Your July garden - what to do and what not to do. And where are the bees?
Plus: The best plants to keep your garden looking good this month, more rose myth-busting, a July meet-up, and another book giveaway
Stepping into July with The Gardening Mind
The roses are sliding down the other side of blooming, whilst their space is being taken by some July specials. I’ll be sharing these useful July flowerbed-fillers with you today, along with another look at the best roses for wildlife.
What’s in store in The Gardening Mind this week?
I’m ever-optimistically waiting for those long, hot July days.
It’s a strange feeling here in the south-east UK, the ground parched under grey skies depositing rain one minute, teasing us with sunshiny stretches the next. Up and down we go on the July garden merry-go-round.
Yet this up-and-downing is totally normal - it really is. Thanks to our TGM community, I’ve discovered a fascinating book where July sunshine and showers are celebrated, and I’ll be giving away a copy later on in this article.
As quickly as they suddenly arrived, earlier than usual this year, the roses have suddenly reached the end of their first peak
There’s a dry air about them, almost as if they got so used to the long wet of winter that they’re now really asking to be given a bit of a break.
In their eye-catching shades of pinks and purples, before being sizzled out of place by the hot oranges of late summer, the July garden stalwarts are now making themselves shown
And a rest is exactly what these roses are going to get. Swiftly taking up their place, the July floral showstoppers have arrived in this little cottage garden tucked away in the middle of a village. The veronicastrum are bringing their verticals to dash the planting from top to bottom, with the insect-body heads of the sanguisorbas starting to bobble amongst their lines. Much-maligned by some, daylilies are showing off their murky love-hate shades, as their flowers do what it says on the tin, converting us through the day to love, and then reminding us of the opposite as they wither in an instant.
The rose garden at Sissinghurst is reassuring: there too, the roses are sliding down the other side of blooming, whilst their space is being taken by some July specials. I’ll be sharing these useful July flowerbed-fillers with you today, along with another look at the best roses for wildlife, for hoverflies, honeybees and bumblebees. For all the pollinators.
More bees please
The fact that I just haven’t seen many pollinators is really bothering me. My garden is normally full, and the Hampton Court Wildlife Garden I created exactly twelve months ago was alive with bees, hoverflies and butterflies.
I’m hoping it’s just the greyness that is keeping them from view, and I did the other day spot a phacelia field absolutely rammed with honeybees. So there’s hope, and in the meantime, we can all do our bit by ensuring that there’s something for them in our gardens - further down, I’m recommending some of the best roses for pollinators.
(If you missed the midweek special about the Hampton Court flower show, you can find my review of the show features here.)
Before that though, a great big welcome to new subscribers - we’re sending you a HUGE WELCOME to The Gardening Mind, the original Substack gardening community where there’ll always be something for you. From garden design courses to planting designs, case studies and garden visits, behind-the-scenes glimpses into garden shows, exclusive news (on that, I’ve got something very special to share with you but it will have to wait awhile!), Zoom meet-ups and real-life gatherings and meet-ups - Subscribers, what have I forgotten?
One of our regular weekly get-togethers takes place online in the form of our regular Sunday Show Us Your Plots Chat - do please come and join in if you haven’t yet. It’s super-easy to take part and it’s a fabulous chance to share photos of your garden or a green space near you.
So how does Show Us Your Plots work?
On Sunday morning you’ll see a post on the Chat which starts ‘It’s Sunday 7th July and it’s time to Show Us Your Plots!’
And I promise you, your photo doesn’t need to be wonderful or edited - honestly, you should see some of mine. It’s just an honest record of what’s going on in our own gardens, or a green spot near wherever we happen to be. Will you come and give it a go this Sunday?
On the Chat we also now have a Midweek Video (we need to come up with a better name for this - we’ve had Midweek Mooch as a suggestion and I do like that) where we upload a quick video tour of a part of our garden, or something we’ve seen that we want to share with our Gardening Mind friends. Have a go!
July Meet-Up
We’re going to have another meet-up, this time further north, on the afternoon of 14th July. I’ll be on my way to judge the RHS Tatton Park show, so I thought I’d stop off on the way at a lovely garden for a cup of tea and a potter around. More details on this below.
There’s a rose that really stood out as far as that holy grail of tones of deep claret wine, an absolute beauty of colour and form
Before we get on to all of the above - my best plants for July, roses for wildlife, and more rose myths BUSTED - you’ve asked me to continue with the regular monthly To-Do and Not-To-Do, and Dither slot, and so now, my friends, it’s that time: