Tags
Avoimet Puutarha, Canadian roses, David Austin Roses, Flammentanz, heuchera, Lohja, martagon lily 'Claude Shride', Minnesota snowflake, Mock Orange, Shade loving plants, vanha talo suomi
Breaking News!
It’s rained since my last post – several times! Nearly daily we’ve been visited by a rain shower, but who’s counting? ME!! Hallelujah! Thanks, rain gods, for finally finding your way to our little patch. Some plants are still looking a little weary after going so long without any rain, but positive results are starting to show themselves. It’s nice to be able to concentrate on other things (mulch duty) without the worry & concern about potentiality and threat of forest fires. Aside from freakishly high winds for the first part of the week which tore leaves from trees and scattered sticks and twigs everywhere, we’re still standing and are ready for a garden comeback!
Warm greetings from Finland. Welcome to this week’s Six on Saturday! A reminder to all our Finnish friends: Sunday 09.07.2023 is Avoimet Puutarha – Annual Open Garden Day throughout Finland. Participating gardens are open to the public 12:00 – 17:00. Every region has participating gardens open for visitors. Open the site for details, and listings! Avoimet Puutarha
One Roses
Despite sawfly larvae attacks which played havoc on the leaves of several roses, blooms have been forthcoming and have filled the garden with aroma. Wherever you walk in our garden, there are roses intermixed or nearby, so the fragrance of roses is always present.
- David Austin ‘Wild Edric’,
- David Austin ‘Lady Emma Hamilton’
- David Austin ‘Queen of Sweden’
- ‘Belle Amour’
- David Austin ‘Thomas ‘a Becket
- ‘Albertine’
Two Heuchera ‘Hans’
We got them during a Tahvoset plant sale event several years ago, but have never encountered them for sale at local nurseries. These have outstanding, long-lasting flower spikes with ENORMOUS flowers!
Three Martagon Lily ‘Claude Shride’
Four Roses – so many, bear with me!
- Finnish favorite has to be ‘Flammentanz’
- Canadian Explorer Series, ‘Prairie Joy’
- Old rose ‘Belle Sans Flatterie’
- David Austin ‘Susan Williams Ellis’
- ‘Jacqueline du Pre’
- Canadian Parkland Series, ‘Morden Centennial’
Five Philadelphus x virginalis ‘Minnesota Snowflake’
Commonly known as Mock Orange, this flowering shrub is laden with fragrant blossoms that beckon you to smother your face into the blooms. This heavenly scented shrub is outstanding, and a shrub I wholeheartedly recommend. Find some space for this one in your garden. You will adore the scent, and who doesn’t love looking at a thriving, healthy specimen! There are several varieties of Mock Orange on the market, choose one for the fragrance – all of them have fragrance, some really do stand out though. This is one of those! The Aurea we have in another location on the other side of the garden is also a good specimen if you’re in the market!
Six The Shady corner
The shady corner encompasses quite a lot of space. The extreme southeast portion of the garden is enveloped by trees & forest growth which tower over our garden from the council owned portion on the other side of the property fence. A wall of tall, dense growth on the eastern edge thins out a little on the southern side to allow dappled sunlight to streak through in places along the southern edge of our property. All of it is designated council-owned ‘green space’, but unfortunately is not maintained, despite there being a small ravine tucked in there. Our corner is now much happier looking & lush after receiving much-needed rainfall of the last several days. There are climbing hydrangea, a Katsura tree, several varieties of hosta, azaleas, rhododendrons conifers, sambucas, clematis and several other plants calling this place home. The air in this section of the garden is currently sweetened from the fragrance of the sambucas & hydrangea in flower. Luscious!
Temperatures are on the rebound after the thunderstorms, and crazy high winds. Rain patterns are starting to look a little more organized, are dropping meaningful rainfall throughout our region, and the forest fire warnings have all been dropped nationwide! Hurray!
