Honeysuckle Serotina - June 2021

I was pushed for time this week for my weekly photo shoot, and the weather wasn't being very helpful in the few spare moments I managed to find. I eventually got outside during a very short dry spell and managed to grab a few photos showing how things were progressing in my garden.

A couple of weeks ago I spotted some Honeysuckle flower buds, and hoped they were from Honeysuckle 'Serotina' (Lonicera periclymenum). Although I'm not completely sure that they were, this is one of the blooms I was hoping to see, as it's one of the prettier varieties of Honeysuckle.

Common Honeysuckle - June 2021

There was also an abundance of Common Honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum) which was doing a great job of hiding one side of the shed.

Houttuynia - June 2021

The Houttuynia (Houttuynia cordata) plants had returned for another season, which was no surprise as they were one of the most invasive plant species around. I'd originally bought a couple of plants for my pond, but now they were all over the garden. The only thing that outcompeted them was the evil stuff that was Horsetail Grass (Equisetum telmateia).

Blue Queen - June 2021

It hadn't taken long for the Salvia (Salvia sylvestris) 'Blue Queen' to go from bud to bloom, and I suspect the abundance of rain had played a good part in triggering the transformation.

Feverfew - June 2021

The Feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium) seemed to have appeared from nowhere, and wasn't even on my gardening radar until this week. Again, I think the rain had played a helping hand.

Colourful Aquilegia - June 2021

My one and only Aquilegia (Aquilegia vulgaris) plant continued to produce flowers in the most inconvenient of places - right in the middle of my garden steps.

Budding Hosta - June 2021

Last year this Hosta plant failed to produce any flowers, but this year there was a large flower spike looking like it was going to burst open any day soon.

Budding Agapanthus - June 2021

Likewise, last year had been a very poor year for the Agapanthus plants, but this year at least one of them was going to have some blooms.

Budding Achillea - June 2021

I always found it difficult to photograph the Achillea (Achillea millefolium) 'Cassis' blooms, as the tall plants never seemed to stand still, even when there was seemingly no breeze. I didn't seem to have a problem with the flower buds though!

Petalless Nostalgia - June 2021

Finally, after praising the rain for giving my plants a helping hand, I couldn't help but be disappointed with what it had done to my Rose (Rosa) 'Nostalgia' blooms. I'd only had two flowers on the rosebush, and this is what they looked like after one of the several torrential downpours we'd had recently. Very disappointing.

So this week I went with Honeysuckle Serotina as my Image of the Week simply because I thought it was a very pretty variety of Honeysuckle...