Month: March 2011

Busy last couple days,but my garden start look like garden atlast,not like weed field.

  Planted today shrubs and little trees what i had all winter in pots.Couple days ago Liam cutted grass,and yesterday gave some feed too.We really thought will be heavy rain.No rain,good for me,only hope that fertilizer will work,because grass look like …very bad it look.

  Oh,yes today i planted my 1th part of living willow hedge(thanks Bill),,ha ,first 120 cm.No picture,because it look funny right now:))

  Primroses still flowering,helleborus too,tulips slowly start flowering and daffs too.All garden full with hyacinth’s scent.Nice:)

  My Aeoniums is couple days in glasshouse now,and one of them look bit sad…hope it will be ok.

  Note for my self-plant  more Hyacinths for next year.

p.s. something wrong with my computer,i can’t see your comments in mail ,like ususaly i did…:(

Visitors all gone………… we were at the Airport at 6 am and then for the boat at 7 am so am tired but got out today to do a bit.  I dug out a bed all around the glasshouse as there was a plant going mad and I was afraid it would get into the glasshouse so made a start looks good and am knackered am sitting here with a glass of wine and will be in bed before 11pm  I hope.

Our oldest Daughter took some photos so am putting thm up if they go as am sure they are big.

Watered everything in the greenhouse today with rain water. Removed my ornamental apple (not ‘Sentinel’) from a low wide pot today as I thought it would better suit one of my acers ‘Trompenbourg’. So the apple had to get a new pot too. Was going to re-pot all my blueberries into the plastic pots that I had my tomatoes in last year, but I didn’t have enough ericaceous compost. Wasn’t going over to work on my day off. It can wait. Cut back all dead foliage from my white Agapanthus ‘Snowball’. Looking decidedly better now. A selection of about 5 potted ferns all doing fine. Atropa belladonna coming back into growth too. Delighted with that. And another Camellia opened up today. A little beauty – Camellia williamsii ‘Tiptoe’.

You can use any of these words to describe this little tree but I will say beautiful! I know it will take patience to wait till it matures but I am delighted to get it this far. I bought it at Hampton Court last year, and brought it home in my backpack!

Over the winter, I had all the patio furniture at the side of the house covered with plastic. This was also used as a bench for my cold frame. While sorting out the furniture and cold frame etc. I found a small piece of root with a shoot starting to emerge, so I potted it up and forgot about it.

This is what I have now. I know it’s a long shot at this stage, but has anyone any ideas on what this is. I have nothing else that looks like this at all.

Did another couple of hours, or three, in the garden this evening. Weather was lovely after the wet start. Having finished weeding the Inner Circle yesterday I decided to make a start on the Outer Circle today and managed to get a good bit done. If tomorrow evening is good I hope to finish it. The ground there is very wet so I have planted some Arum Lillies that I divided up. Also some Candleabra Primulas. I want to get some Seberica Irises as they should be good in a wet area. If anyone has any suggestions I’d like to hear them! While I was weeding I remembered that I didnt reply to Moya’s question re Buttercups. Well, Moya, I have lots of creeping Buttercup in that area!! What a pain they are to get out! But I worked methodically and took out everyone as I came to it! You have to get right down and get all the root out.

Every day now new plants are coming into bloom in the garden. Leucojum (Summer Snowflake) is in good bloom now. This close-up picture shows some of the detail on the flower. This plant has been here as long as I remember and is very hardy.

We visited a friends garden this morning so when we got back after lunch I was not in the mood to go out and work. Paddy, had a few plants to plant so he was anxious to get them in the ground. Hopefully this little upset in the weather will be short lived and the good weather will return. I felt that I was on holiday over the last few weeks getting up every morning to beautiful sunny weather. I have put up a few more photos in the Mount Usher album of trees and shrubs that were looking good in the garden. I also put a few more photos in the March album of some of our magnolias that are in flower at present. Mary

My heart sings at the sight of the lovely spring bulbs. Didn’t get long in the garden today – work and other things very busy – but managed to get out for 10 mins and take a few pics. More posted in photos.

What do you think?

Is this Marvel of Peru seedling looking a bit undernourished or what?

Are they supposed to get extra minerals at potting on or what?

Besides being a pale colour, my seven seedlings seem healthy enough.

I’ve looked at various propagation instructions and there is no mention of adding potash or anything.

Who has grown these before?

 

The Drumstick Primula is a great Primula for long lasting flowers, mine have spread a huge amount since last year, some which I split and others which have seeded around themselves.  I have four different colours and they give a great show en masse!

