Flower Power

We have lots of flowers on the plot which besides providing us with cut flowers and look attractive provide a feast for the beneficial insects.

It all kicks off with the hazel and fruit blossom - some of which seems insignificant to our eyes but is loved by the insects.

Following on from this there are the permanently planted spring bulbs and flowers such as daffodils and the native primroses.

I have more daffodils to plant from tubs as I prefer the smaller varieties in the garden.

Then we have campanulas given to us by a friend and which were planted up in a new flower bed. This bed was originally the home of the summer raspberries that suddenly died off. 

Around May time the biennials flower starting with the wallflowers, which are later joined by the sweet rocket and sweet Williams.

This year I also sowed some ox-eyed daisies which started producing flowers in May and are are still flowering. They make very long lasting cut flowers too. 

As these are perennial I will move some into the bed which has been allocated for next year's annual and biennial flowers.

The biennials for next year - wallflowers, sweet rocket and sweet Willians are planted out and growing well.

I sowed and planted some ammi at the same time which I think was a mistake as it is flowering now and maybe should have been sown with next year's  hardy annuals.

This year's hardy annuals have featured on my blog earlier and are still flowering. I've been particularly impressed by the amount of flowers produced by the cornflowers

I've tried to regularly dead-head the flowers and sowed a succession of batches of seed. I don't know whether this has made a difference as I haven't any flowers that weren't dead-headed to compare them to but the patch has flowered for ages..

I've also tried to keep up with dead-heading the sunflowers ...

... and the dahlias that were planted in the same bed as the  campanulas.

Although we had decided not to grow dahlias this year, we relented and bought some single varieties for cutting. The problem is that the bees love them so much that I feel guilty robbing them of the flowers. When dead-heading these and the sunflowers I have to take care not to remove a head still being browsed. (By the way if you can't tell a dahlia bud from the remains of a dead flower I have written about dead-heading dahlias here). Sprinkled in amongst the dahlias are verbena bonariensis which is also popular with the bees.

We have a row of sweet peas along one edge of one of our plots.

Despite their best efforts they don't manage to look spectacular as we keep cutting the flowers before they have a chance to put on a brilliant show. They keep trying and we keep cutting but I guess that they will just throw in the towel soon.

Finally - as far as this post goes anyway - are the shrubs. We have a whole row of buddleias.

This came about as a result of my inability to dispose of the offspring of cuttings taken from various unknown varieties - one of which was acquired from someone's compost heap. Their honey scent fills the air and draws in bees and butterflies. Last year the flowers were smothered by peacock butterflies but these have been missing this year. I have kept dead heading to try and prolong the flowering in case the butterflies arrived later but they haven't. I wonder whether the cool, damp August didn't suit them.

We do have other shrubs too but I'm finishing with the roses.

Between the roses are the earlier flowering irises. The roses and irises were pushing through a mass of weeds and grass along with a few other perennials.

We've made a start at tidying up but both the bed and roses are in need of more attention.

Maybe a project for the winter months.

Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett