Photographs of this planting through the 2026 season, oldest first.
The photographs
Week of 20 JulyTwo pans of sowings on 21 July with germination only just started, five or six seedlings up in one and three or four in the other, each no further than a single pair of rounded seed leaves and one alone showing the first hint of a true pair.Week of 27 JulyTwo pots sown on 28 July and holding different things, nasturtiums up on the right with every round leaf hung from its stalk at the middle so the veins spoke out from one point, and on the left five rosettes still on spoon seed leaves, all of it rain-wet.Week of 27 JulyTwo baskets broadcast-sown and set down on rough grass on 28 July, forty-odd seedlings between them scattered unevenly with bare patches, every seed leaf beaded from the rain that has just gone through, and a rusted steel rod leaning across one.Week of 17 AugustA hanging basket on 20 August sown thick with three kinds of leaf and not one bud open yet — broad blistered blades fringed with coarse pale bristles that catch the light, and a tuft of thread-fine foliage at the edge — in long low side light.Week of 24 AugustA basket hung on a fence rail on 26 August with four kinds of leaf sharing it and still nothing in flower — rough hairy ovals, narrow gray-green blades, feathery blue-green fronds and smooth arrowheads — over mown grass beyond the wire.Week of 31 AugustAt least six different kinds crowded into one pot on 4 September and not one of them in flower — thread-fine feathery foliage at the front with a single sprig trailing over the rim, lance leaves standing clear above, puckered toothed blades at the right.Week of 31 AugustStems each ending in a flat star of five or six narrow leaves radiating from one point, still without a bud between them on 4 September — round shield-leaves behind them, each stalk joined at the middle of its own blade, magenta trumpets beyond in soft light.Week of 31 AugustTwo different plants share one hanging pot on 4 September, neither in bud — a low rosette of rugose, blunt-toothed leaves furred enough to catch the light, and one upright shoot of narrow silvered leaves out of its center — all beaded under flat overcast.Week of 7 SeptemberOne bloom open on 11 September — deep velvety crimson, its golden-yellow throat streaked with fine dark red lines — among round shield-shaped leaves veined outward from the center, one of them marbled cream, with a bed of magenta-pink trumpets behind.Week of 14 SeptemberA five-pointed star of pale sky blue opens on 17 September, its center a white ring around a purple-black cone of anthers, with five or six nodding buds below striped rose and maroon under dense white hairs. Overcast light, a weathered gray rail behind.Week of 28 SeptemberA single salmon-pink bloom on 29 September, its raised center crown still ringed by tight reddish-brown buds in the middle while only the outer tubular florets have opened and pushed out forked yellow styles. Flat overcast light, shot looking down onto lawn.
