August Container Garden Tour & Topiary Trim, Cosmos ‘Cupcakes Blush’ & Many Lovely Growing Things!

Welcome to our small garden in Kent, South East England, Zone 8. It’s good to have your company on an early morning tour of seasonal highlights across the container display and hydrangea borders. Foliage plants in pots such as eucalyptus and smokebush add a lush backdrop, maximising the impact of fabulous flowers including dreamy and delicious Cosmos ‘Cupcakes Blush’. This subtly captivating annual grows very well in pots and is beloved by bees. I’ll show how regular deadheading of our cosmos, dahlias and roses is important to extend the blooming season, as well as using strategies to water wisely in the current drought. As earlier flowering hydrangeas fade to an antique shade, others are reaching their prime, in tandem with the ‘Red Windsor’ apples ripening on the container-grown fruit tree. We hope the birds leave us plenty to harvest! Next, we revisit the ‘lavender lop’ of July, when I took the plunge and pruned into hardwood, reducing the leafy ‘Folgate’ lavender bushes to twiggy mounds. Happily, there is already considerable leafy growth erupting from bare, hardwood stems, softening the formerly stark appearance. Hopefully, the bushes will rejuvenate into the tighter, more shapely form they once provided. Meanwhile, I give a light, late-summer trim to the quartet of boxwood spheres that punctuate the lavender rondel, and share some advice on this truly satisfying and rather therapeutic job. But first I have to make sure there are no unexpected inhabitants hidden inside! Finally, we leave you with a medley of pretty plants, busy pollinators and a cute sleepy carder bee.Thank you for joining us.

CHAPTERS

0:00 Hummingbird Hawk Moth & Intro
0:23 Early morning beauty
0:52 Dahlia ‘Honka Fragile’
1:13 Cosmos ‘Cupcakes Blush’
2:47 Vary container heights for impact
3:40 Cosmos ‘Double Click Cranberries’
4:00 Calibrachoa ‘Pink Lemonade’
4:48 Deadheading
5:37 Salvia ‘Rockin’ Blue Suede Shoes’
6:11 Favourite Dahlia ‘Lou Farman’
6:53 Drought & Watering Tips
9:11 Antique Hydrangeas & fresh blooms
10:14 Apple Tree ‘Red Windsor’
10:48 Scots Pine ‘Chantry Blue’ & Sawfly larvae
12:17 Eucalyptus gunnii foliage
13:55 Lavender lop: pruning update
15:17 Trimming the boxwood topiary
16:18 Who lives in a house like this?
18:47 Thank you, friends

ATTRIBUTIONS WITH THANKS

Boar by Anastasiya Dalenka
https://unsplash.com/photos/a-large-b...
Goats by Önder Andinç
https://unsplash.com/photos/a-herd-of...