Last Post 873 days 13 hours ago
28 December 2010 20:14:46
Why I dont have many house plants......
.........this photo speaks for itself! Sorry Liga your little orchid doesnt like my house!
27 December 2010 19:55:59
My new book
This was my only garden related present. The new RHS Encyclopedia, I already have an older edition. Think tonight is the night for sitting down to browse!
24 December 2010 17:10:16
Happy Christmas Everyone!
I wish you all a safe, healthy and Happy Christmas. Especially Periwinkle who is not able to make it here for Christmas :( Have just put the SNOW on the cake and Clara like you with decorations I have these since my children were little! Couldnt bear to part with them!
23 December 2010 14:47:43
A word of warning
I had taken cuttings from Clara's geranium and when the cold spell came I brought the pot in to the sunroom. I have just just discovered that there are aphids on the stems. I have gone over it with a squeeze of soap liquid on my finger and will be keeping a daily check on it from now on. This is one of the problems with bringing in plants to the heat, pests thrive as well as the plants!
23 December 2010 12:31:51
Deep!
Thought I would show you how deep it is on the bird bath.
23 December 2010 12:29:10
Myrtle under the blanket
No, not me! My shrub!
22 December 2010 17:19:33
Dublin in the rare auld times!
Rare indeed for me to see the city in the snow! After Fran put up photos of Stephen's Green we decided to take the bus in to town today and enjoy seeing it. I have put up some photos that I took of Stephen's Green and Merrion Square. Very enjoyable couple of hours before we saw the clouds gather and we got home just before another shower of snow. Enjoy seeing our Capital in the snow!
21 December 2010 19:57:47
Under the blanket
Took this photo from the back door, as you can see the pots and coldframe are under the blanket of snow, the door at the end is where the other happy plants are in the boilerhouse! Even the (deceased) cat hole is blocked up, when I went in there earlier to get washing of a line in there you could feel just how cosy they are.
21 December 2010 10:53:11
Poor Acer!
We have a small sunroom where we spend most of our time, I love it as I am surrounded by the garden. I sit there and chat to my sister on the phone every morning! The conversation this past while starts like this " How is it with you this morning?". My answer this morning was "Its like sitting in the middle of a pavalova" !
20 December 2010 19:03:08
Didnt expect so much
So much snow this afternoon, amazing! and still snowing!
18 December 2010 11:17:45
Anaphalis
There is a shortage of things in the garden to photograph at the moment. We had a very slight dusting of snow about 8 o'clock last night and no more since but when I looked out this morning I noticed how the poor anaphalis flowers blended in. They can be brought in to the house and last for ever.
17 December 2010 19:56:14
Fran enjoying June Blake's garden!
Dont forget 8.30, better than no gardening!
16 December 2010 16:08:39
A Chorus of 'Thank You's
I have been out and taken all my pots out of the cold frame and in to the boilerhouse AGAIN! it is quite a job as although the pots are small there were 48 of them!
Anything left outside now are in bigger pots and will have to take their chances.
Most of the ones taken in to the boiler house are cuttings of different things and after getting them to root I just dont want to lose them.
I'm SURE when I was closing the boilerhouse door I heard a chorus of "Thank You" s :)
15 December 2010 21:24:12
Storing up memories!
One of the things I like to do is to store up memories of special moments, I have even tried to teach my children this! If they said something was "lovely" I'd say store it up as a memory! They are not necessarily life changing moments, like births or weddings or graduations, because we will always remember them anyway, but little things that perhaps only matter to us. Photos are a great way of bringing back memories, like a photo of a particular view on a holiday, the photo wasnt taken for the view but for a reminder of that special feeling of that moment, everytime you look at it it just brings back that special feeling. It is the same when we visit gardens and look at photos afterwards they just bring it all back and this is a great pleasure to go through photos in the winter and enjoy again the memories of summer.
This photo brings back memories of a beautiful weekend in Hillsborough but the really special memory is of the 3 ladies who took this photo (When they saw we were twins they suggested that they take the photo!). We had never met before but we just started chatting about gardening and Periwinkle mentioned that she was opening her garden for charity and to make a long story short, they surprised us by turning up at the garden open day a few weeks later!
Just one of those special memories!
12 December 2010 16:55:55
Skimmia jap. Magic Marlot
Got no gardening done this weekend, apart from lifting out all my pots from the boilerhouse to the coldframe again (I think I might doing reverse action later in the week). Its quite a job must count all the pots next time. I couldnt leave them in there as they get no light. The rest of the weekend was spent minding my little man. He was as good as gold and was in great form and didnt seem to miss Mum & Dad but was delighted to see them when they returned this afternoon.
I got a lovely "thank you" present in this Skimmia, Grandad got a fancy bar of chocolate so no prizes for guessing who is the gardener in this house! :)
11 December 2010 09:32:29
Goodbye Mr Snowman
all that is left this morning!
10 December 2010 21:46:30
Picea glauca Daisy's White
to decorate for Christmas ? !!!!!!!!
I bought this at Hillsborough Show and when I went to plant it I discovered that there was actually 2 in the pot, so I separated it and gave one to Noelfitz (I think). I'm wondering will mine survive, its a little tot! but was very appealing when it had its white new buds on it in May.
09 December 2010 21:57:12
Rhodohypoxis
I like this little plant which I think bloomed about June time.
09 December 2010 10:02:29
A variety of seeds arrived this morning, will try a pinch out of each and pass on the rest at the next get-to-gether. Many thanks and hope the trip lives up to expectations.
07 December 2010 21:27:09
Seeds
I'm looking forward to getting a variety of seeds from Deborah, but that didnt stop me from sending off for the T&M seed catalogue from Mr Midleton! I know I have no greenhouse now for seedlings and I am not going to sow lots of one thing but I just cant resist looking forward to seed sowing again!
05 December 2010 17:17:43
Saponaria ocymoides (Rock Soapwort)
I have this little plant in the front of a border for the past 2 or 3 years, it has always flowered well but I dont know where I got it or what it was called. I managed to take a few cuttings from it this year, not that they have much chance of surviving, they were brought in to the boilerhouse but........
Today I was googling coreopsis and looking through photos of different ones and then progressed on to other perennial photos, I suddenly came on a photo of MY little plant! I was thrilled to be able to get its name at last. On the american sites they seem to say it can be invasive but mine has never seeded itself and at most only stretches out to 2ft when in bloom and I usually cut it back after flowering.
I will be trying more cuttings all being well in the summer as I think it is a real gem, especially for edging or a rockery. It made my day to find its name - Saponaria ocymoides (Rock Soapwort).
03 December 2010 11:37:31
My golden ball is now....
turning into a white egg!
03 December 2010 09:46:44
Ashleigh Fall Nov 2009
We walked up near the falls.
02 December 2010 12:57:02
Its snowing again
I had a nice walk in the park this morning and I thought there was a slight thaw but now it is snowing again, very deep here in places.
01 December 2010 19:39:49
Or this!
but I dont think so!
01 December 2010 19:36:04
Imagine if these froze!
Taken in Nice
01 December 2010 19:02:57
A bit of warm colour
This was taken in France last year
01 December 2010 14:06:31
Why cant they.............
........make a woolly hat that doesnt ruin your hair style? Having a bad hair day!