Month: August 2012

I like this combination borrowed it from Rachel de Thame on Gardeners world some years ago

Is mother nature confused with all this unusual weather?  I have noticed a flower or two on viburnum plicata marseii in August but never this

Sacred Bamboo (Heavenly Bamboo) is taking on its Autumn hues. Lovely shrub for a small garden.

i only sowed these seeds on tuesday and they had appeared by saturday, they are wallflowers and a glimpse of sweet williams and bellis perennisis, moved them out to the tunnel today because they were getting a little leggy despite turning them everyday, now they will have better light but need to watch for scorching. 

spotted my first geum lady stradtheden, i am over the moon. 

just pottered about today, this morning it was like a monsoon forest here with the rain coming fast and furious. it dried up, garthered up tomatoes from the tunnel 

when I see this with the sun coming up behind it! I took this yesterday morning, a bright sunny morning with a clear blue sky:) It didnt last the day 🙁  

This morning was very dark and wet but mustnt complain as we dont get the extremes of other countries. Its one of those days where I am trying very hard to be positive!

Yesterday while doing a bit of cutting back in the greenhouse border I spotted a hint of red from the corner of my eye. Wahoo! ‘Lucifer’ has decided to perform. Good job I hadn’t pulled it up a few weeks ago when I thought it wasn’t going to do anything for me. Hacked back lots of branches of Fremontodendron so as not to hinder my viewing. Really looking forward to seeing this display, even if it’s only a small one. Hopefully it will improve as the years go by.

Sedums starting to come into their own now – love the colour of this one

I Like this bit of planting in the garden – Did not get a great pic but could you help me with the Id of the two grasses thanks

is no truth in it AT ALL!

Word was going round in the lower reaches of the Scrub -what can you expect?- that Scrubber was gettin’ above hisself!  ‘Mr Scrubber was in Mrs Dillon’s garden in Dublin yesterday and he called Mrs Dillon, Helen, no less and Mr. Blake, ‘Jimmi’!!! And he had never even met Mr. Blake before! ‘Shocking!’. ‘I blame it on the Planter’. ‘I think that Planter has given Mr Scrubber notions above his station-to quote Sr Josephine!’. Do you mean that planter that he is always now  talking and even boasting about?’ ‘Yes, the hand -crafted, hand- oiled, wondrously-shaped, eucalyptus-wood planter that he got yesterday from Mr. Fran!’.

‘Well it is a lovely planter but why would it make Mr. Scrubber get ‘above hisself?’. ‘Well Cherub Lute says its very original and can’t be bought anywhere else in ireland so no one else can have one’ and Cherub Cymballs said ‘Its the exact shape for where he wanted it’ and they both say ‘its made ,of course by Mr. Fran so that makes it an art object as well as a planter’ ‘So its no wonder poor Mr. Scrubber’s head got a little turned then’

‘Pity though, cos basically Mr. Scrubber’s a nice normal man’. At this stage Cherub intervened quite forcibly and told them all they didnt know what they were talking about and had best be quiet before Mr. Scrubber got wind of what was up and he would be ‘very hurt’. Scrubber Statue agreed. And Cherub added quietly ‘but you are quite right of course in one thing, It is a lovely planter!’

to mention autumn ?  I know the words W***** and Ch ( the season of good will to all men) are banned from the site so I hope I won’t upset anyone when I say that some of my plants are taking on their autumn hues. 

Don’t have a name for this one, but I like it’s straight upright growing habit. Great strong colours.

I was reading in the IG mag today that it’s not to late to take cuttings so will do that tomorrow.

At last I have got an orchid to bloom after a year. all others I had in bloom were so when they arrived. I am overjoyed with this.

What a wonderful day! I enjoyed meeting so many friendly people in a beautiful garden on a (mostly) sunny afternoon. Other photographers have captured No.45’s charms perfectly so I’ll just add a few here.

