British Summer Time

I accidentally set my alarm for 6.20 this morning, instead of 7.20 - I forgot it was so clever it would add the extra hour by itself! It was good to get an early start on my uni work, but it's a shame the weather is so gloomy and rainy outside.

But it is now British Summer Time. Which means longer, brighter evenings, and eventually more of this: buckets of colourful, scented flowers from the garden!

RHS Hampton Court Flower Show 2014: Blue is the warmest colour

I visited the RHS Hampton Court Flower Show yesterday on a day that started off with bright, warm sunshine, but ended up with a very cold thunderstorm. Having seen the weather forecast, I thought it best to visit the gardens first, and then go for lunch when the rain started. As the rain was off and on for the rest of the day, I spent a lot of time taking photos under an umbrella. Occasionally, there was even beauty to be found when the umbrella matched the garden!

This is the gold-winning Vestra Wealth's Vista by Paul Martin. Such a beautiful garden with cool blues and whites but warm textures. There were tall showstoppers such as agapanthus, angelica and hydrangea, and lower-level beauties like the silver-leafed Brunnera macrophylla 'Jack Frost' (which I also spotted in Claire from Plantpassion's flower farm earlier this year).

I was intrigued by the NSPCC Legacy Garden by Adam Woolcott and Jonathan Smith. As well as having a beautiful design, gorgeous plants, cute toys (hello Peppa Pig!) and messages from children in jars, it featured a timeline spanning the charity's 130 year history. 

I loved the prettiness of the 1920s-inspired herbs, pink roses and achillea (a very popular flower in gardens and displays this year), the vibrancy of the 1970s-inspired bright dahlias, snapdragons and kniphofia (red hot pokers), and the sophisticated blues and purples of the 2014 agastache, agapanthus (another popular flower) and Geranium 'Rozanne'. 

I'm fairly sure Geranium 'Rozanne' was in the gold-winning Hardy's Cottage Garden Plants display. You can see it here with Escallonia 'Golden Carpet', bred by Neil Alcock.

Essence of Australia by Jim Fogarty won a gold medal and best show garden, and featured, as you might expect, lots of blue-green eucalyptus. I'm so used to using it in floristry that I forgot I first heard about the foliage as a child, when I learnt that pandas eat bamboo and koalas eat eucalyptus (but I never learnt about British trees or flowers, which was a shame).

Untying the Knot: The Bounceback Foundation Garden by Frederic Whyte won a silver medal. It has a gorgeous colour scheme that shows how to warm up blues and purples by contrasting them with sunny oranges. There were lupins, echinops and eryngium thistles, achillea and lavender.

Lavender was used in many gardens, and Downderry has a beautiful, gold-winning display again in the Floral Marquee. I overheard someone there saying that one variety had sold out because it was exclusive to their nursery (I assume it was one of the unusual, pretty pink or lilac varieties), so make sure you visit the stand early if you want the best selection to choose from!

Finally, a taster (with more to come later) of the Flowers from the Farm stand in the Roses and Floristry Marquee. This was their first year displaying at Hampton Court and, with the help of their network of flower growers and the florist Martin and the Magpie, they put together a stunning display.

Parent plants

The last few years, whenever I've been to gardens with my dad and we've seen lupins, he's always asked me, "Aren't you going to grow lupins?" I wasn't keen on them at first, but eventually I was won over by them and tried to grow them. Sadly, my 'Sunrise' lupins didn't want to grow, so in the end I bought some seedlings from Shannon's Garden Centre (which is celebrating its silver anniversary this month). They have grown up a treat, but I am not cutting them - they seem so big and beautiful, it wouldn't feel right. Maybe I'll buy more next year and then I can happily cut away.

Last year, I tried to grow zinnias from seed, but outdoor sowing doesn't have a high success rate here. None of them germinated. But this year I started them off in the greenhouse, and now they are flourishing! They were another 'parent plant' - I grew them because I liked the look of them but also because my mum used to have them in her family's garden in Sri Lanka. I thought I could give her a posy or two to remind her of her childhood home.

So here are a few zinnia posies. I love the boldness and bright colours of the flowers. The second one is mixed with a 'Genova' dahlia from Shannon's Garden Centre and Nicotiana 'Lime Green' from Higgledy, and the last posy is mixed with sweet peas, lemon balm (melissa) and flowering thyme.

Growing up

There is a lot of growing up being done in the greenhouse. Every time I look, something new has germinated, grown taller, or is about to flower. It's wonderful - especially when you have sweet peas that look like a bird in flight!

These are my Aquilegia 'Nora Barlow'. I planted them last autumn, and over the last few weeks, they have been getting bigger and bigger. I've planted some of them outside, in gaps between shrubs.

This made me smile - the promise of nigella flowers! I also planted these in autumn, and have planted some outside (I feel ever so cautious about planting my lovingly-grown babies outside, as I seem to share the garden with every hungry squirrel, bird and insect in South London!).

These are hopefully Delphinium 'Galahad', and not just weeds.

And these are Nicotiana 'Lime Green'. I sowed too many in this tray and will need to get rid of some.

Cerinthe...

Borage...

Lupin 'Sunrise'. This, the three previous flowers, and the aquilegia were grown from Higgledy Garden seeds.

Panicum 'Frosted Explosion' (a.k.a. fountain grass) - some are two months old and the others were sown a month ago. This was from Sarah Raven seeds, along with the Nigella 'Moody Blues' and Cornflower 'Polka Dot'.

Cleome, which was sown in two lots, like the fountain grass.

Zinnia 'Purple Prince'...

Zinnia 'Early Wonder': new sowings...

...and older ones which are growing up.

'Penny Lane' and 'Genova' dahlias from Shannon's Garden Centre are doing well.

Foxglove 'Milk Chocolate' (but do not eat!) given out at the Macmillan garden at Hampton Court last year.

And chilli seedlings from Wahaca matchsticks, which I planted in the first week of March.

Outside, the Peony 'Bowl of Beauty' has five buds which the ants are crawling over. Claire Austin says this doesn't do the plant any harm, and may in fact help the bud to open.

I moved out the sweet peas to the usual containers, also around a rose bush (climbing up the jasmine trellis), and going up a fence at the back. They are looking feeble in some places (the back garden), but fine and dandy in others (e.g. most of the containers and the trellis). They were all autumn sown, and I got them from Eagle Sweet Peas. There are five varieties, which were meticulously separated and labelled in the greenhouse, but are now a bit mixed up. Sweet pea roulette! The varieties I am growing are Just Jenny, Fields of Fire, Leominster Boy, Dot Com, and Harlequin.

Finally, this Cornflower 'Polka Dot' flowered in the greenhouse yesterday, and I was delighted as it's the only one to survive my autumn sowings. It's so tall and the flower is attracting bees and butterflies already.