Six on Saturday: Bees and Blooms

…well, one bee, although there were several on the echinops above, E Arctic Glow’, when I was trying to take a photograph, but they wouldn’t stand still or long enough! The garden, is, however, currently swarming with bees and butterflies, which is good to see.

They certainly like dahlias, as I was chasing Wednesday’s red admiral butterfly around then to catch him with huis wings open, although there were none on the two dahlias below – firstly, ‘Blyton Stella’, which now has an almost fully open bloom and is indeed a perfectly acceptable shade, far more purple than the photo suggests, and secondly ‘Blue Bayou’, in a similar colour pallette and which doesn’t always achieve such perfect blooms as this. Blyton Stella is described as ‘lavender pink’, which is why I was a little concerned, but colour is so subjective; she is classed as a miniature decorative, although with blooms a projected 90- 115mm they are hardly small. When fully open they form a complete sphere, and after a few years of successful dahlia growing I decided this  was my favourite type, the miniature and small decoratives.

As a subscriber to Gardening Which?, I trial a few seeds each year, one of which this year is Ipomoea lobata, commonly known as Spanish flag. Described as ‘a quick-growing annual climber, with cascades of flowers, starting flame-red at the tip and fading to cream. It will look spectacular for three to four months’, it grew sluggishly and although now sporting a few blooms it has still only grown to around 3 feet (90cm).  I can imagine how colourful it would be when fully grown, but I don’t suppose I shall be growing it again.

After admiring bloggers’ chrysanthemums last year, I begrudgingly ordered some plug plants with a view to growing