Clematis and lilies

On Wednesday evening we had a violent windstorm, no branches down but the garden got a thrashing and I notice a couple of delphiniums on the East side, the side which got the worst of the wind, were broken. The wind was followed by lightening and then rain but a couple of small wildfires were started on Boulder and the ridge next to it, since put out. The Columbia R is so high that Christmas Is. is almost completely underwater.

I also noted that one stem of rosa Generous Gardener is dying. It was a stem which got trimmed in the Spring because of winter kill; the rest of the bush looks very healthy.

I really haven’t done anything in the garden the last couple of days but wander around with my breakfast cereal bowl in hand, eating and inspecting the garden before I go to the studio, and maybe taking some photo.s if something has just started blooming or looks particularly spectacular. Ditto in the evening although it is now definately mozzie season so I tend not to linger.

Clematis Huldine is now in bloom climbing up the drivehead trellis and through the corkscrew hazel. C. viticella Polish Spirit has looped through the Golden Rod to the Mandarin Princess honeysuckle (which has recovered from its Spring die-off but only managed one flower), and through the Berberis Rose Glow and the lilies to the Rosa Glauca, very pretty. The as-yet-unidentified clematis growing next to the azalea is in good shape and I assume the dying off of two stems was due to either breakage or something chewing through the bottom of the stem; unfortunately I think this might be a clematis which like the montana flowers on last year’s wood, in which case the chance of flowers at all is unlikely. Of the rest of the clemati planted last year, the one which I think might be Niobe near the porch steps is the least thriving. I don’t expect a lot in the first year. The clematis which is definately not Niobe has only just finished flowering and is now producing large golden whirly knobs of seedheads.

The veggies grown from seed this year: Runner Bean pink flowering Phaseolus coccineus ‘Celebration’; Aubergine/Eggplant Solanum melongena ‘Calliope F1 hybrid’; Courgette/zucchini Cucurbita pepo ‘Black Forest F1 hybrid’, this is supposed to be a unique climbing zucc. although it doesn’t show much signs of this trait yet; and Tomato Tigerila (Mr. Stripey) which is only about 6" tall, busy and covered with tiny tomatos. Tomorrow these and the bought tomato plants all get a dose of steriods aka MG and whatever else I can find to feed them up. The Tigerilas and the eggplants were put in a makeshift ‘greenhouse’ – plastic around a tripod – after months of sitting sulking at the 4 leaf stage, and they are beginning to look as though they might be quite productive.

Photos: Hemerocallis ‘Minnie Pearl’; an unnamed lemon Hemerocallis, both in the Porch bed; this lily I spotted this morning and couldn’t think what it could be but by this evening it looked like the next picture so perhaps it is a Citronella, however the one I know to be a Citron.. is double the height and not in bloom yet; last the gorgeous ‘Moon Temple’