It’s such a pleasure to be outside in the garden at this time of year – there’s so much colour to enjoy. My roses, delphiniums, alstroemerias and sweet peas are all at their peak (as the pic of a slightly windswept picture of me in my garden shows!). There’s plenty for Val to pick to bring indoors and they do look lovely in the kitchen, despite them only lasting a few days as cut flowers.
My garden is very dry at the moment but I’m only watering the plants that really need it, essentially anything newly planted, as well as summer bedding and vegetables. The rest of the garden, including the lawn, has to cope and wait for it to rain. I’ve plenty of other things keeping me busy including trimming the hedges, taking cuttings of shrubs and climbers, and pruning the wisteria.
One of my treats every July is visiting the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show. This wonderful show – the largest of its kind in the world – takes place next week, but sadly I won’t get the chance to see it as I’m heading to QVC in the US for a few days. Luckily, Will is visiting Hampton Court and he’s planning to interview some of our QVC growers as well as talking to a couple of exhibitors who are using Flower Power to feed their prize-winning plants. We’ll be showing Will’s video reports on a special QVC Extra live show at 14.00 this coming Friday 3rd July. We’ll also be featuring some exclusive plants on that show including the Fir Tree Nursery Pelargonium collection, some stunning heucheras and the delightfully aromatic Lavender Madrid.
All this gardening can be thirsty work, so if you’re popping to your local in the coming weeks, do have a look at their flower display. The Sun’s gardening page has linked up with QVC to find Britain’s prettiest pub. There’s a trophy and gift tokens for the best (plus a bonus if they’ve used Flower Power) as well as prizes for the people who nominate the winning pubs. For more details, see the ‘blooming tasty’ feature in the competition section on www.sungardening.co.uk.
Cheers and happy gardening!
Richard
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