Last Post 444 days 8 hours ago
31 March 2012 21:46:31
Azalea ???
Yesterday I looked at Gardeners' World and this evening I looked a Monty Don again in his programme about Italian gardens. Is TV more enjoyable than gardening, especially as the nearest I will get to Sorrento is Killiney?
Monty last night was great reminding us of things to in the garden, so today I tried to prune my clematis plants.
I think I have finished the heavy weeding in my garden, so much of my gardening was tidying up today. My summer jasmine was not doing well and was untidy, so I tried to prune it and passion flowers.
Watching tonight's programme I was reminded of the importance of knowing what one is trying to do in the garden, does one want a formal or a natural garden? Are some plants weeds or native plants to be encouraged?
30 March 2012 20:07:34
Rhododendron 'Hino Crimson'
When I came to this house and garden, in 1982, I changed my garden interests and planted tres, shrubs, perennial and bulbs.
Then after some years I got interested in hill-walking and had less gardening time, and felt I should concentrate on natives rather than exotics, so I got Irish plants, and if a plant was happy I let in romp away, so Lily-of-the-valley, forger-me-nots and Japanese anenomes as well as ground elder and scutch grass spread. This year I resolved to garden more, so I have been weeding and renovating the garden
I have been putting the roots of pernicious weeds in black plastic bags. What shopuld I do with them?
28 March 2012 21:29:00
Rhododendron leucaspis
Recently I have changed my approach to gardening completely, as I have changed from an ecological, nature-friendly conservation garden, with bio-diversity and native plants to one that needs work. That is I have started weeding!
So I am thinking about how my gardening interests have changed over the years, as fashion changed, perhaps. When we were married first I had mainly roses in the garden and some vegetables in the back garden. I used to spray and at first had a range of roses, including Queen Elizabeth and Elizabeth of Glamis. I must have been a crypto-Royalist. I had Albertine, but this is called after the breeder Albert Barbier. After a while all the roses in my front garden were changed to 'Super Star'. Only recently have I realized I was following gardening fashion.
When we moved in 1982 to our current houses, I resolved to have no vegetables and a wider range of plants.
I was asked about Rhododendron leucaspis some time ago. It is now in flower.
26 March 2012 21:01:27
Mount Usher Garden
Today I visited Mount Usher garden and it was magnificent with plenty of wild flowers, as well as ground elder and celandine.
Recently I am trying to weed my garden and tidy it up. I wonder if I am doing more harm than good tying up plants and cutting back too hard, as well as walking on plants and cutting new growth inadvertently. I hope nature will sort itslef out.
25 March 2012 20:18:18
Trillium ?????
My garden interests have changed over the years.
When I started, while in school, I used to grow vegetables and rhubarb. I sold some of my cabbages to
Donnybrook Fair, but the reason for this, I think, was that my mother was a customer of "Miss Murray". I used to collect horse ... from the street for my rhubarb, and had to listen to my friend telling me they put custard on theirs.
When I started my first garden I used Simazine, as recommended by Dr David Robinson of Kinsealy and Percy Thrower, who was a great man for chemicals in the Garden. Why wouldn't he as he was paid by ICI?
However with Geoff Hamilton, there was a move away from chemicals and I stopped using chemicals. But now I am going back to the moderate use of them.
I enclose a photo of a trillium. What is the species?
19 March 2012 19:08:43
Camellia
Hasn't it been a great gardening week-end? I have enjoyed being out, even though I got little done, compared to the amount that needs doing.
I have put up some photos you might like to look at (19 March 2012).
19 March 2012 18:44:49
Clematis armandii 'Apple Blossom'
If you dig it up and it grows again it is a weed.
In the past I had no weeds in my garden, only wild native plants. It was an ecological bio-diverse garden, but recently, even though ground elder looks well I am trying to get rid of it.
It came originally with farmyard manure, I think, and has been spread throughout my garden with my compost.
On Saturday the Irish Times had an article about getting rid of weeds, mainly by digging. Please don't tell anyone but I am using Roundup (glyphosate). I put two measures into an old bowl, and two squirts of washing up liquid and water. This is then painted onto the weed.
However I am having problems putting up photos taken with my new camera. I will try to put up a clematis, rather than ground elder and will add some photos of plants now in flower.
17 March 2012 19:43:40
Who am I?
I have a plant that looks a bit like an aster. It seems to flower for a long period and has bluish flowers and glaucous evergreen leaves. It is a shrub about a metre high.
I enclose some photos of it I took today as "17 March 2012 - unknown" . About two years ago I asked its name, but did not get a satisfactory answer.
I would appreciate help.
12 March 2012 22:57:25
Magnolia x loebneri 'Leonard Messel'
Recently I have been trying to do a bit of gardening every day, as it is becoming a very busy time for gardeners. Mostly I am spending time trying to weed and replant perennials.
Today I took some photos of trees/shrubs in flower, which you might look at (12 March 2012).
12 March 2012 22:08:57
Periwinkle (vinca minor variegata)
Today I noticed there was a number of blue flowers in the garden, and I thought some of you might like to look at them in my photos (12 March 2012 - Blue). I include a violet, after all "violets are blue".
Did you hear about the Irish horticulturist who was asked to get rid of weeds in an English sea-side town? He recommended periwinkle, and was laughed at, because locals thought visitors would eat them all.
09 March 2012 21:32:08
Iris 'Holden Clough' (from Google)
It seems the gardening year has begun with the first Gardeners' World programme being on BBC 2 tonight. I found it, as usual, very enjoyable and encouraging.
In my own garden I have been busy and the gardening year is certainly underway. One of the reasons why many plants are not doing so well for me is that I have not been replanting perennials and bulbs, so recently I have been trying to dig out and replant parts of my borders.
Today I removed a lot of hardy perennials and started replanting the south-facing area with Iris 'Holden Clough', which was growing in shade and, I was told, it does better it full sun, but I did not want to move it until now in March.
I was interested in the genus Euphorbia and have a number of different types, but my favourite is Euphorbia wulfenii. Some years ago I moved seedlings, but they did not like being move, so last summer I took cuttings and recently planted them out. They seem to be doing well in their new homes.
I put up a photo of Iris 'Holden Clough' in garden.ie but cannot find it. Is it possible to search the garden.ie archives? So I have used a photo from Google.