Saturday 6th October 2012

Unbelievable fact: rain all summer, not a speck of sunshine. It’s been a marvellous year for gardens. Moisure is life for plants after all. The roses had more flowers than ever and longer lasting; with no scorching sun colours have been more luminous and enduring.

In her 88th year the Gay Mother’s garden was been a howling triumph. I show you below her borders in late June and then again in late August. As already mentioned, she showed three rare hydrangeas, hydrangea involucrata hortensis, hydrangea quercifolia and another unknown.

No ghastly chemical blue mops, such horrors.

Thank goodness the golden rod has been reduced or even abolished in the front bed. It’s such a ferocious yellow. Tasteful gardeners won’t have any yellow at all. Poor Little Rich Gays and their parents beat against this barrier of course – but there are limits.

Instead the Gay Mother’s got lots of cloudy purple and mauve, then a brilliant touch of orange in the middle of it all.

There are two ‘boys’ (both over 40) who come once a week for 2 1/2 hours. Otherwise she does it all herself.

The Gay Mother’s Front Border in late June

The Gay Mother’s Front Border in Late June with Terrace in Background: In Foreground, V.Violent Evening Primrose, in Background V. Rare sulphurous Eve Prim, Oenothera stricta’ sulphurea’

More of the Gay Mother’s June Garden: A Rare Evening Primrose, Oenothera Stricta ‘Sulphurea’

The Gay Mother’s June Display in her Entrance Border

The August Scene in the Gay Mother’s Garden: Hydrangea Involucrata Hortensis

The Three Great Rare Hydrangeas in the Gay Mother’s Late August Garden: Hydrangea Involucrata Hortensis, left, Hydrangea Quercifolia, centre, and an Unknown Hydrangea, left

The Same Front Border as Seen in June, now in August with Orange Fleck in the Middle

That Rare Unknown Hydrangea Close To