We got some fine weather when the highest temperature this month in Ireland reached 29.6° and the garden responded accordingly. The above pic shows some of our cactus, which stay out all year around under the rain shelter of a covered pergola. Opuntia fragilis is the one in flower. Below is a most beautiful Aquilegia from Slovenia, growing in our limestone grotto.

The water lilies, of course, always come up trumps with their summer display.

We have quite a few of these unusual red wooden chairs scattered around the garden: this one is beside the Arid Bed. 

A few garden clubs visited Coolwater in June. Below are members of the Foxrock Garden Club. Lovely to see them.

And here is the Cork garden Club. Lovely to see them too and also the other clubs which visited.

We’ve also put in a new mini-conifer bed. Conifers may be out of fashion but we like the miniature ones. Possibly our favourite might be Alberta Globe, although it’s not shown in this pic. Korean miniature pines are stunning too.

The new fern dell under the blue cedar has come on in leaps and bounds, making a nice woodland display. 

And last but not least, a Japanese barberry put into our new acidic soil bed.

K

Main picture is of one of our Agave americanas, which are now eight feet tall and below a Diplarrena moraea from Australia, with its white flowers in the Water Garden.

Above, a gorgeous lily and below an unidentified cactus, which I had picked up earlier in the year just because I had liked its shape. It’s been flowering its socks off for weeks. If anyone could identify it for me, I’d be grateful.

Three shots of the Water Garden. The prominent white flowers are Meadowsweet from the bog around here.

Carnivorous Sarracenia from North Carolina busily digesting unfortunate flies, that have been lured into its pitchers.

Alstroemeria hookeri, a delightful miniature alstroemeria from Peru.