Well, before all the rain and unseasonal drops in temperature, it was that time of year where many gardens across the towns and villages of East Suffolk had plenty of flowering plants in their grounds and many front gardens were adorned by the splendid hollyhock.
You couldn’t miss cottage gardens decorated with these colourful beauties, often self-seeded, thriving in the local free-draining soil. This very blousy, double pink hollyhock was attracting plenty of busy bees in the sun between the recent showers. And, then the torrential downpours arrived bringing hard times for both bees and butterflies. Apparently, the jet stream is in the wrong place again!!
So, this is today’s weather . . . . .
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Agnes Ashe 
I think it was last year I started finding a lot of bees lying about on the pavement along the main road into Bury. I have heard that there is a shortage of late summer flowers which they need to feed on so brought a few home and tried to revive them with sugar water. Not convinced it worked and maybe they got his by traffic instead.
I think it is tough times for bees and hopefully, fingers crossed, the sugar water would have helped some of them survive a bit longer. Late flowering favourites acceptable to gardeners are verbena bonariensis, sedum spectabile and good old buddleja, but of course one of the best sources of late nectar for bees is flowering (arborescent) ivy, sadly not a favourite with gardeners or householders.
Ohhhh, how I miss rainy English days – not. But over here the August winds are howling. Gusts of more than 90km/h, that’s about 55 m/h. Two of the lovely magnolia trees in our complex’s garden have been decapitated. They were eight years old and about sixteen feet high.
Poor trees. High winds do so much damage. I was always worried when my wisteria was in full leaf that both shrub and pergola might do a Dorothy and end up leaving Kansas, sorry Norfolk, vertically.
Yup, you have to grab the decent days while you can this miserable summer. I’m glad those hollyhocks got an outing.
I think it feels more miserable this year as back in June we were suckered into believing we were in for a long hot summer – still laughing about that one!
Were you indeed? Not in Yorkshire …..
Those are indeed opulent hollyhocks.
Beautiful hollyhocks ! I leave a few spots for them to grow and it just does not happen. They sit and fizzle out. So it is so nice to see them blooming ! It has been a very strange summer on so many counts.
It has been a hit and miss summer over here too. We’ve even had such heavy rain that it has been more like living in the tropics.