This is a very stunning colour too!

while i was shopping this morning i picked up this beautiful arrangement for 19.99 in lidl for my mum on mothers day.

hi everyone, while i was at my course last night my brother dropped over 3 big tyres, so all i have to do is fill them with soil and plant them.

didnt do anything outside today so i tidied the front hall where the racks of seeds were i put back the indoor plants in their old home. i have alot of clothes to sort so no gardening today.

this includes the yucca and the ficus. sometimes i forget about my indoor plants and they are in dire need of drink, at least they wont be over watered

Today was my last day of classes in College!!.I cannot believe it, the time has gone by so fast… I still have my exams to do in May… but between now and then I have my work experience in Farmleigh which I am really looking forward to, I don’t care what jobs they give me to do, the experience of working with such experts in such a beautiful garden is what it is all about… and I am off to Croatia for Easter …and the summer is on the way .. so life in my little bit of the planet is good right now 🙂

I will have more time now to add some journals on our progress in the Roscommon garden, and will take some pics this weekend..I still keep up with all that is happening on here, I just had no time to do any real gardening, so did not really have anything to put in a journal… 

Thought I was doing well yesterday buying this Acer platanoides. I was aware that it would indeed grow quite big, but bigger than I can afford to give it. So if anyone wants this, it’s free. Just let me know. There must surely be someone out there who needs to fill a big space!!!!!

Have been out nearly all day doing this little area but am so happy the way it is turning out have more to do but nearly there

As you know I am trying to sort out what plants I have.  My camellias have nearly been sorted, but  I am not sure of all of them. I think I am OK for the majority.  Some plants I  know, since I labelled them about 25 years ago, but a label does not guarantee accurate naming.  So I am still confused.

I am working on my rhododendrons now.  I am trying to put photos of  them in one list, even though there is a date.

It is good fun trying to get names, but it is confusing.  If you see any with the wrong names, please let me know.

Is looking great…………………..

The shopping needed doing so I headed for Enniscorthy this morning. On the spur of the moment, I detoured to Clonroche, just to have a look at what Coolaught Nurseries have new in stock.

In fact, I knew that Coolaught was stocking those new Irish Kennedy primroses so I resolved to get myself the ‘Drumcliffe’ one. My husband’s ancestors come from Drumcliffe and are buried in the same graveyard as W.B. Yeates so that was a good excuse. I was buying a pressie for hubby, not beguiled by the pretty white flowers on bronze foliage! I was pleased to see Coolaught had them for €4.50 each.

Of course, I had to have a look around although the nursery is not the best for that sort of thing as they have loads of goodies tucked away where you’d never find them. I got chatting and was asked if I was looking for anything in particular. Well, although I hadn’t been looking for anything more than the primrose, I found myself uttering the words Magnolia x ‘Star Wars’.

It is always dangerous asking for specific plants in Coolaught because they usually produce them and, sure enough, a grand sized ‘Star Wars’ was produced and, before I knew what I was doing, I was tucking it in my car. Actually, Caroline was good enough to put it in for me as I usually demonstrate total eejitry at such manoeuvres. 

I am very pleased with my new tree. I saw Magnolia x ‘Star Wars’ for the first time in the Bay Garden in Camolin in May 2010. The flowers are absolutely enormous and I remember being told how everyone always asks about that tree.

I have no idea why it is called ‘Star Wars’ but there seems to be a sci-fi theme in some Magnolia varieties as I saw one called ‘Vulcan’ and what about ‘Wada’s Memory’? I’m sure Wada must be from Star Wars too!

Home again I felt invigorated by my purchase and went out for a spot of gardening. I got 10 Thalictrum delavayi planted and one bed almost completely mulched and watered, which wasn’t bad for such a late start. 

I’m sorry to say I am not in a position to organise a weekend for the Rare Plant show on the weekend of 7/8 of May. A family event has been arranged for that Saturday and I have to attend.

I will be going on the Sunday alright, but if anyone else wants to step foreward any arrange something for yourselves, do not be shy.

Failing that happening, maybe we could try and arrange to meet up there for bite to eat or if weather was good have a picnic in the grounds.

What do folk want to do?

Bought a few plants in work today. A nice new primrose ‘Ken Dearman’ I think, a white Aquilegia, Hemerocallis (orange) and Trollius (orange). Will be more specific tomorrow. It’s too dark out there. I feel an ‘orange’ year coming on!

Also bought loads of ericaceous compost and repotted my blueberries into the old plastic pots that I grew my tomatoes in last year. They will have to do for now, as I don’t want to delay potting them – their flowers should be appearing soon. Will re-pot into permanent pots after harvest later in the year.

Was beside the pond and spotted what I thought was blood on Holly’s (the cat) leg. Lifted her leg to inspect closely and she lost her balance and fell into the pond. Oh Jesus, I couldn’t stop laughing. I know it wasn’t funny. But hey……actually, it was! She was ok. And what I thought was blood was just where she had rubbed up against one of the broken terracotta pots. Narrowly avoided a catastrophe!

Love the rich colour of this Pulmonaria ‘diana clare’. Great strong colour, thinking when the plant gets bigger a white companion planing of a white Arabis would look great.