Come gusts and squalls, the roses have been holding their own. And then, in late afternoon, if we have some sunshine, they tumble luminously over the terrace wall and look glorious come supper time. 

The constant wind, though, is tedious. When did England become so never-endingly blustery? I’ve tried searching on line for an answer, but the sites that deal with weather don’t appear to think it remarkable. As someone who has gardened for over half a century, I know we did not have perpetual wind mashing up herbaceous plants and blowing the new runner bean plants off their sticks.

Perhaps it’s to do with ‘the cold blob’ also bizarrely known as North Atlantic Warming Hole, a region of ocean to the south of Greenland that has been cooling over the past century while the surfaces of the earth’s other oceans have been warming up. Scientists have argued over the possible causes, some citing a weakened Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), the system that plays a significant role in the earth’s global climate.

Perhaps the AMOC stole our much vaunted heat wave. If it did, many thanks.

And of course there is much to be pleased about.

Bee happy

For one thing there are so many bees in the garden, this after a long quiet spring insect-wise. They definitely approve of the sheep’s bit scabious, harvesting the flowers for ages, which makes them easy to photograph.

In a bind

It’s usually a weed that provokes gardener’s fury, but the large flowered pink and white striped convolvulus that has just re-appeared in our otherwise horrid hedge is a welcome sight.  For a bindweed, it is most circumspect in its habits, and only spreads here and there.

An urge for spurge

Another spreader, presently flowering is the pretty, low-growing spurge, Euphorbia cyparissias Fens Ruby. Its stems look like miniature conifers, and the tiny flowers several colours of green and russet. It likes to nudge up picturesquely with other border plants and, in that sense, it is a very weedy entity, but then any excess is easily removed. Here it is with a coppery coloured heuchera.

 

Reasons to be cheerful 5 and 6

Then there are the self-gardening  regulars that seem to return each year, and with ever more flourish. I love these snapdragons. I don’t mind how much they seed themselves. The plants themselves are shrubby and don’t seem to mind the wind and rain. But most of all, their sun-rise shades brighten the dullest day.

Likewise, the campanula. Over the past few years it has colonised many dull and unpromising quarters of the front garden – growing up the hedge, out of concrete walls, and along the path. It flowers its purple-blue socks off.

Here it is improving the looks of the privet hedge that surrounds the front garden borders. It’s another plant that copes brilliantly with weird weather, wet or dry.

Copyright 2026 Tish Farrell

Six on Saturday 13 June 2026 Please call in on our host, Jim. As ever, he has some wonderful plants to show us this week.