What's flowering in your garden at the moment?

[TheSpottedZebra]

My garden looks shocking at the moment and it's getting me down. It's patched and there is no colour. I've kept on top of the mowing and bean-growing, a d maintained a couple of pots but it's mostly looking... bad.

I had a horrible bereavement early July and things have been tough since, so it's gone to pot. Plus the weather, and ALL THE SLUGS... All my annuals are long-dead.

Anyway, I want next year to not look so miserable and shite. I have a few sweet peas, but they're actually riddled with greenfly so a bit grim up close. Other than that, it's brownish and sad.

Please inspire me with what's flowering in your garden? Ideally perennials as annuals seem a big old faff to me currently. Not dahlias as I never manage to store them properly and they rot.

Oh, I'm on heavy old clay which is all cracked right now.

I'm hoping to plant spring bulbs for the first time.

Does it matter where I get them? Is now the time?

And silly Q but do they just stay in the groind all year and how do you remember where they are? Would love some bulb management ideas!

Roses, begonias, antirrhinums, fuchsias; and sheafs of bloody convolvulus from next door's garden!

Fuchsia and Lavetera (mallow).
That's all that's left in our west Yorkshire garden ..bees are still enjoying the lavender.

This is why I have a lot of coloured and silver foliage, shrubby and perennial. Purple sage, lavender, brunnera, cotinus, Rosa rubrifolia, purple and golden elder, curry plant ( gone berserk this year) euphorbia, blue grasses….many of these flower as well, but they contribute and contrast for ages longer.

Fuchsia, Cosmos, Asters, Cliome, gazanias, osteospurnum, calendula, crocosmias, phlox.

They definitely are bastards. I just do not know how they can be destroyed!

I have a single pink shrub rose that's having a second flush. It's important to get repeat ones. Also a white double David Austin rose called Desdemona in a large pot and it's looking good. There's a orange fuschia called Thalia that is covered in flowers. Japanese anemones are just starting to come through. I have a large pot that I filled with geraniums, diascia and trailing fuschia and it's still going strong.

Apart from my bedding planted tubs which still look alright it is beginning to look a bit parched and tired. My hollyhocks are slowing down and seeding but my David Austin climbing rose is flowering again (second flush since June) and my sedums are about to go mad with dusky pink. Salvia (Cherry Lips?) has been amazing all summer and so has the perennial wallflower Eryngium Bowles Mauve.

Only my passionflower and the geraniums in the window boxes. I was away during the hot spell and the housesitters didn't water it so a few things have died.

Hydrangea is massive and in full bloom. Also the tiny white rose rescued from a bin is covered in massive clusters of small flowers, roses are having a second flush, lavatera has spread yet again and is in bloom.

The last of the sweet peas are lingering and most of the hardy geraniums are putting on a good show.

But mostly?

Nasturtiums. Self-seeded nasturtiums absolutely everywhere.

I garden on heavy clay and live in rainy South Wales. Looking good at the moment are roses( all David Austin), buddleia, various hardy geraniums, phlox, hibiscus, persicara firetail, hydrangea paniculata Limelight, lythrum, Japanese anemones, various miscanthus grasses, heucheras, hostas, cosmos.
In pots I've got a salvia Amistad and salvia Black and Blue, they are 3 to 4 feet tall and absolutely covered in flowers, also got salvia cherry lips in a pot, no salvias would thrive in my heavy clay so that's why I grow in pots.

My soil is clay, though damp this year.
The main colour by now is hydrangeas, astilbes, geranium Rozeanne, some of the roses, crocosmias, a few nasturtiums, sweet peas though they're going over, a pink thunbergia (black eyed Susan...I'd never had those before, will get more next year), cosmos, lychnis coronaria, a fuchsia, Japanese anemones, phlox (only got one at the moment, want more)

The sedum spectabile aren't quite out yet and the Michaelmas daisies are a way off flowering yet.
I've got a basket of petunias in the front that's holding up well, pots with a salvia hot lips and a small lanterna, some Erigeron. Also some dahlias - but just a couple of cheap packs of bedding ones, nothing fancy but they're providing some nice colour in a narrow border. And one large pink one which was the only one to survive from last year with haphazard care.

They stay in the ground all the year. You get used to replanting bulbs dug up by mistake. Or grow them in the lawn - leave the first mow till end May

My garden turns orange/red at this time of year, with Crocosmia, nasturtiums and hardy Fuchsias. And rowan berries and the showier rosehips.

Sedum (Hylotelephium) spectabile still to come. Winter flowering stuff - viburnum, jasmine, cyclamen - just starting.

I also have Clematis Etoile Violette - large dark purple flowers - and two different small flowered Clematis which are absolutely smothered with flowers. Yellow loosestrife (Lysimachia), Purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicifolia), beautiful lime green and purple Berried Catchfly (a self seeding annual). And a perennial sweet pea, a late flowering honeysuckle, soapwort, star jasmine.

