The soggy July we have enjoyed in Scotland means the garden is well watered and looking very lush and green. This weekend though we have welcome sunshine, giving drowned flowers the chance to hopefully, pull their heads up high again! Here’s my purple pick from the garden this week, in the sunshine, for #SixonSaturday!
It’s Buddleja season again and those tall, purple blooms are welcomed not just by me but by butterflies and all manner of small, flying insects – it’s not referred to as the Buttefly Bush for nothing. This one has lots of blooms this year but I’m going to prune it down by a third after flowering and prune it back hard in the springtime to promote stronger growth.
I have Salvia Nemorosa ‘Ostfriesland’ everywhere, it’s such a great border filler and the colour has been attractive for months now. It is a hardy perennial and gets a little bushier every year and it is one I must confess, that if I see languishing on a sale shelf at the end of the season, I will snap up to give it some TLC.
This one little flowering Thymus was a surprise as it’s been in the ground and spreading for around 4 or 5 years and yet, this is the first flower it has ever produced. It fills out the end of a rather soggy border and I nearly missed it but rest assured, I’ll be watching this Thyme now like a hawk!
Not to leave out the bees which are buzzing in the garden right now, the Lavandula angustifolia which is slowly going over, is nevertheless still a magnet for bees. I love it for its scent and colour and the bees love it for its pollen and nectar. New research by the University of Sussex concluded that more bumblebees are attracted to lavender rather than honey bees due to their longer tongues – good to know!
You may be surprised that I’m featuring Violas in a #sixonsaturday in July but these are the ones taken out of my winter baskets which I literally shoved in the top of the pots where the Tulips had finished flowering – and they are still going strong. With a little tidy up this weekend, I’m really hoping that they will see these pots rights through the rest of the summer.
I had to finish a purple #sixonsaturday with Geranium rozanne which is always the gift which keeps on giving! It loves this sunny spot under the arch bench and I love the way it grows up and through it, I don’t even mind that we can’t sit on it, it was never really for sitting anyway!
Do feel free to me leave a comment on these six and let me know what you’ve been up to this week as July streams in!
You can enjoy reading other #SixonSaturday blogs for information and inspiration. #SixonSaturday is hosted by The Propagator, a gardening blog you should most certainly check out. You’ll find lots of links on Twitter on the #SixonSaturday hashtag and you can find The Pink Wheelbarrow on Twitter at @PinkWheelbarrow.
The Pink Wheelbarrow 
Is there a certain truth that some gardeners never actually sit on their garden seats? I have an arbour like yours but mine is filled with a clematis – never disturbed.
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Guess it must be true then!
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The arch looking great. My bench is filled with plants that have been potted on but I don’t actually have a space for. I like the buddleia. I’m looking at the dwarf varieties. I’d like one of the pot-sized ones.
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