Five Favourites, July 2026.

I'm joining in with Cathy's 'Five Favourites' meme just in the nick of time before we enter a new month so  here are five of my favourite July flowers. My first two are this combination rosa 'The Fairy' with what I think is clematis viticella 'Madame Julia Correvon'.

Helenium 'Sahin's Early Flowerer' which as you can see from some of the crisped flowers I've been struggling to keep up with deadheading in this oh way too hot, cruel and dry July.

Some blue in the shape of the hardy geranium 'Rozanne who hopefully will continue to flower until early autumn. I love the colour but she is floppy and takes up a lot of room. The plan was to replace her with greanium 'Azure Rush' but I didn't do this in the spring. Maybe just as well as in view of the dry spring and summer. I'm reviewing my plan.

Finally and I hope Cathy will allow it a combination of flowers which we came across last week in the gardens at  Levens Hall in Cumbria, where they plant 15,000 plus annuals each spring! Here was a bright combination of the perennial verbena bonariensis the company of cleomes and cosmos. It made for a glorious patch of colour, which although you can't appreciate in this photo, was attracting a multitude of pollinators on one of the very few partly dull and grey July days we've experienced this month. I loved it ❤️ 

A BIG thanks to Cathy over at 'Words And Herbs' or inviting us to share our monthly favourites throughout the year. Do pay her a visit to see what beauties she was sharing earlier this month.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Levens Hall, Cumbria, July 2026.

 

IAVOM ~ 'I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside'.

I picked a few flowers for a vase last Monday, took a photo and then for various reasons ran out of steam to post so here it is now.

In my vase are are :

• The very first of the sweet peas - sown under cover at the beginning of March. They are sadly struggling big time having now undergone three heatwaves since being planted in the garden. Note to self has been made to sow seeds this autumn instead.
• A bit of darkness from cornflower 'Witching Hour' - again from seed sown in March. I've not grown cornflowers since my allotment days and had forgotten how floppy they can be if not given support. I'll look for a shorter growing variety next year and will probably return to a shade of blue.
• A stem of the daucus carrota probably 'Dara'- seed sown but in September last year and overwintered in the greenhouse.

Probably the main reason I ran out of steam last Monday was that I was still recovering from a ten hour and half hour or so train journey returning home from Westward Ho! in Devon on what had been an extremely hot Saturday. It  certainly wasn't fun and I arrived home nearly three and half hours later than anticipated with a train cancellation, a late running train and then a trackside fire thrown in to the works. Still we had a most enjoyable and relaxing holiday in great accommodation directly overlooking the sea with just a row of beach huts in front of us. The pool you can see is a salt water pool which was visited by bathers throughout the day and to the right of it were rock pools, where there seemed to be regular activity attracting both little people and big people with buckets and nets. It was most heartwarming to see a well supervised party of Cubs and Brownies there casting their nets early one evening and having a great time by the sound of it.

The weather was most pleasant probably until mid week when it began to feel at little bit too hot for comfort. We still squeezed some garden visits to to Tapeley Park Gardens, Marwood Hill Gardens and RHS Rosemoor. There was much to admire and inspire, fabulous tea rooms in the first two gardens, three cooling lakes and a profusion of wildlife at Marwood Hill and as always much to see at an RHS garden, in fact too much on what was one of the hotter days of the week. I showed great restraint and came home with just one new plant purchase.    

Back home to a garden that is looking drier and crispier by the day and sadly with temperatures too hot for me to be active in the garden last week. The weather on Saturday afforded some relief with a slight fall in the temperature accompanied by some most welcome clouds so a chance to almost fill the green garden waste bin. I also made the exciting discovery that my outdoor tomatoes are on the turn 🥳

Thanks as ever to the lovely Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' for inviting us to share our vases each and every week of the year. I'm looking forward to catching up with other vases later notepad and pen to hand as usual. 

Wordless Wednesday - The Cottage Garden, RHS Rosemoor, Devon ~ July 2026.