My first thoughts for today’s six were our six drought damaged Hydrangeas but I need something more uplifting as maybe you do too. So today, it’s the few flowers we have left and their scent. Interestingly, the gardening charity RHS Garden Wisley in Surrey have had such problems with their hydrangea collection this summer that they are thinking of moving them North to its gardens in Greater Manchester and North Yorkshire, to allow them to thrive away from drought and heat.
The beautiful rose we were give for our Golden Wedding 9 years ago flowered earlier in the year and is now having a second go. Its scent is proper old fashioned rose, the sort that as kids we used to try to make into perfume!
Crown Princess Margareta, a fragrant English Rose
We are keeping our Sweet Peas watered with grey water and watering cans and they are giving us colour and scent which is delightful. We get our Sweet Peas from Sarah Raven as plug plants each year, rather extravagant but such lovely varieties.
Sweet Pea – Dark Velvet
Sweet Pea – Prince of Orange
From The Clouds of Scent Sweet Pea Collection
Sweet Pea – Lady Collier
Those Sweet Peas fill us with perfume all day and when the sun goes down, we have Night Scented Stock, which daughter no 2, a bad sleeper, used to call ‘Night flowers,’ as we took her for a garden walk to settle her back into sleep. Some may think they look a bit scruffy and inconsequential in the daytime but their scent at night more than makes up for that.
The herbs fill the air with their particular, foody smells but maybe they are for next week.
I’d like to recommend a beautiful little book, “Led By The Nose’ by Jenny Joseph, its subtitle ‘A Garden of Smells.’ You may know her name from her wonderful poem, “Warning” which you can read here if you’d like to. This delightful book follows her garden month by month, not by colour or what she can see in her garden but the smells that lead her and the reader around by the nose.
Jim, over at Garden Ruminations, hosts Six on Saturday Pop over and in the comments, you’ll find so many delightful posts from keen gardeners all over the world.
nrhatch
August 16, 2026 at 12:00 pm
Beautiful! I can almost smell that rose! My dad grew roses that smelled like roses. Such a delightful aroma.
mybeautfulthings
August 16, 2026 at 7:16 pm
That old rose smell is so evocative of our childhoods isn’t it? 🙂
Heyjude
August 15, 2026 at 3:40 pm
That’s a gorgeous rose, such a lovely colour. And I am impressed by your sweet peas. I haven’t grown any in several years as my last attempt was poor. I do miss their fragrance though.
mybeautfulthings
August 15, 2026 at 6:33 pm
I’m finding that the Sarah Raven plugs always work. My own attempts before buying them in were always rather pathetic. 🙂
Heyjude
August 15, 2026 at 7:50 pm
I have used her plugs in the past and usually buy her tulip bulbs. However she is expensive and I have had a few issues recently. Maybe her brand has got too big.
mybeautfulthings
August 15, 2026 at 8:58 pm
You are right about the expense and I had wondered whether to try my own seeds next year now that we have the greenhouse and can look after young plants better than we could.
I’m just thinking about bulbs and haven’t looked at her bulbs before.maybe I will but you might be right about the brand getting too big.
Heyjude
August 15, 2026 at 9:33 pm
I still buy her calendar and diary. And tulips this year. Only 30 though. I’m trying to cut down.
snoakes7001
August 15, 2026 at 3:22 pm
I do love night scented stocks, although ours have finished flowering already. Lots of things seem to have gone over earlier than usual this summer. Amazingly our hydrangeas are doing ok, but they haven’t been as brightly coloured as last year. And that rose is gorgeous 😍
mybeautfulthings
August 15, 2026 at 6:38 pm
We are finding that blooms are going over quicker than usual, feeling the heat and missing the water I suppose. Let’s hope we get some rain, and enough of it, soon.
Glad your hydrangeas are doing well. Three of ours are only three years in but two have been in for at least ten. I shall keep hoping that when the rains come, they will recover. 🙂
utesmile
August 15, 2026 at 3:17 pm
What beautiful Sweet peas. Such wonderful little plants ❤️
mybeautfulthings
August 15, 2026 at 6:39 pm
I do love Sweet Peas especially their perfume. They do need a lot of deadheading! 🙂