Month: April 2011

A few days ago I saw a bud on a plant that I thought might have been a fritallaria, I had planted bulbs there a couple of years ago and had "no show". But this is not fritallaria so what is it?

This is some gaura seedlings – do they have these dark spots normally or are they sick?

Oh I am so excited about my new Voodoo Lily. I inspect it twice a day. It was totally intact this morning. The same as the photo I posted a couple of days ago.

This evening, a most beautiful leaf had unfurled. Took a whiff to see if it was smelling bad. It’s not exactly pleasant, but not unpleasant.  It might be a different kettle of fish tomorrow, though. Deborah warned me that this would smell absolutely foul, like rotting flesh. That remains to be seen!!!! Good job it’s planted at the bottom of the garden.

Really different markings on the leaves of this Geranium ‘samobar’. It also has very dark flowers, begining to think I am drawn to the darker side of these wonderful flowers.

This was quite an insignificant looking plant when Paddy and Mary (Gracedieu Lass) gave it to me a few weeks ago. It’s looking lovely today. Pity I don’t know what it is. My gut feeling tells me it might be some sort of Brunnera?

I am posting up an album with two photos of plants I wish to acquire the names of. I am confident that I will get names for same!!!!

I think this is dead too!! any advice please!

This Cherry tree looks a bit odd to me! please tell me what you think…………

I need more Euphorbias in my life!

This is my considered opinion after seeing the way Euphorbia lathyris danced around Deborah and Martin’s garden at Terra Nova. Euphorbia is such a good plant, with its fresh green foliage in spring. It reminds me of a salad – so healthy and full of goodness, you just want to gobble it up!

I seem to have lost Euphorbia ‘White Swan’, which looked so lovely last autumn, and also Euphorbia ‘Diamond Frost’, the gimmicky one which a lot of us bought at Bloom last year. Mellifera, that I got at Terra Nova last year, is hanging in there.

So, the only fully, healthy, surviving Euphorbia in my garden is this tiny chap. I bought him at June Blake’s last year but she couldn’t give me a name for him. Can anyone help? It is quite a small plant.

I did a good bit of mulching today and a little planting. Nearly finished the West Garden. Hubby bought me an additional 300 small square pots and a box of 1000 labels. I wonder how long it will take me to use the labels up.

I have been rather good labelling seedlings this year. Mind you, with the new kitchen being done, I decided to only do a few. One of them, pictured here, escaped with no label. I have a feeling it may be Cobaea scandens. But not really sure. Please someone, help. It has been hardened off and needs planting in the right place now. Thanks in advance!

Yes it is wonderful in the garden now. The tulips are hanging on and there is a lot happening ready to replace them. Yay.

When you consider the devastation that the last couple of hard winters have wreaked on our gardens, it’s all the more pleasing to have shrubs that just continue to perform year on year and Enkianthus Campanulatus is one of those. Granted it doesn’t look much in winter as it’s deciduous but now that it has flowered it’s a different proposition altogether. The bell like flowers are really most enchanting. Mine is now about 8ft tall and is covered in flowers and I particularly like looking up at the higher up flowers. It amazes me that hardly anyone seems to grow this wonderful shrub which also has wonderful autumn colour. On a different subject, my Daphne Bhloua seems to have succumbed to the weather, but it had set two seedlings, one of which has new growth sprouting from the bottom of it. I don’t know whether I would be better off uprooting it and relocating it or should I leave well enough alone as Daphnes don’t like disturbance. Any advice welcome.

I have just returned from a few days holiday in the New Forest (Hampshire UK) with my sister and her two little boys.  We spent a few wonderful hours at Exbury Gardens and I am putting together a photo album if anyone’s interested….

Okay… In the mid of planting all my babies: courgette genovese x3; hokkaido squash x3; standard red giant pumpkin x3; hayato pumpkin x2; shintokiwa cucumber x4; cornichon de bourbonne x4; kiwano x 4; some german gherkin but we have enormous joy of it every year : x4

 

uffff yet few more left

 

oh and i’d forget: sweetcorns as well 😀

got it planted yesterday after work, and then planted some of my gingers around it with a arondodonex closer to the patio, should really fill out that area and make the patio not so prominant when you look out at the garden from the back of the house, also have my musa basjoo planted out for about a week and they are really starting look happy

Tomorrow is Bealtaine, May Day, in the Celtic calendar the beginning of Summer. A time of light, growth and fertility, very evident this year because of the good weather. Will you be out tomorrow morning collecting the dew? It is said to have magical properties if collected on the morning of the 1st May. No more wrinkles if you wash your face in it! Traditionally Nettles were eaten 3 times in May to cleanse the blood.

Check out the full post on www.arignagardener.wordpress.com

Got stuck into a bit when I got home from work. Planted the rest of my dahlias into the ‘dahlia’ border : ‘Mignon’, ‘Seattle’, ‘Honka Red’, ‘Honka’ . Gave them a generous helping of slug pellets. (‘Honka surprise’ and ‘Willie Willie’ are showing absolutely no signs of life so they are now in the propagator to give them a ‘kick-start’). Last years’ Bishop of AUckland is starting to peep up, Hallelujah! Today I started to harden off Myrtle’s rudbeckia, and some marigolds.

There is no sign of life with last years cannas, or the one I planted earlier ‘Rosemund Cole’ or Lycoris that was planted this year. Planted the second and final Hemerocallis ‘Frans Hal’. And two pots of nasturtium seedlings ‘Ladybird Mix’. I thought I was choosing well when I picked this variety and what comes in during the week but the very same one. However, I got a lot more for my money by sowing my own seeds! 

I have Ricinus ‘red’ thanks to Deborah’s choice of seeds sent in the post in December. Wondering now where to plant them. These have been hardened off. I also planted some Mirabilis ‘Terra Nova strain’ courtesy of Deborah too. I finished up by planting some corn seedlings into a big pot on the patio  ‘Sweet Sensation’ (hope they will do ok in the pot). Happy with what I accomplished in a short space of time!

 

Today I potted on my castor oil plants.

 

I fed a few orchids…

 

…

 

I wonder if I have too many orchids?

It’s a rhetorical question. Don’t answer that 🙂

FW

I brought all my carnivorous Sarracenia out of the greenhouse today and re-planted them in the bog garden. I have a tall planter, used as a bog, for them in the West Garden.

The boys have come through winter quite well in the cold greenhouse, with only one loss – my namesake, the Darlingtonia!

And these plants are definitely boys! I’m not fooled by conventions of giving them names such as Rebecca and Judith.

The boys seem to mean business this year as they have completely skipped the flowering stage and have decided to go straight into producing pitchers for catching insects.

It’s a shame as Sarracenia flowers are very pretty. The plants produce flowers, before pitchers, to allow bees to pollinate them unhindered.

They don’t look much now but wait until these pitchers attain their final height and colour up properly. I think they are fabulous.

After months of tears and knashing of teeth, The New Look garden is starting to come together. The fence that ran in an S shape down the garden had to come down. It was rotted away!! The big Strawberry tree also had to come down as it was dead. Suddenly my haven was like a disaster zone. I cried buckets over it. I also took out – well as much as I could -likely to come back – my Gunnera. Now tiny bits have started to come through but at least it can be kept under control. I made a new flower bed where it used to be. I planted more than 70 Summer flowering bulbs and put in a shake and rake. It is starting to fly up now 🙂 I edged all the beds in red brick and put down red paving stones around where the trampoline is.

It is not pefect but it is coming along!!!!