Digitalis - foxgloves

These were amongst the first seeds I ever bought, and I huge disappointment at the time, because I didn't realise they didn't flower until the year after you sow them! Oddly, though, quite a few didn't flower the second year either, and so these are the flowers that sat all through two winters before flowering, bless them. I don't remember what sort they were so I can't be more specific. Behind and amongst them is the honesty, that flowered before I started the blog, but which I'll photograph later as the seed pods dry out more. Amazing how a terrible view - across the road are two houses that favour rusting vehicles and building materials to landscape, while behind me is my own rusting vehicle and my ancient garage  - can look great if you kneel down enough, and point the lens in the right direction!

Nigella – love in a mist

Grew these two years ago, but they self-seed a bit, and the rest I fill in by saving the seeds, which are copious, and sprinkling them in gaps in late spring, though they take a little while to germinate after you sow them. They're delicate, a bit fairytale, and everybody admires them for their fine, elegant foliage and exquisite flowers. They're about a 18-20 inches high, on average.

Pyracantha (Firethorn)

I thought this was a sort of hawthorn, because the flowers are just like hawthorn flowers and the smell of them, that warm, cow-like, Maytime scent, is the same - but the leaves aren't serrated like they are in the hedge nearby. I'll try to check on the berries later in the year to see what sort it is.

Hieracium aurantiacum - fox and cubs.

This one grows by spreading itself underground, then popping up, leaf-first, so much so that I had one small plant 18 months ago and now I have it in four places, because I have to keep digging bits up and moving them. The foliage is a bit weedy - low and wild-looking, but the flowers are very bright orange - like a more orange dandelion, but on a really tall stalk.

Sisyrinchium – Sisyrinchium striatum (Aunt May)

This plant's a good one, but nothing stands out about it. The foliage is strong and bold, but looks very messy when it dies and goes brown and limp. The flowers that look great in the picture lack presence in real life, though I love the beautiful colour, which is very akin to primrose yellow, and they too seem to start curling at the edges as soon as they come out. Maybe my soil isn't good enough, but this plant's just too scruffy to be a classic, though the name rolls off the tongue well.

Lupinus – lupin.

This was the first perennial I got, three years ago, but I can't remember if I bought it as a plant or seeds. There are ten others now, though, in the same border which I have grown from seeds from this one, but they're too small to show yet. Don't know the variety or the name - just pink lupin!

Iris pseudacorus, yellow iris/ yellow flag

I feel totally silly putting this up as we have about three of these in a clump, and the flowers pass very quickly, but just down the lane from the end of our road there are hundreds in the rhyne. Still, this is a fab. colour, isn't it?And I love the little ripped bits at the edges... .All the blue irises have already come and gone, so this must be later than them for some reason?

Lysimachia – L. Punctata (Yellow Loosestrife) (large)

These came with the garden. They spread underground and pop up next to their mates. They disappear in the winter but go wild again the next year. They're 40-60cm tall now and quite popular with cuckoo-spit bugs (the frog-hopper). I'll try to photograph one of them when they come out!

Limnanthes douglasii, Poached Egg Flower/ Common Meadowfoam

I tried to grow this from seed two years ago, but they didn't take properly, and I think I only had one. This year I have three, though I'm not sure how as they are not perennials. I'm not dead keen on them because they spread out from the middle as a bit of a knotty mess of green, very low and tangly, and the flowers only really point heaven-ward with vigour when it's been the right mix of rain or sun. But at their best, they're lovely, as the picture from today shows.

Alstroemeria – Peruvian lily, ‘Flaming Star’

Beautiful.

Nemesia – wisley vanilla

I bought one of these last year, because it smells so marvellously of vanilla. I dip to take in the scent every day. The garden centre claim it's perennial but it doesn't look very hardy, and even though I covered the plant quite well over the winter, nothing came up this year, so this is a new one. The photograph is fine but this really wins for its smell which you will have to imagine.

Geranium?

These are in the back garden. They're low, ground-cover kind of things. They're lovely, and I'm pretty sure they're geraniums, but don't know what sort.

Cerinthe major 'Purpurascens' – Honeywort

Purpurascens means 'becoming purple', apparently, and these flowers, which I grew last year, but which seeded themselves a-plenty this year, have provided a wave of purple for several months now. The best thing about them is that bees adore them - it's guaranteed that when you look at them, bees are buzzing about in and out of the flowers - as the picture shows. They're about 60cm tall; I pinched out the tops when they were about 6cm to stop them being as floppy as last year, but they're still pretty floppy!

Primula Bulleyana - candelabra primula

Got three of these; all beautiful, and been flowering properly for about a fortnight now, though the leaves have been looking healthy for months.

Allium giganteum – flowering onion

This has been great fun to watch grow, though it surprised me because the leaves starting fading before it flowered, and have quite gone now. This it it now (left) and below when it was in flower, but not quite at its biggest, on the 8th May.
It's currently 11cm wide and exactly a metre tall.

Evening Primrose - Oenothera (Apricot Delight)

True to its name, the very first flower came out last night about seven to eight pm, then fully into bloom by about ten or eleven pm. It only lasted a day - that's it underneath tonight's new one. They smell beautiful.