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Join us for a colourful garden tour with high impact, late-season loveliness, and a buzz of summer energy even though September is here and woody notes of Autumn suffuse the air at dawn. The Ethiopian Peacock Orchid (Gladiolus murielae syn. Acidanthera) is an elegantly statuesque beauty, often gracing the planters of Sissinghurst Castle Garden; colour-saturated Salvias ‘Josh’, ‘Pink Pong’ and ‘Cerro Potosi’ bring lively vibrancy to planting; Echinacea ‘Sensation Pink’ is a hot pink powerdrive, fabulous paired with the deeply inky foliage of Ipomoea batatas ‘Solar Power Black’ and the deep plummy leafage of Smokebush (Continus coggygria); the domed clusters of lilac-blue blooms on Eryngium planum ‘Magical Blue Globe’ bring colour, structure and eager foraging bumble bees from afar. Inspired by crickets in the garden, there are also some lines to savour from ‘On The Grasshopper and Cricket’ by John Keates. I adore this evocative poem, with its affectionate anthropomorphism of the grasshopper and suggestion that our pleasure in nature’s presence and the wistfulness of summer’s echo in winter, sustains us by maintaining our connection to the natural world wherever we are ... * On The Grasshopper And Cricket * The Poetry of earth is never dead: When all the birds are faint with the hot sun, And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead; That is the Grasshopper’s—he takes the lead In summer luxury,—he has never done With his delights; for when tired out with fun He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed. The poetry of earth is ceasing never: On a lone winter evening, when the frost Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills. The Cricket’s song, in warmth increasing ever, And seems to one in drowsiness half lost, The Grasshopper’s among some grassy hills. John Keats December 30,1816 * ATTRIBUTIONS * 1) Monet’s Garden at Vétheuil (1880) Link: :Claude_Monet_-_Monet's_garden_at_Vétheuil_(1880).jpg Attribution: Claude Monet, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons 2) Ethiopian Mountain Road Image by Clay Knight on Unsplash * CHAPTERS * 0:00 September Flowers Intro 2:32 Peacock Orchid (Gladiolus murielae syn. Acidanthera) 4:51 Stunning Salvia ‘Josh’ 6:00 Speckled Bush-Cricket …hello there! 7:12 ‘On the Grasshopper & Cricket’ by John Keates 8:30 Echinacea purpurea ‘Sensation Pink’ & black Ipomoea 10:10 Salvias ‘Pink Pong’ & ‘Amistad’ 11:00 Hummingbird Hawk Moth loves salvias 11:21 Salvia microphylla ‘Cerro Potosi’ 12:33 Dahlia ‘Lou Farman’ 13:16 Eryngium planum ‘Magical Blue Globe’ 15:26 Thank You with lovely garden inhabitants & visitors
