Month: July 2012
More flowers…. this time, native to the Azores….
As requested by Rachel….
is a real winner. Every year when I am reminded how lovely it is and how long lasting it is and I vow to grow dozens more for the following year, but I never do. I have two plants going full belt now and another few small ones coming along – but I wish I had a hundred of them!
I hate summer pruning. So much so, that I didn’t bother last year. So this year, it’s an extra hard job, with lots of very thick, woody Philadelphus stems to hack through.
And I do have a lot of Mock Oranges. I counted 16 in total 🙁
I pruned three bushes and then it started raining but it soon cleared up and I got out and finished it off. I had an unseasonal go at my three Forsythia (en passant, as it were) as they were annoying me and a Ribes and I had to remove some Rosa rugosa branches (ouch) to get at the Philadelphus hedge.
Sammy thought I’d lost it completely and started telling me that I was taking too much off and that it couldn’t be right because that one had fruit (rose hips on the Rosa rugosa). The postman seemed shocked too and hubby got a terrible fright when he saw how much he had to put through the shredder 😀
Amorphophallus bulbifer. And there it was making little bulbils for all to see!
of our recent day trip to Dublin with the Limerick Garden Plants Group and found this lovely one of my friend Bernie McEnery (on left) and Mary Jo standing amongst Helen Dillons Romneyas. A few hours later Bernie was seen leaving Johnstown GC with her very own Romneya plant! Anyways just thought this photo would be fun for any readers of the Irish Garden mag, as Bernies garden is featured in the current issue 🙂
All I did yesterday was have a brief ramble round the garden to try and loosen the back up. But noticed that some of my Oxalis didn’t have the central purple markings. Hmmm!!
I got some bulb mixtures this year and these ones were unknown to me. I was in a panic trying to get them all in the ground so didn’t bother checking up about them. They put up some dafodil-type leaves when the Tete-a-Tete were coming up but the they did nothing. I was tidying that area and was about to chop off these leaves when I saw the beginnings of something else – and my patience has been rewarded! They were labelled “White Brodliaea” but I am delighted that the have turned out to be blue!
And as to the happy accident? Well, having no idea what they would be like, I seem to have chosen the perfect spot for them!
I saw somewhere that this plant has been renamed – I’m still struggling with the old name 🙁
I seem to have a real soft spot for the Thugs of the Garden – whether it’s geraniums trying to climb my shrubs, Alchemilla popping up in unusual places, even Violets that insist on getting entwined with anything nearby – I love them all. When I hear people complaining about the vigour of Japanese Anemones it brings out all my protective instincts – another thug for me to foster!
The way to grow Japanes Anemones in my opinion, is to allocate a reasonable space to them and then let them rip!
In the photo are three of my personal thugs – Crocosmia (although I believe Lucifer is less rampant than the ones growing wild in Mayo!) Alchemilla and my Anemones – these are the single ones and are 4.5 feet high already and only starting to flower!
Why are they called blueberries when they are harvested when almost black????
Looking good very early this year.
My first venture into keeping Orchids didn’t get off to a great start but after following Rachels advice (thanks again) my Phalaenopsis has turned a corner and is looking decidedly healthier. I’ve recently added to “The Family” 😉
Just thought I put up a picture. They are not exactly double as some double feverfew are like buttons. These particular ones are semi-double with a flattened middle (stamens?) very light green or yellow. I think they are lovely. I saved seed from this plant last year and broadcast the seed only recently. If you like them I will send you some seed as soon as it is ripe.
Rachel kindly sent me two baby Streptocarpus, traily ones as someone called them. they are both doing very well, and one already has buds!
Well I went out this morning feeling much the better for the cyber hugs.
