Contemplative June .....

Sweet Pea 'Matucana'

So June arrives in calm and quiet ..... gone are the shouts of brash tulips, gone are the bangs of the flamboyant peonies and first flush of roses ...... June brings a different mood, a space for contemplation as spring slips with the most gentle ease into the long awaited summer .......

Geum 'Pink Petticoats'

I've always loved the practice of contemplation, space to think deeply and sit with my inner-most thoughts. Perhaps especially now when I find myself surrounded with such intensity of noise whether physical or technological, the ability to withdraw into the garden with its capacity to peacefully calm, is like a salve to life.

Rose 'Brother Cadfael'

Each year the rhythm repeats, season after season and summer arrives. And yet, this year is different, it feels different, it looks different. We've been isolated, locked away for twelve long weeks now, checking each day on infection rates, the R-number and lamenting over the cumulating deaths. It's almost become our new normal - and yet it isn't normal. It's been too long since we sat with a friend or worked shoulder to shoulder with a colleague.

And then in the midst of it all comes the cry 'Black lives matter'! At a time when we are most aware that we have lost the privilege of our freedom, we become aware of the injustice residing within our communities. I've been fortunate enough to be able to ask questions and listen to the accounts and experiences of some of my precious black friends this week, they've been gracious enough to share of their story and enlighten me where I lacked understanding..... Here, now, in the quiet of a cancelled June calendar comes the gift of understanding and the path to reconciliation....

Calybrachoa  'Can Can Black'

Pelagonium 'Lord Bute'

June reminds us that Roses and Peonies will command the limelight, but the beauty of the garden is comprised of the many layers of planting, the diversity of leaf shape and colour, the tiniest flower is of no less beauty and importance than the showiest of bloom ......

Brachysome 'Magenta'

Rose 'Royal Jubilee'