Weather-wise this has been a very mixed week and we’ve woken this morning to a complete washout here in the West Midlands! However, it has also been a productive week, all my young tithonia ‘Torch’ plants are now planted in the hot colour border and I’ve made an attempt to control one or two specimens that had strayed from their allotted spaces (euphorbia griffithii ‘Fireglow’ in particular). I’ve also sown wallflower seeds for next spring, having been caught out by a late sowing last year which resulted in lush foliage and hardly any flowers (if anyone can let me know if there’s an alternative explanation for the lack of flowers, advice would be gratefully received!). So on a wet and windy Saturday, here are my six:

The brilliant red of this superb poppy is very difficult to photograph! I’ve carried out some research on how to avoid a grainy pic and this is the best of a very variable bunch – all to do with exposure and ISO which is very confusing. Just as I think I’ve almost managed to capture the colour, I look outside and see that to the naked eye it really is much better.

I’ve a weakness for hardy geraniums and this one lights up my gardening life as soon as the first blooms spring forth – what a beauty! It has a highly recommendable attribute – it reaches a height of almost a metre, and as most hardy geraniums are relatively low growing at around 30-50 cm, this one has an exceptional bonus.

I find myself eagerly anticipating the flowering of this peony every year, it is so blousy but I love it. I just wish this peony (and so many others) had a longer lasting flowering period.

I’ve previously photographed this clump of common fennel in full flower and also when snow capped in winter – I didn’t plant it, it just appeared 3 years ago. I do have a bird feeder very close by, so I’m guessing a stray seed is its source. It’s very young at the moment, no signs of flowering, but its bright green foliage really is just as beautiful, particularly in all this rain!

So many roses now in full fling! Rosa ‘Munstead Wood’ flowers prolifically and for months – its deep vibrant colour is a must for a jewel border and the roses also look stunning in a cut flower arrangement. It is most unfortunate that the rain has battered it this week, just as it came into its prime.

Finally for this week, rosa ‘Iceberg’. We have three standards in our pastel border – they’re great performers, once in flower the whole head resembles a fabulous bouquet, repeatedly until October every year. They’re now in their first full bloom and as they are just outside of our back door, I’m enchanted by their fabulous fragrance as soon as I step outside.

I’m really hoping the rain is not going to last all weekend and we’ll all have a wonderful time in our gardens – fingers crossed and best wishes for a great gardening week.

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