Hi all.  Haven’t been very active on this site for the past few months due to the preparations for the big move to OZ.  Flights booked for 20th September so not long to go now.  Just thought I’d share a pic of my new aussie garden. – not so much a garden as a pool and sheltered eating/resting area – Hardship I know but someone has to do it!

As we are heading out into mid-spring/early summer time over there, I shall have to get my fix of glorious autumn colours and winter hellebores from all your pics.  I shall keep logging on to keep in touch.

Thanks to all of you that I have managed to meet with over the past year or two and to everyone on this site who have shared their knowledge and offered advice and encouragement so willingly.  Gardeners really are the best!

I am not one for placing plants together to look good, ‘maybe some day’.

I tend to have a pot luck attitude.

Not sure about this mixture, but it does make you luck twice.

Aong with the sun in the sky, these Rudbeckia are about to put on a great sunny display in the garden, lots of buds to open yet.

Lovely morning here, enjoy  ;-))

I saw a notice on local Tesco Board for compeition – the best photo of Croagh Patrick would win a 40 euro gift card to spend on anything in Tesco.  Had taken some photos of CP down at the Quay and a couple of them came out great, even if I do say so myself.  Anyways, guess who won the 40 euros – I DID!!!!!  Winning photo with my name now on Notice Board down at Tesco!!! 

I couldn’t resist posting this photo of the sun going down behind Fremontodendron yesterday.

Nothing more to add to what has already said”  I had a great day full of gardens and lovely friendly people.

I have been looking at all the photos and am sure if I put mine up they will not be half as good ….but will put a few up.

Thanks to all for a lovely end to the Summer,    it rained a lot but this garden realy did enjoy it so full of colour at this time .

A big thanks to Bruno for a great day.

Though I have often visited Helen’s garden it was lovely to do so in the company of so many enthusiastic .iers.  It was great to meet some old friends and make some new ones.   Thanks Bruno for organising the event.  I had a great time in such a wonderful garden in the company of like-minded gardeners.

Well, as Myrtle and Jemo have already said, we had a lovely time this afternoon in Helen Dillon’s garden in Ranelagh.  You’ll see from the photos who was there, though somehow I didn’t manage to get one featuring the organiser of the day, so many thanks Bruno for a great visit and to everyone for your company and the chat.

It’s quite a while since my last visit to the Dillon garden.  On previous occasions I was there in spring and early summer and what struck me today was the sheer exuberance of this garden in late summer.  The herbaceous plants were enormous, colours stunning, and of course so many rare and unusual plants.  Like Myrtle, I’ll need educating so am looking forward to IDs on the album she has put up. 

And the weather was kind too until we were leaving! 

We had a great couple of hours at Helen Dillon’s this afternoon.  It was lovely to catch up with some of ‘the gang’ and the weather was good to us.

While checking out the plant sales area, couldn’t but notice this very colourful composting area. It is without doubt the nicest compost heap I have ever seen :-))

Thanks again to Bruno for organising everything.

Myrtle, here is mine. I had thought that it was ‘willmotianum’. The leaves on your one seem to be much more lime green than mine.

Cave at a standstill today as Steve got drafted into work. I decided to have a ‘chill out’ day from the garden. But spent my day painting. 

When Steve got in, I could see he had itchy feet. He was like a ‘hen on a hot griddle’, until I got all the materials out so we could continue with the fibreglassing of the cave. I was surprised that we managed to get about 2hrs outside before another shower. Every layer is closer to the completion of our final project. Funny, but looking at the work in progress, it reminded me of a camel, with the humps.

Thank you Bruno for bringing us together for a lovely afternoon, we were blessed with the weather and the company was good. I hope, Michele, that you didnt feel too intimidated by us all, it was lovely meeting you and hope to see you often.

I am not going to put up all the photos that I took, instead I am going to ask you to be patient with me and fill me in on names of plants. I need educating:)

Here’s the first 3! I will be putting up an album!