A Long Very Hot Weekend in the Garden

I booked a couple of days off to make a long weekend, mainly because we had family visit for a few days. However it also coincided with the RHS Hyde Hall Flower Show, which due to its popularity had been extended, and ran from Wednesday to Sunday. I have been going to this (or the later Autumn Plant Fair) for several years now and was really looking forward to this year.
I decided to go on Thursday, assuming it would be a bit quieter than the weekend, and as usual went with Sarah. I picked her up as planned and we made good progress on the roads, but actually arrived  bit later than expected, shortly before 11am. The car park filed was already half full (it opens at 10) and it was already incredibly hot and humid. I was pretty well exhausted by the time we reached the entrance, how I made it over the next four hours (and four miles walking) I don't know. I took extra fluids, a cool box and so on but regrettably I should have brought more along, as I felt really rough the next couple of days.
I always take a shopping list-essentially things that have caught my eye in books magazines or blogs that might be worth trying in the garden for ornamental or wildlife interest (or often plants that I find interesting for some reason). I never get anything on the list of course as I always end up with a bag or two of impulse buys and then have to wonder what to do with them once I get home. Sarah is at least a bit more restrained and managed to find some things she wanted.
The one stand I always make a bee-line for is Plantbase, which is a really interesting nursery near Bewl Water that always has fun and out of the ordinary plants. They always have the tomato relative Solanum atropurpureum which I have grown for a few years now from seed. Its rather nasty-highly toxic yellow fruit, thick purple stems covered in dense downward curving spines and very fast growing. Last year mine hit 5 feet with stems a couple of inches thick. This image was taken last July.

Rather surprisingly, (to me and to Graham who owns Plantbase) it survived my heavy cold clay overwinter in the ground-I only found this out in May when I was clearing the area to replant (with one I had overwintered under cover!). Unfortunately because of the late start to everything neither are going to grow all that big. Sarah's are however flowering at 3-4 feet high.
This year I was rather restrained and Graham sold me a couple of hardy cacti to go with the Opuntia hummus that I have had for years, and Puya mirablis that should survive for me and is a very good bee plant to boot. Its also good for Hummingbirds but I don't think I will be getting any of those in the garden.
Elsewhere I picked up a Grevilla victoriae, an Iochroma australis (both useful nectar and pollen sources) and a dwarf pomegranate because Ive always wanted one, plus a nice sundew. . I had hoped to replace many of my bulbs and aroids as I have lost a large number this year. A lot are grown in pots primarily to provide the right amount of drainage, ph etc. Some failed to get past spring which was very cold and wet, leading to some rotting. Some survived but have ended up being cooked by the excessive heat over the last few months. Unfortunately I couldn't find any I wanted and my current plan is to get the shady part of the garden revamped with lots of compost and bark and replant new arums and arisaemas in spring.
We didn't spend a great deal of time exploring the gardens unfortunately, simply because of the heat. I had pretty much forgotten that I had brought my camera with me and ended up with a handful of snaps.

A Grevillia hedge.

A greenhouse I wouldn't mind having with a suitable lottery win.

The dry garden and a bit of the new hill top building.

Butterflies were abundant in the gardens, with lots of Holly Blues, a few Common Blue and Brown Argus. Lots of whites, Meadow Browns and one Red Admiral. And my first Painted Lady of the yearwhich was hard to relocate and eluded the camera. The wildlife lake had a family of Tufted Ducks, one Dabchick with a chick, a few Mallards. The water level was very low making it hard to get to the dragonflies. Black Tailed Skimmers and two Emperors were the most obvious with (maybe) one Broad Bodied Chaser. Azure and Common Blue Damselflies could be found all over the garden with a few Common and (probably) Ruddy Darters, and the Brown Hawkers seemed to prefer the ornamental wooded ponds.
Didn't see much on th e way there or back, and didn't see much while I was in Sarah's garden though she has still got a few Swallows around.

Ive had one or two Swallows over my garden, presumably early returning birds but I guess any Swifts we might have had locally have long gone. The Goldfinches, Blackbirds and Blue Tits are still coming in and there are a couple of juvenile Dunnocks knocking around as well.
Ive had a few Azure Damselflies around the pond and hopefully they will colonise again. I have also had one or two Blue Tails (new to the garden) but strangely none of the larger dragonflies.
Butterflies are surviving reasonably well in the garden, with regular Meadow Brown and Gatekeepers, Large and Small Whites of course and my first Common Blue for several years. Unfortunately a lot of the plants that they would normally visit-Rudbeckias, Dahlias and so on are not flowering much if at all. A few verbenas and sea lavender plants seem to be the most popular at the moment. Bees and Hoverflies are attracted mainly to a large Persicaria, a few Zinnias, salvias and my large patch of Bronze Fennel. With a bit of luck, the heat is gradually going to drop, and if we get a decent spell of rain (last weekend's 5mm, the first since late May didn't do anything) I should get a few more things flowering and maybe a few more visitors like this-Rye Meads a couple of weeks ago.