Peter Dowdall: These flowers are the pick of the summer bunch

Check out the plants that are surviving the rainfall and that are keeping bees and hoverflies busy

Echinacea like to grow in a well-drained soil and in full sun and most Irish gardens have struggled to provide either this year. File pictures

I am delighting in the a particular variety of poppy at the moment, Papaver 'Bridal Silk' — a truly exquisite white form of poppy. 

This is a hardy annual which I picked up from the fabulous Kilmurry Nurseries display at the recent Mallow Home & Garden Show. I hadn’t grown this before and as I have a passion for white flowers in the garden, I had to give it a go.