The snow is starting to feel bleak and endless, and I am dreaming of the garden in bloom. I’ve ordered some new flowers for the coming year.

I’m excited for these poppies, which should appear not long after the tulips start to fade. I grew the Amazing Grey last year and they were absolutely stunning. Hopefully some of them self-seeded, but I wanted a guarantee so I got some more. Mixing the three and having more of them should help to bring them out more in the garden, where they were somewhat dwarfed by the proliferation of clary sage last year.

Last year we had a searing ‘heat dome’ that had a significant impact on the garden in early July. It never really recovered, so the peak of bloom was the last week of June. That left a lot of the year for me to think about gaps, possibilities and learnings for this year. Everything I’ve selected for this year is drought tolerant, and we will prioritise getting the irrigation finished as soon as the ground un-freezes. As I mentioned the clary sage really dominated last year, and while that has likely self-seeded, I plan to add some more variety to the summer bloomers, with more mounding shapes to compliment the spiky uprights.

I love the shape of sea holly and last year’s attempts failed due to a bad position, so I’m trying that one again. The Douglas Asters are local, provide crucial food for late-season pollinators and bring a very pretty violet to the late-summer garden. As for the black violas, well I couldn’t say no!

I’ll need to do another post on all the bulbs I’ve put in, as well as all the veggies we have planned. As Monty Don said, there’s always a future in the garden, and I’m looking forward to it.