Month: November 2012
I hope you all had the same sunny day as dawned here in Cork today. Cold yes but to have it bright is so good and cheering-upping. The Birds are very active today flitting all over the place and devouring peanuts. Took Meg for a walk to the highest point of the Great Island where the Water tower is. There are some fields up there great for dog walking as she can run around and have fun. Home and raked up some leaves and took a few photos. E.alata is just starting to colour, Liquidamber to my mind is the best shrub/tree for colour as it seems to have all the possible Autumn colours, while Cotinus has almost lost it’s leaves but the red with the sun shining through is very striking.
Meeting a friend for lunch in Ballyseedy tomorrow and hope to find a Kris Kindle for Johnstown.
i have many but the calendula made me smile. it is such a simple flower and still going despite the cold, i also loved the annual asters and vow to sow them next year also and alot more i also loved walking around what i had just created and all the hard work had been worth it, would check in on everyting everyday which was a change for me as i wasnt happy with the front garden before that.
next year i am looking forward to seeing my oriental poppies flower that i grew from seed earlier this year.
there is alot to look forward to in 2013 despite austerity and hardship we still have our gardens to keep us going
Oh dear, so many choices!
anemone de caen mr fokker:
Fast growing and free-blooming in mid spring, very attractive foliage and blue flowers.
Grows 8-10 inches tall, is an excellent cut flower and superb in containers.
Hazel has just asked those of us who put up Journals at this time as not much going on in the garden and it is either raining or to cold to be doing anything..to put up our favoutite plant….tree etc.
I have many and this photo of my Compassion Rose is one of mine as I only have it 3 years and this year it gave me a beautiful bunch of roses on the one branch ..
What is your favourite …
This photo is of a pot i planted up on my deck. So why is it a favourite? Well, I’m the first to admit that I am not very good at planting up pots or at minding them when they are planted. My pots usually look a bit sad, plants not growing very big, and flowering a bit sparse.
But this pot! Well it got off to a good start with a lovely Fuchsia from my sister Elizabeth and then I had a few bedding plants left over and stuck them in around the edge! I suspect that Elizabeth may have fed them for me when she visited …
but the net result was that this pot looked marvellous for months! so this photo records what for me was a real success!
that perishing wind coming down from the North Pole had BETTER bring us some really nice pressies on You-Know-Who’s sledge!
Part of the down side of this time of year is how we all withdraw into our cosy nests and leave the garden to its own devices – which of course also means that we have less things to do journals about …. so we get lonely for our online friends!
So those of you who feel you have nothing to do a journal about, how about going through all the lovely photos you took during the year and posting your favourite, with a comment about why it is your favourite!
I’m off now to go through the 906 photos I have in my 2012 folder to see if I can pick a favourite …….
Sown from seed. But as we didn’t get much sun over the summer, it was very slow to take off. And it never produced any seed. I dug it up and potted it, and brought it first into the greenhouse (the middle of September, I think). And then into the house a couple of weeks later.
It has now produced a few more leaves. Whether or not it develops seeds, which I doubt at this stage, it makes a nice change having something like this as a houseplant for a while.
We had our first harsh frost on Saturday night.
On Saurday I was looking at the Dahlias, still enjoying them while other people have theirs stored away already.
On Sunday morning the results of the frost was very evident on one bloom. It was perfect on Saturday, on Sunday it had turned to pure mush.
Some of the other blooms seem to be able to take frost much better. The effects on the foliage is starting to show alright so these are limited days for the last of these plants for this year.
I may even make it to December with some blooms showing ;-))
I noticed on Saturday that the leaves on this plant was showing lovely red down the veins of the leaves.
Would this be due to the frost or is it the norm at this time of year.
I like it a lot.
At work today, an Ezine was received from a company dealing with control of Japanese Knot Weed in UK. They offer an insurance backed guarantee as to eradication.
From reading their website, it appears that the UK take Japanese Knotweed a lot more seriously than here as do not think that we have such controls in place.