Don’t forget winter in your planting - look for long lasting berries, coloured bark. And the winter flowers, the ones I mentioned above, and also witch hazel and winter flowering cherry.

So sorry about your bereavement. I’m sure your garden will bounce back.
This year I discovered nemesia which has flowered solidly since May and still looks lovely. My roses and wisteria are having a second flush and the salvias, bacopia, nicotiana, crocosmia, hydrangeas, asters, snapdragons, Erigeron, are in full bloom. Scabiosa is about to burst into flower.
I think Autumn is descending in the North but still lots to enjoy in the garden.

Japanese anemone, the white ones with the yellow centre.

Old fashioned marigolds, calendula officialis.

If you have a sunny dry patch, annual cornflowers and field poppies look gorgeous, I find.

It is lovely. There was some in the garden when we moved in over 30 years ago, and we just let it do its own thing. It pops up everywhere, and occasionally surprises us with a pink one. Although it is a rampant self-seeder, the seedlings are easy to pull up if they aren't where you want them, and each plant is fairly short-lived anyway at about 2-3 years.

Quite a lot in flower in the garden at the moment but we have been redoing it all this year and use RHS plants flowering month which helps. Several hydrangeas in flower, blue, pink, white, lavenders are just coming to the end, honeysuckles are flowering, roses flowering, clematises flowering, the tall pink fluffy one is flowering not sure of its name and two ones with purple flowers next to it not sure of name, fuchsia, iris, daisies amongst others.

I'm on heavy clay too, it's a pain by the end of summer. I find regular watering really, really helps to keep the plants I love going (everything else can crisp up).

Looking good right now are:

Roses
Salvia amistad
Passion flower
Diascia
Cosmos
Geranium rozanne
Verbena bonariensis
Zinnias (annuals but a lovely bit of colour)
Rudbeckia (again annuals, but very easy)
Japanese anemone
Nemesia and nasturtiums in pots (under dahlias)
Dahlias but I treat them as annuals as I rarely get them through winter

My sweet peas went over a few weeks ago and are a complete mess of brown mildewy deadness, I just haven't got around to lifting them yet.

We live on the border with Wales, so very wet indeed this year with pesky slugs who have done a number on all my new astrantias that I planted - very frustrating.

However the survivors of the slugs which are still flowering include:
penstemon - purple, bright red and claret
phlox - white and magenta
roses - pale pink
toadflax
hydrangea Annabelle
lavatera olbia
hollyhocks - pale pink, peach, burgundy and lemon
mauve and white buddleja
hardy geraniums, dwarf Orkney pink, pratense, psilostemen, Wargrave pink, rose claire
fuschia - hawkshead (white), a variegated red and purple, and another red and purple
valerian - white and red
salvia - nubicola (pale lemon - I grew from seed), hotlips, cherry lips, amethyst lips, lipstick, la Mancha (peach and lemon), peach cobbler, royal bumble and velvet gem (I lost all my blue salvias, also a cream one in the winter)
nicotiana - bronze queen in pots, alata coming to the end, sylvestris yet to flower
giant scabious - lemon - (second flowering, very sparse)
pink francoa

My garden is my hobby and great love (I'm retired, so plenty of time) - it's not overly big, but I do have a front garden too. But it's absolutely rammed with plants - I grow loads from seed and cuttings. Some things work and some things don't!!!! I have astrantia envy when I see it in other peoples' gardens - I will try again next year!!!!!

Two of my hydrangeas are just about still in flower. A climbing rose (just planted this Spring ) has one solitary bud on it. Anemones have been in flower for a couple of weeks and set to continue. Russian sage and Lavender have flowers but not very impressive ones. Weigela is in second flowering along with Mexican Orange Blossom and Hypericum. Scabiosa in pots has been flowering away joyfully for months. I should plant more for next year! I've just bought some echinacea in flower and hope that it will be in flower this time next year.

I recently discovered liatris - I was fed up of my garden being 'over' in August and this is good at brightening it up. The bees seem to love it. I'm on clay too but it seems OK with a bit of grit dug in. Hoping it will self seed and spread in years to come - I have it in pink and white.

Liatris

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I'm in the SW with clay plus new build rubble.
I've pretty much only got perennials; these are in flower atm:
Lavender (just finishing)
Lots of different types/colours of salvia's
Lots of different roses
Buddleia (purple & white)
Verbena (Bampton & Bonariensis)
Poppy
Fennel
Phlox
Erigeron
Sea Holly
Honeysuckle
Thyme
Margoram/oregano
Evening Primrose
Hydrangea
Fuschia
Sunflowers
Hibiscus
Nemesia (annual)
Hardy geranium
Borage
Lovage
Jasmine
Rudbeckia
Snapdragons
Valerian
Campanula
Alliums
Nepeta
Aster
Feverfew
Scabious
Dianthus
Monarda