I recently returned from a few weeks holiday expecting to have missed many of the flowers in my garden; but I had underestimated their longevity.
Sunflowers blooming.
Purple loosestrife that had started to come into flower during July is still in its full glory now: a much fuller and mature plant than it was during its first summer in my pond last year. Sunflowers which had also started to come into bloom in July were only just passing the peak of a very beautiful display, providing a very welcome reminder of the fields of flowering sunflowers I had recently seen in Provence. The hundreds of disc florets which actually comprise the centre of each 'flower' are an irresistible draw to many hoverflies.
Painted lady sunning itself.
My Buddleia flowered late (perhaps because earlier in the year I moved both of my bushes to different positions) and had just begun to bloom before I left in July. Without anyone here to dead-head them, one bush was completely over by the time I arrived home. Another still has something left and over the weekend was attracting reasonable numbers of peacock (
Inachis io) and painted lady (
Cynthia cardui) butterflies.
