Flowers on Friday

So far I believe this to be my favourite gardening week this year. The sun is warm, the skies are blue, the swifts have returned and there are daily highlights of The Chelsea Flower Show on every day.

It has taken two years from collected seed to flower for my lychnis plants. For the longest time I wondered what these deep magenta flowers were on the end of tall silver stems. Now the front and back garden as well as the allotment are about to be filled them.

I also grew these from seed the same year but this is their second time flowering.

I found an old packet of Baby Blue Eyes in the spring and threw them in a bare patch.

The forget-me-nots are hanging on in there, just

And the old fashioned pinks are in bud. They also took a couple of years to get started, but I think this will be their year to shine.

In the dappled shade of the corkscrew hazel, the wild strawberries are in flower so it is probably almost time to invite Nana to stay. Charlie and Nana do like their berries from the garden / allotment on pancakes. Perhaps she'll share the joy of the summer fair, I've only got two more to survive.

When we first moved here, I was so sad to leave my abundance of naturalised nigella plants. I missed them at first but I followed my tried and tested technique of 'save the seed, chuck it everywhere' and they are popping up all over the place,

Even between the cracks in the pavement,

Finally as a tribute to the great pavilion, my delphiniums.

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The Pink Ladies

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Ridgeway Cottage anyhow

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