Cyclamen seedlings and other babies
After losing the fish through my own stupidity, it was reasuring to see some success stories amongst the plants. The cyclamen seeds I sowed three weeks ago have germinated, their little heart shaped leaves unfolding gingerly in the treacherously mild September air.
My mother gave me some cerinthe seedlings three weeks ago which have survived being left in a plastic bag and almost completely drying out and now look quite healthy. I'm looking forward to replicating the picture in GW magazine a few months back of golden Escholzia californica married with blue cerinthe next summer.
And finally, some tree propagation successes. The left hand tree in the bottom picture is the one successful hardwood cutting from my winter flowering cherry, Prunus subhirtella 'Autumnalis', and four successful apple rootstock cuttings, MM106 I think - I need to check. I'll graft onto them next year and these will form the start of my own, home grown orchard.
My first cyclamen seedlings.
Cerinthe seedlings from Eastbourne doing nicely despite severe neglect.
Five successful tree hardwood cuttings.
Triple tragedy in the pond
Two weeks ago I turned off the pond pump as the water had dropped 6" overnight. I didn't think it would be a problem as I know of several ponds with plenty of fish and no pump running at all. And there are loads of oxygenating plants. Plus the pump wasn't really acting as a filter, just circulating and oxygenating.
Anyway, I went to sort it out properly today and found three large dead fish floating on the water. Now I know they are only fish, but two of them came from my parents' pond 10 years ago - an enormous ghost Koi and a large Orfe, each one well over a foot long. As requested by H2 we will bury them in the veg plot later today. I've reset up the pump and put some tonic in the water, but there is no sign of life. One less thing to worry about when we move, I guess.
New arrivals and autumn returnees
A new flush of colour has appeared in the past few days. Some are autumn specialists such as the cyclamen and hardy fuchsia. Others have come back for another show. I'm especially pleased with Primula vialli which I thought only flowered in spring, and Echinacea 'Art's Pride', once again lighting the prairie garden with a fabulous hot glow.
Fuchsia 'Mrs Popple' - a favourite of mine. Always puts on a good show and survives even tough winters below ground level.
The first of the early cyclamen. I need to figure out the difference between C. coum and C. hederifolium
All the sunflowers have flopped over - luckily this one fell onto the wall. My first proper photo with my new long lens, a birthday present from DB.
Echinacea 'Art's Pride' My plant of the year. Well worth all the hype it's getting this autumn.
Primula vialli, back for another virile display in hot pink and magenta.
Plums galore
Three years ago I planted what I thought was a damson tree. This year it has been laden with fruit that are much closer to a plum than a damson, sweet enough to eat off the tree and twice the size of the average damson.
The first trugful weighed in at about 18lb and I took it into to work along with a roll of poly bags. The second trugful, probably about 10lb has been washed, halved and frozen or stewed. I'm also experimenting with drying some in a low oven. I guess this all sounds a bit W.I., but I'm genuinely more interested in the tree. It's just that I can't bear to waste its produce.
About 1/3 of the harvest from one young tree.
The effect of summer neglect.
I've been busy with work and away a lot lately. The grass is three inches high (but green at last) and several taller plants have toppled for lack of support. But if you don't look too closely, the overall effect in the garden is one of lushness. I love this garden in September. Several plants have begun to pick up their autumn tints and with the sedums, fuchsias, and crocosmias in flower the borders are suffused with a warm glow of colour. But I'm not taking any border pictures until I've tidied up a bit - below are a couple of casualties in the veg plot.
The runner bean canes were upright before I went away...
...and so were these outdoor tomatoes. I've decided to leave them alone and just rescue the plants from underneath.
Sorbus 'Joseph Rock'
This is one of my favourite trees. This year's crop of yellow berries is one of the best I've seen. The branches are so weighed down with fruit that the tree has a slightly weeping look about it. It will keep the song birds fed until about February next year. This is probably a response to the hot early summer - I must remember to give it a good mulch this autumn to rebuild its reserves.
Wind damage and a bumper damson crop
We were away at the weekend and it must have been ferociously windy in our absence. The runner bean canes have almost collapsed over the veg plot, the outdoor tomatoes are leaning at a rakish 45 degrees and two of the sunflowers have toppled completely. I think it's partly the weight of the crop, but even so - there's a surprising amount of damage.
Talking of crops, how's this for a damson harvest? I didn't think this tree would produce, as the soil is light and I've been assured they need heavy fertile soil. Just goes to show that plants will often do fine in less than perfect conditions, though this year has been exceptional for fruit across the country apparently.
A small part of the bumper damson crop.
On Sunday we visited Great Dixter, the late Christopher Lloyd's garden in E. Sussex. I was blown away by the colours, the inventiveness, the combinations, the lack of respect for gardening conventions. What a place, and what a gardener he was. I'll post the photo album here when I've uploaded it, so do come back...
My first cyclamen seedlings. 
Cerinthe seedlings from Eastbourne doing nicely despite severe neglect.
Five successful tree hardwood cuttings.
