Back in
April we sowed some flower seeds to create a border in our back garden that currently looks like this:
We will probably widen the border a bit more and are almost ready to turf - hurrah! Almost everything we grew from seed has done well including the sunflowers:
Above left: "Goldy Double", below pic "Velvet Queen":
The sunflowers have been vigorous and required lots of staking to prevent branches snapping off in the wind. Saying that, the weight of some of the flowers has caused some of the side branches to snap off anyway even with no wind! Most of the plants are about 7-8ft tall! Their vase life is not brilliant, approx 3-4 days. I plan to save a few of the seed-heads and have a go at extracting the sunflower seeds.
The Sarah Raven cut flower seed mix has been successful though many of the plants I have yet to identify:
Any ideas? I have been able to identify Coreopsis in the below pic but not the plant with pink flowers (also in orange in the above pic):
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I have no idea how many of the plants I have grown are perennials, although I believe Coreopsis is. I will cut them all down after they have finished flowering and see which pop up again in the spring! I don't think most of the Sarah Raven plants I have grown are ideal for cut flowers... many have lots of branching stems and are too short for cutting. The Cosmos "Psyche White" has been suitable for cutting with flowers in abundance! I only have the one plant but plan to grow more next year:
The white "frothy" plant in the foreground is Gypsophilia "Baby's Breath" and in the background is Verbena Bonariensis. The Verbena has done fantastically .... I bought a tiny plant at a charity sale at the allotment shop and it has grown to a very large size with many branching stems.
A favourite plant for butterflies (particularly the red admirals) is the Rudbeckia "Marmalade":
I think there are a total of about 7 plants here. One of my favourite plants that I picked up at Gardeners World Live in June was this Pennisetum "Karley Rose" that started off life with a single pink flower but has since filled out:
In the foreground you can see some lupins also grown from seed that should flower next year. Finally, a little triangle of soil between the patio and house has also been planted up:
In the above pic there are 3 Stipa Tennuissima (grown from seed), 3 geraniums (the pink one is called "Patricia" purchased at a charity plant sale, the other 2 are cuttings from a friend), a dryopteris fern (found growing in my blueberry container 2 years ago) and 3 aquilegias (grown from seed).
Now is a good time to think about sowing flowers for next year too to get earlier flowers. I'm going to sow these:
