In the garden

I haven't posted many photos of the garden this year. It was a riot of colour when the tulips were out but it's a little quieter now as we wait for the roses and passionflowers to burst open. This lovely pink rose is the only pretty thing the previous owners planted. It's a standard and always reminds me of the rose bushes in Alice in Wonderland (the ones she had to paint!), it's so perfect.

The only other rose out is my favourite stripey one. I went out to take a look and found a caterpillar had beaten me to it!















The first day our Peony flowered, I found a huge green beetle had beaten me to it too!
















We bought it two years ago, just after it had flowered and last year there were none so when these enormous blooms appeared - the size of a plate! - it was quite a surprise. But, I have to admit, it's these seed heads that I really love.




















Such fabulous structures. The leaves are a wonderful shape too so the flowers are just the icing on the cake!





















Another plant I like simply for it's leaves is this Forest Flame, below. I drew it two years ago, but those ones on the balcony have died back having been shocked when we had that mini heatwave a few weeks ago. This one is one of a pair I bought for the back garden. We took down a small fir tree to make way for a more colourful red Maple. In fact, it featured in a drawing in another 'In the Garden' post last year, along with the tulips. The previous owners had a garden full of green things (except for the rose bush!) and we've been trying to break that up with colour, especially on that side as there is a long green fence there too.




















In the bed in front of the house, yet another favourite just for the leaves is this Jasmine. I love the little splash of red.