I suspect that Knotweed is a lot more prevalent than recorded here
Not really a gardening journal but having spent time on hands and knees cutting knotweed near base and then injecting hollow stem with neat round-up, one could say that we have history – hence the interest and my reporting of sightings to biodiversityIreland
https://apps.biodiversityireland.ie/InvasivesBrowser/speciesinfo.php?TaxonId=41674
This is what happens when you lack the courage of your convictions.
I wanted to let the flower spike of this cym orchid hand down, as they do in the wild.
But then I started worrying about lack of space and the weight of the flowers!
So, as you can see, the poor plant is rightly confused.
But a flower is a flower, no matter what, in my book!
November has seen a few frosty mornings and the first hints of winter. The colours in our arboretums and woodlands have been exceptional this year. I hope some of you got to see them.
Seasonal jobs are well underway, and the herbaceous border is next on our list for tidying. We had to wait until the overnight frosts came, and plants started to die back. It’s a little sad every autumn to see it fade away and it’s hard to imagine that all that lush growth will be back in abundance next year.
We have put our tree ferns to bed, well wrapped up to protect from the elements, or in some cases, moved indoors for the winter. Dicksonia antarctica is the common tree fern and is generally hardy in light frosts. The two hard winters that we had were just too much for them and a lot of people lost what were expensive specimens. We decided to replant but have been a lot more careful with winter protection. The crowns of our tree ferns are protected by first stuffing with straw, then using polystyrene to create a ‘box’ around them, which is then wrapped in horticultural fleece. This is a tried and tested method in the UK. For anyone who has a couple of specimens in their garden though, my advice would be to bring them indoors in a pot, and not take the risk.
A big job for us this time of the year is leaf collection. We compost a lot of our leaf litter, as it’s a free source of extremely good mulch for plants. Let’s face it the natural ways are usually the best! We do not however collect up the leaves from our main Lime tree avenue. These are pushed back under the trees to provide a protective mulch and feed for the snowdrop and bluebell bulbs that live there.
We are well into the planting season, and have just put in our first batch of rhododendrons and azaleas into the new Himalayan Walk. It’s actually starting to take shape now, which is satisfying for all concerned.
The latest new project is our Fern garden waterfall. This has been planned for several years, but due to the size and cost it has had to wait. We finally got the go ahead and it promises to be a real showstopper! It should dramatically add to the unique atmosphere in the Fern garden. Hopefully it will be completed by January, so watch this space.
Other jobs for November/December include: Pruning grape vines, once they are fully dormant, clearing of fallen leaves in the glasshouses and general tidying, lifting and dividing herbs and some herbaceous perennials, moving deciduous trees and shrubs, planting of bare root hedging, pruning established apple and pear trees once dormant, and shopping for Christmas presents!
Speaking of Christmas, all of us here in the gardens would like to wish everybody a very happy Christmas and a prosperous new year. We hope to see more of you in the gardens next year. Do make use of the season passes, as they represent excellent value for money. Adam
This is a fairly new addition to my garden. While cutting back stuff today, it was lovely to see red berries almost black at this stage.
Helleborus taken this morning and there are 3 of them self seeded am so happy as I did give a friend one and was so sorry afterwards but I was rewarded for my kindness, ha ha !.
Just thought I would put this lovely Euphorbia up as its colour and the way it shows off its silvery leaves …this is my favourite one at this time of the year.
I had no intention of doing any gardening today. Instead, I was concentrating on getting another painting finished before the opening of my Exhibition next Sunday in Ratoath Garden Centre. But sometimes, like a writer maybe, you come to a bit of a standstill. So, up and out to the garden for a different kind of therapy. And boy, did I have fun! Got crocosmias, asters, herbaceous clematis, plus lots more cut back. The greenhouse border is now looking devoid of all dead and dying looking foliage. Although there are a mighty lot of gaps. Dahlias have now blackened. Cut them back, but forgot to go back and dig them up!!
Had great pleasure in discovering two beautiful ‘double’ helleborus that I got last year. Found them still in their pots under some shrubs down at the back. Helleborus niger is almost flowering. Cut back the huge miscanthus sinensis ‘floridulus’ at the back of the Upper Pond. Now I can see a bare brick wall, but that can’t be helped. Also discovered seeds of something. Not sure if they’re iris seeds or a sisyrinchium. All I know is it has yellow flowers on a stem about 2ft high. Maybe someone can help here, please? I know Ladygardener sent me some sisyrinchium earlier in the year, but that never got planted, and died.
