Remember summer?

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Before winter finally closes in, here are some of the flowers still on show in my garden.

Ceanothus ‘Gloire de Versailles’. This useful Californian Lilac flowers twice, in both summer and autumn. It can also be hard pruned to within a bud or two of the old growth

Cestrum parqui is also a shrub, but much of the top growth is often killed by the winter weather, so I treat it like a perennial, cutting it down completely in spring. It still makes five to six feet in height and width in a season

Clematis ‘Alba Luxurians’ took a long time to start after the cold spring, but now there’s no stopping it. However, it decided to sprawl this year, rather than climb

My foxgloves have got very confused!

I found that fuchsias weren’t too happy with the hot, dry summer. Now that the weather has got cooler and damper, they are much happier. ‘Hawkshead’ in particular is putting on a good display just now

Luma appiculata is a tree from Chile that carries myrtle-type flowers in August. Last month, it started flowering again, and is still going strong

I planted rostrinucula dependens four years ago. It doesn’t start to flower until September, but has enjoyed the hot summer and mild autumn this year

I was surprised that salvia guaranatica ‘Black and Blue’ survived last winter

while salvia microphylla ‘Hot Lips’ shows no sign of stopping yet

It’s nice to have reminders of summer in the middle of November.

• 14 Nov, 2013
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