Month: March 2014
Remember last March?
I had a lovely day in the garden today, doing all kinds of pottering. Fed roses, tied in a climbing rose and clematis, potted up seedlings, pruned a couple of shrubs, did a little weeding and tidying, planted out poppies and foxgloves. It was windy but mild and when the sun came out, I had coffee outside (twice).
What a change from this day last year! Hope you all had a good day.
Came across this plant in the garden today which seems to have appeared overnight!!! I know I should know it, but I don’t. Could someone please identify it for me – thanks!
Linda, here is a photo of the Grevilliea grown from a rooted cutting donated by a friend. It’s 2ft tall and now I’m thinking I’ll move it to a larger pot!! Flower buds are forming. Googled it and didn’t realise that there are lots of different types. Should be watered well if kept in pot!!! Will also take some cuttings.
Another nice day here in Dublin yesterday if windy!!!!
I had another few hours in the garden yesterday just tipping around. Tidied up the back border today and moved a couple of plants around. Still trying to find homes for one or two. Whilst doing this I always forget that I have a front garden too and the ones that I don’t really have a place for could actually go out there!!! Duh!!! So will make a note of those today and one day I will get to the front garden properly.
I love to see the shoots emerging of plants that have gone completely dormant over the Winter. And as Hazel mentioned in her journal they are a big surprise.
Before we had the major overhaul in the garden earlier in the year I had removed a lot of the shrubs so they wouldn’t be trampled on. Of course some plants still hadn’t come up then, so it’s a great surprise to see some coming through that I’d completely forgotten about.
A nice mild day is forecast for today so I’m hoping to get out for a couple of hours for another tidy up before this wet and windy weather, plus frosty nights, arrive.
Its neverending but I just love it.
Ps I had a few helpers in the garden today as picture 3 shows 😉
These pretty flowers always take me back to my early days at primary school where we had the nature table. We used to have various plants and the Hyacinth was my favourite with its beautiful perfume. When the shool breaks came I alwaysmade sure I brought one home to ‘mind over the holidays’ I try to have some every year especially indoors.
Some I have planted outside in my planter over the manhole, which are just beginning to come into flower. Others I have planted in a pot which are way behind.
But im so looking forward to being brought back to my early childhood once again when they all come into flower.
Didn’t get much time out in the garden yesterday due to family bereavement. But the short time that I did, I spent out in the front just doing a small bit of weeding and picking up litter. But that dreaded wild garlic is all over the place and my gloved hands were stinking. I’m thinking that Round-up will be the best solution. But if my neighbour doesn’t control it, (he thinks it’s lovely) I’m going to be re-applying for the rest of my life.
However, weren’t my Hyacinths that I have planted near the door a treat for the nostrils. Just what I needed. Somebody was on my side the day I planted those out. I think in this case, PINK is my favourite colour.
Hopefully in the next day or two I’ll get my latest indoor-flowering ones planted out too.
Gidday all,
Beaut day here 25*C with a thunderstorm later this evening abit of rain will be good.
I seperated a few patches of Jonquils today did,nt realize there was so many ended up planting about 150 in 3 beds one of which has needed a border for some time all done now abit rough but it,ll do me.
regards roofy.
I didn’t grow any alpines until going to the Alpine Garden Society show for the first time last April, I was tempted by the little beauties on display. Only bought a few and planted them together in a bowl:
This pretty primula allionii ‘Pink Aire’ is now flowering again; a green sempervivum which should have had yellow flowers in summer but never flowered; a dark sempervivum for contrast, and a little saxifraga x paulinae ‘Franzii’ which had yellow flowers when bought but has since died! (that’s the grey blob in the photo). Well, at least it was partial success and I have an excuse to seek out a couple of replacements at next month’s fair. Any summer flowering suggestions will be welcome!
For some people the pretty little Iris ‘Katherine Hodgkin’ is the harbinger of Spring – appearing in February. Welcome to Gortnalee, Co Laois where they appeared this morning much to my surprise! ( look closely and you will see some celandine seedlings emerging too!)
I tried these last year but they didn’t appear at all so this year I took no chances planting them in pots and the results are definitely far better!
The other photo is a little Spring Mixture – some chionadoxa that are spreading very well, combined with some Scilla Siberica. These little bulbs are real survivors. They were first planted in the main front area where there was bark spread while I decided what I would do with it. They were much too delicate to show up against the bark and later that year I removed the bark and planted the clover lawn completely forgetting the little bulbs. Between the two harsh winters and the mowing of the clover lawn I did manage to spot a few of them and lifted them to safety.
I’m surprised at the Scilla because I remembered it being more blue but this one is a delicate lilac – very pretty!
Today was a lovely day for the garden so I tackled a bit of the cutthing back of last years foliage on the herbaceous plants and trimming some shrubs. Have decided I don’t like this system of leaving the stuff till Spring to cut back – this year I’m going to do the tidying in Autumn. Got around to moving a lovely Michaelmas Daisy that was in a really bad position and gave it a happier home!
Sorted out the Strawberries too – and of course have ended up with about 20 new plants surplus to requirements! Might try keeping some of them for replacements. In that bed i also found a little rose bush – one of the slips I planted there – another surprise as I had thought that none of them had survived! Just have to wait till it flowers to see which one it is!
Two more primulas flowering here in the garden at the moment, i am really building a good collection of primula/primroses and love them. The grea thing about them is how long they flower and after time you can divided into so many to make a good impact.