I’ve kept up on lawn cutting, so thankfully, I’m right on track for a nice looking yard to present to garden visitors in a few weeks. Getting as much done as possible on mulching, and general maintenance in the meantime is how I’m spending my days. Hopefully, your days are filled with more relaxing pursuits!
Until next time, ❤ Kate @ Vanha Talo Suomi Gardens

























All your roses are lovely Kate, you are so good keeping keeping onto of all their varieties and names. Love the mock orange, it is one of my favourite garden scents, I must add it to my garden wish list.
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Thank you! Since there wasn’t much here to start with, having and keeping a list of what we’ve acquired has helped us tremendously. Visitors also can get a sense of what they too might want to try in their garden without fuss of having to inquire.
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Your garden must be a riot of scent as well as colour! And I am super impressed by your labelling. Beautiful, I am sure your visitors will love it.
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Yes, you’re right, and I do benefit the most from all that fragrance as I’m the one out there trudging to the furthest corners with my barrow of mulch! Sight lines, colors and textures are the backbone, but the fragrance is the gift that keeps on giving 🙂
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Very beautiful garden and pretty roses! I also like this weekend the martagon lilies, hoping that mine from seeds will give me flowers in a few years…
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Thank you, Fred! I hope so too 🙂
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Loving the rose parade! I was just thinking the other day that it would be nice to have a mock orange, and now here you are talking about them! This is obviously the push I need to go grab some next week 😀 Cheers to making it out of fire warning season!
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By all means, grab one or two! I don’t know if your municipal refuse sight offers garden waste disposal free of charge. Ours does, it’s called Rosk N’Roll. They shred all the yard waste (limbs, stumps, etc) into mulch which is sold for something like 13€ a cubic sq. meter. Make great weed suppressant, top dressing of beds, etc. Ours even composts the soft garden waste & leaves. You might want to see if your local does too, it will save you hundreds or in our case thousands on garden supplies. They even sell Kekkila soil.
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I don’t know if they do, but I’m going out there this week to drop off an old microwave, so will definitely ask them about it! Thanks for the lead, you know I’m always in the market for mulch 😀 We’re actually thinking about having an arborist come out with a chipper later in the year, since we have quite a lot of large branches and trees that need to be taken care of. All I can think is what a beautiful pile of mulch they would make…
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Such good news that the fire risk has gone, that must be a relief for everyone.
I’ve never seen such a tall heuchera! It’s very striking, and I love the Martagon lily it’s a beautiful colour.
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Thanks, Helen! We are delighted with both of those items, and they are particularly striking in their individual ways. Our ‘Claude Shride’ are pushing 5 feet tall – it’s just marvelous to see them!
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Glad you had rain! We had some and may get more, fingers crossed! Your roses are stunning!
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thank you! Hope all the rain we need is close to what we both get 🙂
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I am so pleased you got your much-needed rain! The flowers look gorgeous!
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Thank you, Pam. Glad we got some rain. Helsinki was deluged, and the disparity between places is just crazy. We will get 1 mm and they will get 20 mm. All the rain that was in our forecast has somehow just disappeared. Guess the watering cans cannot be put away just yet!
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Wow, your roses are amazing, I love them all! ❤ ⚘Flammentantz is amazing, Ooh Canadian bred roses, would do well in your garden! The colours of the roses are delicious! I love Philadelphus, I grew it many years ago here, but ultimately it was too hot for it. But we can grow real orange trees, which smell divine and have fruit!
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A veritable paradise you have created there! I wish I lived close enough to visit your stunning garden, but am grateful you share it here for some of us armchair travelers.
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Love those roses! ❤ The Albertine look very lovely against the maroon wall. It makes me want one again! That lily is amazing!
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Thank you! I have fallen for the Albertine and it\s just gone mad with new canes. I have them tied on along the front of that building, in the photo. since the photo, they have grown to cover a huge expanse. I cannot wait until next year to see the blooms! Thank you for stopping by 🙂
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