.Crowley

 Yves Saint Laurent  1971

 Rudolph Nureyev in his apartment on Quai Voltaire, Paris

 Jude Law, 1997 - photo by Lord Snowden

 Life is full of decisions

 Prince Eugenie of Greece necklace

 Jean Harlow in Dinner at Eight 1933

 Jacey Elthalion

 Nikos Siranides as "Querelle"

 Rod Stewart and Elton John, 1973

 The lovely Anthony Perkins - 1960

 Mick Jagger, 1968 by Cecil Beaton

Elevator doors; DuPont Building in Miami (1939),

 Inspecting the tiles for repair ?

 The very gorgeous Sal Mineo

And finally as it is Mid Summer's Day - a nice little gardening outfit

Well there tiz me lovelies

Hope you enjoyed having a look

TTFN

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The Delargo Gardens - May

Hello me dears.

Here we are at the end of May with a little tour of our back yard.

What a month it has been. Both the hottest and sunniest on record.

When May started we were very much in Springtime -

As May comes to a close we are very much in Summertime.

These giant Pelargoniums are outside our drawing-room widow and give as a blast of colour as we draw the blinds in the morning.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves, or we will miss out these rather fabulous Dwarf  Dutch Irises

Allium 'Purple Sensation'

The delightful Auriculas

Two plants neither of which I could imagine a garden without:

Nicotiana mutabilis 'Marshmallow'

and Thalictrum aquilegiifolium

The greatest joy this month has to be our Jasminum polyanthum.

It produces a mass of reddish-pink flower buds in early winter and then tries to hold on to them till  Spring. Every year the buds are blasted by frost and it has never managed to flower well.

With such a mild Winter, this year it has managed to flower to spectacular effect, and with a perfume that could blow your socks off.

Begonias like roses

A Regal Pelargonium looking like a rhododendron

And another - all heralding Summer:

Tradescantia

We have gone a bit mad with Ipomoea purpurea 'Kniola's Black'. 

We have planted loads.

So we should get some  'Morning Glory' every morning.

We love Geraniums here at 'Delargo Towers' - this is  endressii 'Wargrave Pink'

Geranium pratense 'Purple Haze'. This looks similar to the next photo but is more erect and has deeply-lobed leaves which are dark reddish-purple to bronze in spring,

Geranium x johnsonii 'Johnson's Blue'

Geranium 'Rozanne'

And this is the desired effect.

Before we start the tour of the grounds here is a bit of a news flash!

You may know we are surrounded by trees, giving unwanted shade and depriving us of our sunshine. Well me dears, one has just blown over in the last gale. You can just see it behind our back fence.

We have Foxgloves in the front garden

And a surprise in the back passage. Lilium martagon 'Arabian Night'

and Lilium martagon 'Nicotine'. Both have a delightful scent.

Tomorrow will be June, and Summer proper. We have Dahlias already:

We will have more of those next month I  am sure.

Along with the long awaited return of the fuchsias [above = 'Caroline']. We have had a few in flower already, it is true,

but I think June will be the start of them truly strutting their stuff. 

There are a few other 'stars' in the wings, waiting their turn too...

 We hope to see you back in our back yard next month for a look around and a virtual cup of tea

There tiz me darlins. 

Hope you enjoyed your visit.

ttfn.

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