Month: April 2013

I have a few Viburnums in the garden as they seem to do very well for me. This is one of my favoiurites. The scent from the white flowers is beautiful this time of year. The leaves are a lovely glossy green that turn to lovely hues in the Autumn.

Does anyone know which Viburnum this is?

Outside the greenhouse i have set up my plans for dipping trays.Once that happens then they will be drained alongside,and back in to the greenhouse.Those heading for the tunnel will have similar.Some trays will need moving on later in the week but thats another story.The Potato bags are growing well in the greenhouse and similar with the Brassica trays etc.Another plan that will need setting up will be for shade in the greenhouse in a short while,we hope.Time to have a quick check overall in the tunnel now,for the next fifteen minutes.

Rhodo flower buds are starting to swell and here are a couple that have flowered already. The first is the species R.hippophaeoides and the second is the dwarf hybrid R.ginny gee. The third photo is a general shot of the right hand corner of the garden. Plenty of Rhodo shots to come in the next few weeks.

Thanks again with all your advice about plants etc for this area on a previous journal.

I will not get back to it until later in the week now.

The weather is still strange,but not to bad.

Weeds appear fast,so the garden hoe will be in full use.

Plans for very early in the morning will be feeding some areas and back tomorrow night all going well to the greenhouse,for a short while.

Slugs are warming up to attack and have paid a visit already,but now its time for the battle stations with them.

Some special plants what is in flower right now in my garden.First one,Arisaema amurense,,lovelly little thing,right size for my windy garden.2th-Anemone nemorosa Vestal,so sweet,and 3th,,i’m not sure what variety Muscaris it is but i love it,it look like some one turned on light on top of it,,very nice.

  I added other my special 🙂 plants photos in my Spring album if you have interest.

Can anyone give me the names of these two plants please. I moved the green one over the winter and didn’t realise the big brown leafed one was so close. They look as if they will get quite big and I will have to move one. The green one was eaten by slugs last year so I have not seen how big it gets, or its flower.

This tree is in full bud just now, I always love to see the buds opening on this tree.

I have planned a few bits of planting around this tree.

One is Sambucus ‘black lace’ which is a few feet away, I really hope these will work together, time will tell.

Got my pelargonium order today from https://www.fibrex.co.uk/   ,poor plants where in box for week,surprised for so long delivery time.Got 14 from 15 what i order,they even didn’t give me option to choose other pelargonium to replace that one what they didn’t have….One pelargonium feel out of plug,no roots at all,good it wasn’t one of regals or species.Moved in to house Pelargonium triste and pelargonium Renata Parsley,Renata looked really bad.

  Bit disapointed,but hope all will be ok,and plants will recover.

Thanks for all the sympathy last week, I got the greenhouse fixed up this week and it didn’t cost as much as I thought it would, but I had a few hiccups but its done now. Transplanted the tomato plants and continued tidying up the edges on Sat. Transferred some seeds to the repaired greenhouse. Sat. was a lovely day. Planted the dahlias out, so will be hoping the frost has gone.

I put up a journal on March 25th about all the young Lily shoots I had in the pot. I decided to leave well enough alone for this year.

I’m amazed at the amount of Lillies that will flower this year. I planted 6 bulbs in this pot two years ago. 

This year there should be 14+ flowering, that is what really brings a satisfying grin to us gardeners.

Inspite of the cold wind nature is triumphing and exporting its glory for all to see.

I think that the yellow of the lesser celandine harmonises with the blue of the grape hyacinth.

The newly planted dafs on the far side of the bank are still in flower. The ‘pink ones’ planted last winter break the trade description act big time although when looked at closely there is a hint of the colour described.

The stream has subsided to it normal yellow and there were a pair of ducks house hunting. Although the camera was at hand they were two quick for me.

The hens have been replaced with blavk variety which I have forgotton the name of already but our youngest granson, age 4, came with me to select them along with some goldfish to replace the ones gobbled uo by a hungry heron.

He named the hens, wait for it, Toothpaste, Toothbrush and Rusty. This was said with a twinkle in his eyes. Is he codding me at this age already?

I have been busy for the past few days I was at a Wedding on Friday and on our way home we visited Howeys as we had stayed at the Hotel on Friday ….so getting back to normality I hope .

Took   some photos with my new camera which I am still learning about and will put some up .

I was so annoyed to see my Tulips up and not what I bought and will be back to the shop …as they were advertised as The Icecream   Tulips.

‘Mr Scrubber looked a right Monty Don today didn’t he?’ said Cherub Cymbals with a sardonic smile on his cherubic face. ‘Onty –on’ ‘Onty –on’  from the lower reaches of the Scrub. ‘Do you mean, when he was standing at his new potting table?’ asked Statue Scrubber who in his simplicity wouldn’t recognize sarcasm if it sat down beside him. ‘Ackshually I thought he looked very well. It reminded me shomewhat of once…’. Just then Mr Scrubber passed by on his way down to a big rock so voices were stilled for a minute.

