This is the journal of my endeavours to grow a range of fruit, veg and flowers from seed, grow organically, and my attempts to create a personal paradise with 1/2 acre of maintained gardens and 1/2 acre wild meadows. Northern Ireland's average daily high temperatures are 18 °C (64 °F) in July and 6 °C (43 °F) in January. Soil type: Clay

Monday 22 July 2013

July flowers

Its been very hot in Northern Ireland for the past two weeks with weather reaching up to 25C / 80F. This is not our normal weather for this time of year, which would normally be raining and lucky to reach 20C / 70F. 

The first sunflower 'Single Giant' is in bloom this week - aren't sunflowers so pretty! I grew this one from seed. My seed list can be found by clicking here. I try to keep it updated.

Other plants of interest in the garden....

Above: Delphinium grown from seed several years ago.
Above: Wild foxglove self seed in the garden.
Below: Feathery flowered Astilbe growing alongside Geranium.
Above: A climbing Hydrangea has large flower heads. Growing behind the hydrangea is a climbing rose (pictured below) which is left to its own devices each year.
Above: I divided this Delphinium plant last year and moved some pieces to other areas of the garden. The plant in rebellion has produced less flowers this year.

Below: The lupin is almost finished now.  

Here's hoping your garden is full of blooms!

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.

9 comments:

  1. Hot down here too but a big change today and we may never get back to the temps we had for the past 2 weeks!There are masses of flowers on all of the plants because they have been left to bloom undisturbed by wind and rain which is usually the norm!
    I love the new look delphiniums you may have developed a new strain.

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  2. I live the new green of climbing hydrangeas.

    Our weather seems to have broken with thunder and rain.

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  3. Nice photos.Foxgloves seem to have done well this year.I'm letting the ones that self seed on the middle wall in my garden mature ,but pull them out of my raised beds otherwise they'll take over.I saw some small yellow alpine foxgloves on my recent trip to the Gesause Alps in Austria but not sure if my photo is good enough.
    I'm planning to move most of my fruit bushes over to the allotment in the Autumn and grow more tall flowers and roses at home next year.

    Have just had a good downpour here!

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  4. Beautiful flower pictures. Despite the hot weather, we have temp. here to 35 degr., the garden is doing well and there are still lots of flowers. At the moment it is almost too hot for even deadheading roses and we keep ourselves quiet in the shade.

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  5. So beautiful flowers. Love the blue Delphinium. Btw 25°C isn't hot. It's a great temperature for plants. I would looove few weeks of 25°. This week we'll be cooking ourselves(including our gardens) on 38°C :/ and there is no sign of rain. I'm starting to think about growing desert grass. It's the only thing that will survive this heat :D

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  6. Lovely photographs, my foxgloves have been fantastic this year, the best ever.

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  7. The colour in your garden puts me to shame, Kelli! We have had temps of over 30C on many days, and no rain for nearly a month. It's not like the UK at all. The veggies need a lot of water, so I have been out there with the hosepipe most evenings.

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  8. Such pretty blooms, Kelli. The colors are all so gorgeous. I have never seen the climbing Hydrangea; it looks very interesting. Will all those little white tips become blooms? I am just learning that there are many varieties of Hydrangea.

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  9. Your summers are certainly much milder than ours if you think 80F is terribly hot! But still the flowers grow lovely for you, especially the sunflower. How can you not love their cheery yellow faces?

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