Month: December 2012

Hazel is organizing the Christmas get-together so this is just a small query. I will be going on holidays shortly. And as I will be doing the name tags for the Christmas get-together, I need to how many people will be attending. I may have to travel further afield to get the blank tags. I won’t be back until a few days before Johnstown, so I don’t want to leave it until the last minute.

Also, I’d like to know if there is going to be some kind of raffle. I will donate one of my paintings if there is. 

Just dusting off my Christmas hat now.

I haven’t been doing very much in the garden recently. Except getting out and filling up the bird feeders. I had thought that I’d never see a goldfinch here again, put out some niger seed. It has taken them about two weeks to find it. I love their markings, and colouring. It’s good to have them back.

Thanks to everyone who shared their window views in response to my last journal. It’s about time I posted another one, ay? So here we are…

I’m not a big fan of the winter, especially it’s cold, dull, short days. Luckily, there are a few plants in my garden that seem to posses a warm glow at this time of year.

My current favorite is this hardy ginger, Hedychium densiflorum ‘Assam Orange’. In late summer it’s a mound of lush foliage topped by spikes of spidery orange flowers.

Then in Autumn, seed capsules crack open to reveal scarlet-red fleshy berries. Sooner or later, in flows winter, but this plant isn’t quite ready to give up just yet.

In its final farewell, it gifts me with golden leaves, and beautiful glowstick-like red stems…their warm glow making early Winter days that bit cheerier.

So which plants are warming your Winter days?

I have an aquatic yellow flower in the pond and last year divided it up for neighbors and put one down by the stream.

This moring I saw that it had flowered yet its season is late spring – early summer.

I’ve called it water buttercup but on Google perhaps its ‘yellow water lily’

Any collaboration is welcome.

If it is the latter I might be starting an ecological problem as in some countries its labelled as a noxious weed. It has grown many time larger in flower, leaf and body than in the pond and spreading downstream on its own.

Another surprise was the Japanese anemone. Smiling sweetly in the cold and the rain it was a most welcome sight.

I’m not keen on roses as they are high maintenace and most don’t like my soil. But, fair dues to ‘Dublin Bay’. It grows all summer and is still out in profusion in spite of neglect.

Sensible people are commenting that it’s too cold and wet for gardening. But the hedging arrived so nothing for it but to get out there! Haven’t quite finished – not as masochistic as we were 20 years ago, but we have only 50 or so plants left to do when we get back from England, and they’re safely heeled in the soil bank. So last weekend we planted another dozen mixed elder, rowan, crab apple and aspen, on Wednesday 3 native apples from Irish Seedsavers finished off the ‘orchard’, and over 3 days we’ve just put in hawthorn, blackthorn, field maple, ribes, red dogwood, guelder rose and dog roses. Aching, tired and very soggy, but soooo satisfying. And comforting too to be planting new growing things when Alan’s dad is so very ill – we don’t know whether our visit next weekend will be to say goodbye. If he doesn’t survive this illness the hedge will be his memorial. But we still hope that one day he’ll be able to come and see it all. 

i just love this photo. its so bright and beautiful… hope you like it too.

Even at this dull time of the year, things are happening out there.

Take a look and see what you might find.

Stopped the car to answer the phone. Looked up at the leafless trees and found this phenonemum.

The leaves around the street lamp hadn’t succumbed to gravity as they still had a bit of life in them thanks to the heat from the lamp. Well, that’s my theory anyway.

Quote by Emily Dickinson;

‘My garden is all covered by snow;picked gilliflower Tuesday, now gilliflowers are asleep.

The hills take off their purple frocks, and dress in long white nightgowns.’

I wondered what a gilliflower was and it is similar to the pink. I took my camera outside to take a picture of a last flower and like Emily’s it had gone to sleep. Hard luck Sruthain!

I did a journal some time back of Fuchsia microphylla, and it’s ongoing flwering.

Yesterday I took this photo, it is still in full flower and no sign of it stopping what so ever.

One to consider if anyone is looking for a plant witha long flowering time span.

I was hoping to have Dahlia’s in flower in the garden for the 1st Dec.

I was working today and am just in from the garden, the yellow ones were wiped out last night. But these one are still doing ok.

I took the photos yesterday, in case I could use them.

Happy days.

There’s not much gardening happening here at them moment.

I took some photos of my orchids and did a bit of staking.

I had to put up a photo of this orchids (currently my favourite) in case anyone missed it last time 🙂

Well today the only gardening I did was walking around and taking a few pictures, and hanging some sheets out (they actually mostly dried outside despite the cold). As Fran was writing in his journal, there are so many plants showing signs of growth already, it’s great!

I noticed that the Sarcococca has some really nice coloured berries at the moment, I like the way they are not all the same colour, and have different shades of pink and purple. The variegated holly also has a few berries, but the only ones visible are under some leaves. I think the birds got the other ones… It’s been said before I know, but Sarcococca is definitely a very good plant to have in the garden.

To day the work was confined mainly to the greenhouse. Why? Simply that it was too cold to work outside. Perhaps Fran was in T shirt and shorts but not I. Pruning the vine has been completed. Some work was done on it earlier but I felt that some of the branches were too near the others and so the secateurs was introduced. One member seemed interested in the branches I pruned. Some tying of the branches of the vine was carried out. The other type of work was that done on the bubble wrap. A certain amount of work was done here although not complete. Last night even inside, it was quite cold like Wednesday night so I put on a quilt full of sheep’s wool, which I used to call The Sheep, when I was very young. In no time I was sound asleep. 

Jacinta you commented on me still having leaves on my Sumach. This tree is is always much later than others around here to loose its leaves.

No idea why.

The leaf colour this year is very diappointing compared to other years.

One thing I have enjoyed every winter over the last few years was the little red apples on my Malus Red Sentinel. There would brighten the dullest day from November to March. This year I even had blossom and fruit from last year at the same time.

While I ws working on this area yesterday I heard a noise and looked up. A squirel was running along the top of the fence, jumped onto the tree, took an apple and ran back along the fence, only to be met by another one who did the same thing.

Judging by what was left last evening, there will be nothing left by today.

Sad in one way, but such is the way of nature.

As I was cutting things back in this area, the amount of things I saw getting ready for next year was great. The best was the first shoots of Dicentra breaking the soil. Really does you good to see these signs.

Into December already! Happy Days. Sorry about not being online much last night. I need a new charger for my laptop and I’m trying to restrict my ‘plugged in’ time. Hopefully I will buy a replacement today. 

Happy December, everyone! And wrap up warm today if you’re outside.