In fact Scrubber had indeed felt very Monty Donnish and  almost as much a gardener as Rachel or Michelle or the Gracedieu Duo or Bil or Fran or Elizabeth or Jacinta or….the list is endless—to be actually standing at his potting table and filling pots with compost and putting in three sweet -pea seeds in each. So much so that he actually asked Anna to record the event-the man has NO shame!

Earlier that morning in the attic he had found a very precious bag containing packets of Seeds given as a present last year by Hilary’s daughter and put away so carefully I couldn’t find them again! These were all plants that my dear friend of forty years who passed away two years ago had loved so I was really pleased to find them.

Next out to the veg patch and put in three different rows of cabbages plants, one of cauliflower and some celery plants and netted the lot as I don’t want to share with the pidgeons! Then down to Scrub and revealed the Titan! This is the biggest rock of the trinity which are three huge boulders very nicely placed in the Scrub-by Nature not by Scrubber. As it was almost lost in the undergrowth  I took off all the moss and herb Robert and dug a bit to release more of its massive side and it matches the other one that  came more into focus when the Hawthorn tree went. (If you have read earlier journals you know where I am!) Am going to keep it fairly in view but allow the ferns to grow beside it as lovely contrast.

In then and washed and had tea. And then later went out and thought! (always dangerous) ‘Now if I actually moved that front rock-this was far away from the Titan  at the foot of the steps up to Lord Buddha Id make a nice first step. And in about fifteen minutes the deed was done!

This morning I went out and cut grass around daffs and snowdrops and I also spared the sheets of blue speedwell on the lawn. I always leave them there to bloom until they go over. They are so lovely. Then in the last fifteen minutes I thought that if I shifted the stone a bit the top would align with the one on the other side and the face would work well at the front. Did this but then  thought ‘If I can make the left side an inch lower and the right side an inch higher it should be perfect! ‘A bit of earth packing and gentle twisting. Cherub didn’t even have to help and  the people on the river bank were startled by a great shout from the weird man inside the hedge ‘PERFECTION!’. Just as well it was too far away for Cherub Cymbals to have overheard. Cherub himself just smiled quietly at the simple joys of Mr Scrubber.

Feverfew (Evelyn) gave me this about 2 or 3 yrs ago. Planted it into my Acid Triangle. It has gone from bad to worse for some reason. Potted it up a couple of months ago after discovering something had been eating it, nothing apparent. It has improved immensely since then and is even starting to flower, but it’s not going back into the garden. My plants have to earn their keep.

Who wants this Skimmia? I’m not holding on to it for long.

I got back to a spot of gardening today.

The garden really seems to be trying its best to grow at the minute.

I noticed Fritellaria, Erythronium and Sanguinaria looking really well right now.

The Amalanchier has also just come into flower, ahead of the Magnolia.

I think it’s going to be that sort of year!

I visited Altamont last Saturday with our visitors and it’s really looking super.

I hope to put up a small album in the next few days but, for the moment, this is the only photo.

As if all that previous lot wasn’t good enough, Aldi have great offers from Sunday 5th May. 

Gardening aprons €6.99 for all you people who tend to lose their secateurs and stuff.

Gardening trousers (which I am particularly interested in, but not keen on the colour. They need to get a bit dirty) €11.99 complete with knee pads.

Plus a whole host of bargains. Check out the website.

Same shop, Lidl, Saturday 4th May, Hostas €2.99,

Lavender, Ceanothus, 

Genista Lydia €2.99

Spirea ‘Snowmound’ €2.99

Cistus €2.99

and Dianthus. 

Lidl have lots of really good bargains this coming Thursday 2nd May. And no, I don’t get commission, although I should!

Geraniums, trailing, variegated, zonal, Osteospermums. All for good prices.

Tree Peonies (suffruticosa) in 13cm pots – pink, red, purple and orange for €7.99.

Hydrangea €7.99

Shrub Peony (lactiflora) 18cm pot €9.99

Standard Fuchsia €9.99

Acers in 10L pots €39.99

Clematis €5.99

Field Orchid €3.99

Primula denticulata €2.49

Plus lots of bedding, fruit and veg.

All at very affordable prices whether you’re on a tight budget or not. Happy shopping, Folks. This is the ‘real’ start of it.

Close to the town where I work there’s a small area of damp ground on the edge of an old estate that is slowly returning to a somewhat naturalised condition, Hazel and other native trees are creeping in but around their feet can be found many thousands of the non native skunk cabbage, Lysichiton americanus enjoying conditions in NW Ireland, far from its NW American homeland. 

