August flowers

I hope you had a good bank holiday weekend. It's been too cold for summer and has felt rather miserable in South London - the sky was filled with rain and dark clouds for the last few days. But it meant a lovely afternoon spent making a compilation MiniDisc (don't ask) for an upcoming trip to Wales - here's my sketch for #DrawingAugust yesterday.

Here are some flowery photos from this month. Pink cleome and white Cosmos 'Sensation' by a fence.

The first Delphinium 'Galahad' to flower. I was very happy about this!

Beautiful lavender-coloured flowers on scented lavender mint.

The cool silvery leaves of Senacio cineraria were warmed up by the bright, dandelion-like flowers.

The dedicated cut flower patch has grown into a bit of a monster. Cornflowers and panicum are hidden behind ammi at the back, whereas cosmos is over 150cm tall at the front with stems as thick as rhubarb. Yes, yes, I got things back to front. I live and learn! I let my sweet peas go to seed and have collected a few bags of seeds for the first time. I've no idea if I've done it properly - I'll have to see what happens when I try to grow them. I gave some to the lovely Sara Willman who I met in London when she and her husband visited the city last week. I also collected some panicum seeds, but as you can see from her photos, she has no need for grass seeds! Here's the only red zinnia from my 'Early Wonder' mix with sweet pea pods.

I can't wait for more sweet peas next year. And I'll try to grow more autumn-sown cornflowers successfully this time.

The pollen from cosmos is a pain when arranging flowers, but it's all for a good cause - the pollinators love it.

Lonely Bouquet Day 2014

Sunday is Lonely Bouquet Day 2014. If you saw last year's post, you'll know what a lovely idea I think it is. Although people can and do leave lonely bouquets throughout the year (as I did for British Flowers Week), the day in June is designed so that people can make the most of the flowers available in their gardens, or their kind friends'/ neighbours'/families' gardens. The bouquets are made by florists and non-florists alike, from local flowers and foliage, and left in a recycled container of water for someone to find (in locations all over the world).

I started off the weekend by leaving a lonely bouquet of red, pink and yellow roses and pink hydrangeas outside Lewisham Hospital; it was adopted (by I don't know who) within twenty minutes.

I made up four more bouquets which are ready to be abandoned - I'm planning to leave them in various places in Lewisham, Bromley and Greenwich boroughs. Keep your eyes peeled!

There are more hydrangeas, roses, Escallonia 'Apple Blossom' and Pittosporum 'Oliver Twist', as well as Salvia 'Hot Lips', 'Genova' dahlias, pineapple mint, melissa (aka lemon balm), Lavender 'Vera', osteospermum, sweet peas, hebe, cornflowers, and pretty, silvery senecio cineraria. You can imagine the scent of the sweet peas, sage, mint, melissa, lavender and roses!

The containers are a couple of random glass jars, as well as a beautiful Tiptree tea caddy and a Women's Institute jam jar that I've been hoarding!

If you're taking part in Lonely Bouquet Day, or you were lucky enough to find an abandoned bouquet, I'd love to hear your story.