Top 5 Favourite Summer Flowers

As it is the end of the month, I thought, instead of doing an August review, I would pick what my best performing plants have been throughout the summer.

The Clematis Victoria which adorns the fence of my patio garden has been a really good 'doer' this year.  Some years the slugs strip the soft covering off the stems and it dies back.  Because of the dry weather this year the slugs didn't manage to do any damage and the plant has blossomed it's little socks off.

The Rudbeckia 'Rustic Dwarfs' in my allotment cutting garden reappeared magically after the hard winter and set about growing themselves, even though they were supposed to be annuals.  I have been cutting them all summer long, and there are still plenty of flowers on the plant.

             After a very slow start the Sweetpeas eventually came good.  I planted three stands of them in different parts of the garden  and a long row in the cutting garden, using up all the old seeds I had accumulated, even those past their 'sow before' date.  As a result I have had a bounteous harvest every day.  The ones in the cutting garden are finished now, but those in pots are still growing strong, but the stems are very short now and can't really be cut.  But, they have definitely been value for money.

This is the only Hollyhock that I have in the garden, it still has flowers at the very top of the stem.  I have been so impressed with it that I have made a decision to grow a lot more of them next year.

And finally, Zinnias.  This is the first year that I have been really successful with them.  I love their range of dusky colours, and they have truly been an asset in the cutting garden.  I have kept cutting the central flower stalk and they keep sending out new flowers. They are still going strong, and will hopefully carry on right through to the first frosts.  Definitely on my 'must have' list for next year.

It would be interesting to know what other people's Top Five would include.