It’s a pretty cool sight in late spring, when the large yellow spathes unfurl from below ground releasing their deep, musky but not entirely unpleasant odour, pulling in beetles to pollinate the flower. The massive paddle shaped leaves which will expand further over the next month grow to well over a meter in length, so walking among them you can almost imagine having a snails eye view of entering a patch of oversized Cos lettuce. Not that you’d be tempted to nibble a leaf, they’re highly poisonous being full of calcium oxylate, though the native American Indians did eat them in hard times by thoroughly cooking them to remove the poisonous element.

The RHS advises that it isn’t planted in areas where there is a danger of its escape but I think here it doesn’t really pose too great a threat.
This area is surrounded by road and farmland, so it’s unlikely to spread beyond its present site and there are no streams (only drainage ditches with no outlets) that will carry seeds to other areas, so it is pretty well confined where it grows.

I’ve been a bit tied up with guests the last few days but now they have gone.

This Dendrobium orchid opened recently so I thought I’d put up a photo.

I got it, as a division, in January from LindaB, who originally got a keiki from RitaD, a lady who used to look into this site.

When Linda gave it to me it had swellings for buds but I was sure that they would abort and turn into keikis because of all the disruption the plant had experienced. But they didn’t and now the flowers have opened.

I think it is Dendrobium nobile Starclass ‘Purple’ but I could be mistaken.

Thank you, Linda. Off to do some gardening now.

I got this interesting little gem at the Rehab Gardening Centre in Listowel.I just love the little trumpet shaped flowers on it. I must find a nice spot in the garden for it. Anyone have one and can give me ideas.?

I went to the seminar with Dermot O’ Neill on Saturday last on “the restoration of Clondeglass” .It was really brilliant. it was so informative and he was so knowledgeable about all aspects of gardening. He has a magnificant display of roses in Clondeglass and named them all and how to take care of them.

He took questions and answers afterwards.

I got lots of great tips which i must share with you over time.

One of the things he said which surprised me was how to stop black spot on roses. he said to use equal parts of full fat milk and water and spray over a few weeks and seemingly it works a treat.

He also used a great trick to fix hedges  – especially Grizelina that were killed off during the bad winter of 2010.

He said that if one was killed off between two others – to tie the branches of the remaining two around each other and they will continue to grow and there will be no spaces in the hedge.

All in all it was very good and I would strongly recommend a seminar with him if it comes to a venue near you.

I think April showers is an appropriate title! It’s been pretty damp and dreary overall but on the positive side the overnight temperatures have started to creep up and this has spurred things into growth. Anemone ‘Mr Fokker’ (see pic) is just one of many stunning flowers out at the moment. Our azalea and rhododendron beds are beginning to flower too.

We have just begun sowing our new wildflower areas around the estate. The seed we are using is all of local origin, and is wild collected. This will add significantly to the biodiversity of the grounds and gardens. It will provide food and shelter for numerous species of insects, birds and larger animals and should also look great when they all come into flower.

There have been a lot of ‘housekeeping’ jobs to do this month, including mulching beds, edging lawns, pruning and tidying shrubs and when possible a little bit of weed killing on the hard surfaces. I find if you get on top of things early, it makes it a lot easier later.

Jobs for the next few weeks: Plant indoor tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers if you haven’t already, start to tie in and pinch out growth on the grape vine, thin indoor peaches to ensure a good quality crop, sow herbs in six packs and then plant out when they reach a manageable size, this also works well for lettuce. Watch out for slug damage and check for greenfly both indoors and out. A good tip for dealing with greenfly is mix some washing up liquid and water in a jug to make a lot of foam, then apply this foam directly to the infested areas to completely cover the aphids. It works very well! Beer traps can be a good way of dealing with slugs, but personally I can never spare the beer! I still use slug pellets, but I put them in other areas of the garden well away from the vegetables.

The blustery weather saw a few smaller trees down around the estate and these have been put to good use making rustic benches. You can find them in various areas including the fern garden and riverbank walk.

We recently donated a new polytunnel to the local school in Blarney (Scoil Chroí Íosa) and I hope this helps to introduce a new generation to horticulture. There is a huge learning potential in gardening, from the basics of seed sowing and growing your own vegetables, right through to advanced biology and chemistry of being able to ‘micropropogate’ cuttings in test tubes.

The new jungle border is starting to come together, but there’s still a long way to go yet. We recently took stands at Fota Plant Fair and Clare Garden Festival to advertise the gardens and also this years Blarney in Bloom (13^th July) and while there picked up quite a few rare and interesting plants.

Speaking of Blarney in Bloom, it’s shaping up well. There will be a lot of additional features this year, with a programme of gardening talks from expert speakers, the birds of prey returning, interactive arts and crafts displays, specialist plant nurseries, live music and children’s entertainment. It is all in aid of the Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind. Anyone wishing to take part please drop me a line at: blarneygardens@blarneycastle.ie                    

I look forward to seeing you in the gardens. Adam