Vacationing at Home

The garden, decorated for my birthday.

        With my momentous birthday behind me, I am continuing on my stress-free lifestyle, concentrating on growing things and making things, and forgetting I ever had sleepless nights!
        My brother and sister surprised me by coming for my birthday! So we have been doing summer things - many trips to the beach, eating out, visiting friends - with a bit of garden work thrown in.
     The garden was looking its best for the birthday party. There were lots of roses out, and some of the clematis blooms managed to hold on until then as well. The mystery rose was doing its stuff splendidly!
      One beautiful present I got was another F.J. Grootendorst rose, so I put it in the shrub bed to the west, under the linden a bit, but in pretty much full sun. Hope it does well there. It is a beautiful healthy one. The Pink Grootendorst in the "Ring-around-the-Rosey" bed is blooming! Lovely.
      Anne has bought me some plants as well - another rhododendron (which I'll put with the first one, I think) and, the thing I've been wanting for a year, a Sambucus "Black Lace" - I think it will go on the east side of the shrub bed, across from the golden elder.  Symmetry!

Climbing Rose - maybe "Henry Kelsey".

      The rose I put at the back of the vegetable bed a couple of years ago, and which bloomed for the first time last year, is doing its stuff at the moment. I am not sure if it is the Explorer climber "Henry Kelsey", or suckers from the root stock. I don't care. It is blooming lovely. There is a slight scent, but its main claim to fame is the glorious colour - a really, really dark, velvety, red.
     My eryngeums are doing well also - the first one is "Blue Glitter" and then I got two more, both "Blue Hobbit", which I put in front of the first. So, I have a small clump in front of the lilacs, near that mystery clematis (which didn't bloom this year, alas!). They come out green and then turn blue. So neat.

The one on the left is Blue Glitter and the one on the right is Blue Hobbit, not yet turned blue. This was a few days ago, and they are both blue now. It is interesting to note that the Blue Glitter is supposed to get 80 cm tall while the Blue Hobbit maxes out at 30 cm. They are pretty much the same size at the moment.
      There were some roots around the pot of the first one, which I pulled off and discarded at first. Then I realized (looking at the little leaves attached) that they were baby ones! So I rescued them and potted them up, and two have survived and are growing, Must get them into the ground somewhere soon, so they get a chance to get growing before the winter. I could become a specialist in Eryngeum! Not much chance, as Kent was selling them for $4.00. Everyone must have one by now.