The single little "Otto Luykien" came from a garden centre where I hoped to find some decent cannas, but alas they all looked suspicious. I am resolved to grow mine from seed now, even if it will probably mean postponing the planting of the exoctic corner yet another year. The ground there is improving visibly, a nice brown sponge. Worms are finally working their way into it. 940 liters of organic matter added so far. The two compost heaps started in april are coming along very nicely.
In the kitchen garden everything has spilled over the boundaries I had set, and the whole place looks luxuriant, actually scarily so. We have more zucchini than we can eat, and all the rest is slowly ripening as well. The first pumpkins are showing and the chillies are already deep red and dangerous. We have tiny potatoes too.
Hydrangea arborescens "Hayes´Starburst" is the most spectacular arborescens I have seen so far. It is a flimsier plant than "Annabelle", with narrow leaves and an ever more pronounced adversion to hot dry afternoons. But the flowers are a wonder. They open like light weight lacecaps, but the florets in the center after a period of apparent indecision begin to frot and mount and suddenly one day the whole flower heads is indeed an explosion of multiple starry florets shading from pale green to the purest white. It is very beautiful, impressive without being heavy. This plant was a selfsown seedling discovered by Mr Hayes Jackson in his own garden of Anniston, Alabama. He shared the plant with friends, which was lucky because his own died.
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