When I was finished outside, the paintbrush just rolled over the canvas unaided. However, it won’t be ready for next week. But the spell in the garden was just what I needed.
We went for a walk around Altamont Gardens today.
The leaves are almost finished falling but haven’t yet been collected up so it was a kind of in-between time to visit this normally immaculate garden.
There were Viburnum and Mahonia in flower. And one Daphne had a single flower. Other than that, it was the reflections that were the main attraction.
It started to rain when we were down by the 100 steps and we got quite drenched. But it was great to shake the cobwebs away. Then it was cream tea in the Forge restaurant afterwards and every one was happy 🙂
I thought it might be an idea if we were to pick plants that you would recommend form your garden. It can be recommended for whatever reason.
It can be anything, tree, shrub, perennial, annual, bulb etc etc.
The first plant I would like to recommend is a tiny plant that grows to the amazing height of 2.5 cm / 1 inch, called Cotula Platts Black or Leptinella. A fantastic fern like plant.
It is a ground cover plant, lovely foliage, and a range of colour from light green new growth to nearly black on mature growth.
It spreads fast without been invasive, compact would discribe it perfectly. It also seems to be a good weed suppressant. I have it planted in a couple of areas in the garden, the most recent in between the slabs of some paving, which it should fill in completely by next year, going on what I have seen to date.
I discovered a little while ago that it can also tolerate some walking on and does well in shade, so will be perfect in this area.
It also came through the bad winters with little or no damage at all.
A lot of other plants I could have picked, but this is a plant that is fit for purpose, year round interest, and just needs to be planted and left to do it’s own thing.
What plant would your pick?
The brugmansia sanguinea began blooming in August and has 8 trumpets flowering at the moment inspite of two frosty nights and lots of wind and rain. Lovely to see on a dull dark November aftyernoon!
If I get a chance at all on a Sunday afternoon I listen to Gardener’s Question Time on BBC Radio 4 just after 2pm. I find it very entertaining as well as informative.
One question today was about Salvia Hot Lips losing its red lips this year. This had been mentioned to me by my sister who has a plant. No one seemed to be very sure but they seem to think it might be missing potash because of it being washed away with such a wet summer. Has anyone on this site any other ideas? I would have thought too that it might be lack of sunshine as salvias in particular love the sun.
This is the plant that Liga gave me two years ago now.
It has flowerd all summer long. I was pleasantly surprised to spot this bud opening yesterday.
A very brave bud for sure, with last evenings rain followed by a bad frost.
Great to see it opening at the end of November all the same.
…… cleaned up leaves last weekend.
Looking at this lot again yesterday, old Mother Nature is having some fun with me.
I’m off Thus/Friday so will deal with them then.
Journal entry, photo entry? I’m not sure what the difference is? We’re celebrating Thanksgiving today with another American family, so I’m sneaking on to the computer as it is, so only time to upload one pic!
Thankful for so many blessings in my life. And ya know what? So very glad to have found this gardening community.
🙂
This morning I woke to the first really hard frost of the year. Having dragged myself out of my cosy bed, dressed and pulled back the curtains in the lounge I took pity on Puss and gave her some breakfast. While she was gobbling down her brekkie I set about filling the Bird Feeders – taking my life in my hands as the deck was like an ice-rink! Had to go out a second time with a hot kettle to thaw out the bird bath – totally frozen!
Of course, once I was out in the lovely crisp air I realised that there was another side to this hard frost – a photo-opportunity!
Back in, put on a jacket and went walkabout in my own Winter Wonderland!
I have a horrible feeling that this is only the first of many such mornings, but the first frost always has a special magic!
Can’t resist putting up a special “First Frost” Album.
All of the squirrels shown, are grey but here is a red squirrel, one that is native to our country. However he is not alive. He was shot in County Cork, many years ago by my uncle and i have him here in my sitting room. I have been told that these red squirrels are on the way back and the number in Counties Laois and Offaly is growing.
