This year, our North London summer flower shows were spread out over five weeks so some flowers were at their best in one and some in another.

They ranged from the Hampstead Garden Suburb Horticultural Society (HGSHS) on 8th June, to Muswell Hill on 29th June, to Highgate’s show on 13th July.

Chris Page’s superb single blue spire of delphinium stood out in early June at the HGSHS show, while Jenny Kruss’s hydrangeas were triumphing at Muswell Hill and the life-enhancing red of Crocosmia Lucifer was well into its sway at Highgate by mid-July.

Gary Sycamore had combined it to eye-opening effect with the bright mauve of a cultivated loosestrife and some purple sweet peas in his collection of “three kinds of flowers”, behind which you can just see Steve Marston’s beautifully contrasted collection of gaura, aconitum and Verbena bonariensis.

Roses, it hardly needs saying, were vibrant throughout - yet it does need saying, in case we take for granted one of the great blessings of the plant world;  where would we be without roses?

To join in with the Residents’ Association Summer Fair on Central Square, the HGSHS show was in a marquee, with the Grimsdyke Band playing nearby in the shade of the trees.

This not being in their usual hall, Marjorie Harris said, had involved a lot of carrying, but was pleasingly consistent with the show’s history, as that was where it started, in a marquee, in 1909.

At Highgate I fell into conversation with Alison Watson, who was appreciating the exhibits.

She had been encouraged by Steve Marston to show her potatoes, but soon started talking about her wildflower border in her back garden down St James’s Lane, Muswell Hill.

Alison describes herself as entirely self-taught, only having been drawn in by plants when she and her husband and family had a big garden in Wood Vale.

Alison, spirited, lively, not as young as she seems, downsized to a more manageable garden twenty years ago, which she is now happily allowing to become less manageable by letting the grass grow and introducing teasels, evening primrose, calendula, foxglove, marjoram, and a small waterlily pond.

While rejoicing in the bees, moths and dragonflies these attract, she did ask, as though hoping against hope, if I wanted any teasel seedlings?

In truth, I already have enough teasels – teasels are thrilling plants, tough, elegant, heraldic, and the bees love their flowers, but how they do spread….

THINGS TO DO

A bumper year for molluscs, as reported in a national news programme. You can try benign discouragement, eg with woolly pellets or copper rings.  The deadly blue pellets are more effective, but they can harm the eco-system, even those described as organic. However, sheets of wool to peg down around vulnerable plants do seem to work quite well.

If going away, move potted plants to shady areas, water like mad, ask neighbours to help.

Local gardens to visit through National Gardens Scheme (NGS), include Sun 4/8/24, 94 Brownlow Rd N11, 5 St Regis Clos, N10.  See ngs.org.uk for details.