Furthermore Danish Flag had opened and what a fine plant it is. Thank you for the seeds Rachel, I only got one to germinate for me but as you see it did just great. I will be collecting seeds from that beauty. On the down side it is with regret I report that Sanguisorba Pink Brushes has got huge and is starting to produce those dirty pink flowers!!!!!!! I moved it hoping it might go to a painless death but it has thrived in the new spot. It will be on the move again come Autumn…………………….! I shall have pictures in a few days when some more brushes appear. Maybe it could go and live in Wexford!!
On the positive, it has been a very good year for Hydrangeas.
I copied the idea of yellow Hypericum hidcote, coupled with blue Hydrangea, from my neighbours. I love it but hubby is not convinced! I think he believes the only good Hydrangea is a dead one!
Hydrangea ‘Madame Emile Moulliere’ was bought last autumn when I saw it in Philip (a neighbour)’s garden and Hydrangea ‘Vanille Fraise’ came from Myrtle. No sign of the strawberry yet but it’s a grand plant and isn’t droopy at all, despite Myrtle’s warnings.
I did some weeding today and staking.
The grass has been cut but quite high, because it got a head start on us, so it still looks crap but so it goes.
Right, just for fun, who can guess what this is?
Just in case you townies dont know what a hare looks like, hares another one
The heavens opened all week, and i sympaphise with you all, but just look at the delights it leaves behind,
Another compitition, spot the visitor, here’s a clue ;- It eats garden plants maginally quicker then a slug.
The weather is taking its toll on my positivism at the minute.
In Kerry it rained 65% of the time but when I got home the whole garden was parched and the water butts were really low.
The grass, of course, was knee-high (well, figuratively) but the stuff in pots outside the greenhouse was wilted. The one bloomin week that I go away, it turns into a drought!
I did emergency watering last night and a more extensive watering today and I’ll just have to wait and see if those potted plants revive!
Then, of course, after all that watering, it bucketed down this evening. We had hailstones even (for the second time this July)! Grrr!
A few photos from today…
For those of you who wanted to see how this Bad Boy turned out…
It’s last years oriental trumpet lily. It stands at least 4ft this year. I love this one. It rewarded me today.
No gardening here again. So all I can share with you is a few photos, and some nice ones of this evenings sunset.
Having been off sick for the last two and a half weeks, I decided to hurt my back on Wednesday. It looks like my sick leave may be extended. Feeling old, really old.
Well we are coming near to the end of our garden open season and are planning to have a bit of fun on our last day, Sunday August 5th. We are having a gardening treasure hunt, with prizes, during the course of the afternoon and I hope that anybody that comes will be game for the quizzing it will involve! Martin will be making wheatgrass shots (if his growing skills are up to scratch that is, as he has just sown a batch in readiness) the proceeds of his efforts will go to charity 🙂 Terra Nova Plants is going out with a bang and I am having a €1, €2, €3 sale of interesting and choice plants for that one day only. Plants will include Arisaemas, heucheras, titty fruit, gulp, and even some pretty hefty gunneras to those who get here early. There will also be homebaking (god help them) Fingers crossed for good weather and all being well the garden should be looking good, provided the slugs leave some of it to look at! Mr McWeedle, Billy Beggs, Finn & Cornish are so looking forward to it all and the fairies are coming over all of a flutter with the thought of it 🙂
When I visited June Blake’s Garden I was really taken by a plant with small white double flowers. I love anything with small white, especially double, flowers – Achillea ‘The Pearl’, Gypsophila, some forms of Camomile.
Anyway, I asked June what it was and was it for sale and she said she never planted it. It arrived with the birds and was ‘tansy’ and that she didn’t have it for sale.
Then we went round the back to look at something else and there was an enormous lump of this tansy, rooted up, and on the way to the compost. So, of course (I say ‘of course’ but there are many that wouldn’t be so kind), June said I could have it and I was really delighted it.
So now I’d really like to know what this plant is called. I’ve googled ‘tansy’ and get all kinds of nasty-looking yellow things. Can anyone help with an id.
By the way, the photos I took of June’s on 19th are up now and so are the ones of Jimi’s…
