- July is full of surprises. This is a real surprise for a Canadian! My artichoke from last year returned and was very tall on the day of our garden tour. Yesterday one flower came into bloom – that fabulous blue colour I have anticipated for years after seeing them as a child in southern France and in Italty. It is so tall that I had a hard time photographing it from a window…
2. Another surprise is this Meconopsis which is new…and which produced a white bloom. I was of course expecting blue, but am delighted to have a white one! I hope it survives our winter.
3. These lovely spikes are called Linaria. I used to grow L.Canon Went in Ontario which was a pale pink. Here I discovered the “purpurea” version which is lovely and rather like a weed, appearing where it wishes! It has bluish foliage which I like.
4. This is the Phlomis I ordered a few years ago. I expected the yellow version, but no, I received this grayish pink form. I like it a lot and this year it returned in over double last year’s size.
5. This tiny Hosta is part of the “Mouse” series. I needed a few new smallish ones for a strange partly shady area.
6. And then this week’s Clematis! People often spend ages choosing which plants to grow near each other by considering their size, colour, period of bloom, and pruning group. But then someone once suggested to me that you never go wrong if you mix colours from the same pruning group while blind folded. That’s pretty much what happened here after our move. The tags were lost or confused in this case…but I love the result.
These are new blooming Clematis from this week, their first blooms ever.
On the left is C.Pirko, on the right C.Marmori.
Enjoy your gardens , rain or shine!
*****
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From Our Island 
Your artichoke is very impressive. Does it hurt if you catch a spike?
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The clematis are such an interesting shape before they fully open, and those colours together are very pretty. I’m liking the Hosta too, it seems unusual. Also, I’m sure a white Meconopsis would be quite unusual, wouldn’t it?
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Your clematis and hostas pictures are very beautiful but it’s especially unusual to see these flowers of hosta (different from the ones I have). About artichokes, the flower is always amazing. Will it be a light green artichoke without spikes or a dark artichoke with spikes on leaves? Both are tasty. My father grew both and gave me a lot each year
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I didn’t realize there was a whole group of “mouse” hostas. I’m going to explore. Love the varigated leaves on this small one.
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Lovely Six, as always. The Meconpsis is very unusual – I had no idea they came in white.
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I love your artichoke & may have to make room in my garden for one next year. I don’t eat them, but surely there’ll be a neighbour here willing to oblige. That clematis combo is really something else. Love it. I’ve never seen that shape in those pink/purple hues, only white & yellow. Just lovely.
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Lora, if you see the bloom on an artichoke, you will never get to eat it. You either eat the artichoke, or you wait to see the bloom.
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Then perfect for me!
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