With the large empty pots that I got from the father in law the other day, I am hoping to do more of this kind of planting.
Best part is, these nearly look after themselves, apart from some watering.
I am always on about the advantages of Rhodo species over hybrids as regards foliage and foliage influences me in what Rhodos I add to my garden, but that is not to say that I don’t love the flowers as well and I am a fairly content boy that R. barbatum has flowered for the first time for me. I have had it since 2008 and what a wonderful species it is with its fine bristled/barbed stems and developing peeling bark as it gets larger, but aren’t the flowers divine as well. It has two trusses and they have made my year and it’s only March.
The difference a few years make……………..
Think what it would be like if I hadn’t taken out about twenty culms of the last two years.
I don’t know where to start as I haven’t posted for so long. Spent most of Paddy’s weekend and today in the garden. The weather was just OK – dry most days but quite windy and sunny at times, wintery at other times. Today was wet so I had to change my original plans and spent most of the day potting on and sowing more seeds.
I potted on some Greek Basil sent over by my brother and sister in law in Greece. Also potted on some Cosmos ‘Antiquity’, sowed Ricinus impala, (animals as you say Jacinta – we’ll see) Antirrhinum ‘Royal Bride’, Cephalaria gigantea, Rhodochiton and Parsnip ‘Gladiator’.
I also edged one of the perennial borders and tidied it up, fed the strawberries, and thinned out some of the self sown poppies in the tunnel.
I am still waiting for the tunnel to be recovered but it can’t be done in these high winds anyhow.
There is just a bit of colour starting in the garden here, I’d say a good 3 weeks behind gardens further south.
I have a packet of ‘Mountain Mint’ – Pycnanthemum pilosum – that I am about to sow. Does anyone have this plant? Is it invasive?
I bought this Magnolia when I went to the get-together in Johnstown in January.
We had one in our last house for 17 years and it was a beauty and I really would have like to have taken it with us, but we couldnt….so instead I decided to get one for this house. Hopefully we will see many many years of it in flower.
Today I noticed it has started to bloom….a couple of the buds are open. And I love it!
I bought this Primula two years ago at Powerscourt Garden Centre but it did not have a label unfortunately, I just liked it!! I saw Fran’s journal which showed one which looked very similar called Black Lace and then Rachel mentioned Gold Lace, I googled both and they both looked very alike – what is the difference does anyone know and which one is this?
I just love it, even my hubby was flown away by it when I showed him (must be impressive). It has really bulked up well in two years so will be dividing it at some stage (watch this space!).
Last year when out Walking, I came across a gorgeous Grevillea in flower (didn’t know the name at the time, I thought it was a conifer!! Woops!) It was very healthy and bushy so I took a couple of small pieces in the hope of growing it from cuttings. I literally stuck them in a pot and this is the result – now flowering!
Do you think it would be okay to separate them now into two pots. Should I go back this year and take a few more cuttings?? 😉
I had to go to Tesco yesterday for a quick visit and look what followed me out.
This lovely lemon Aquilegia. Very pretty indeed
I hope you all had a great St.Patricks Day. I don’t like all those parades etc and to me it was just another day. After some morning business it was time to get out to the garden and what a beautiful day it was too.
I did some work last week on my shady border and it’s looking good, so I’ve moved around now to the next shady border that needed attention. This is where I had the fern tree last year and Jimmy removed it for me. This gave me so much more planting space.
I have some Miscanthus and some other grasses growing here. But yesterday I planted up and moved so many more plants. I have some Euphorbia, Heuchera, Hypericum (St. Johns Wort) Some Achillea ‘Pretty Belinda’ , Aquilegia and many more that escape me now.
I love moving things around. Plants that were put in last year at the front of borders that I know realise could do with moving back as they were too tall or not big enough In some cases. Also I divided up some plants. And replanted them too.
Problem is I’m so impatient. I have lots of gaps were plants either haven’t come up yet or I’m waiting to put in others like my Dahlias. So I’m looking at these empty spaces wishing I could do something with them. I love seeing height in the beds but at the minute that’s not there and I’m eager to fill them. I know I have to wait but………………
It was a great day and the weather held up until about 3.30pm when the drizzle came and by then it was time to head indoors 🙁
I can only do a couple of hours at a time but those hours are just the best ever.
Just a couple of pictures of some of the daffodils I have in the garden this year. I have Tete-Tete and the usual yellow ones but these three are somewhat different and I think particularly nice.
Gidday all,
our Autumn days are still warm enough to enable a few of the plants to keep flowering.
Still having abit of colour around is a good thing this time of the year & abit unusual.
regards roofy.
and have announced the arrival of “Spring” They add a whole new dimension to the Woodland garden However I particularly like the little tete a tete which are on the bank at the back of the house – these i can see from our Kitchen window and make washing up almost enjoyable 🙂
When I planted my Phyllostachys ‘niga’ Bamboo to create a screen in the garden I planted a few small Daffodild bulbs that have flowered this year for the first time this year. I like the way the are peeking out between the gowth of the Bamboo.
This white Hellebore, whice I think is selfseeded is pure while and I love it. I had three flowers last year so it is just getting better and better.
The second photo, is my all time best Primula, Polyanthus ‘Black Lace’. I think it is simply stunning. Hoping to divide it this year and all going well it will go four ways.
One of my Fritillarias is about to open here in the garden way ahead of the others but i really love it at this stage. One of my favourite Spring flowers. Absolutley love them. I have a good few shoots of more coming up so fingers crossed i will have some white this year.
