Month: October 2013

More commonly known as Pheasant’s Berry, this shrub is so easy to grow and has such an interesting flower and berries that I’m surprised that more gardens dont have it.

Mine was knocked to ground level in the bad winters but came back happily enough once the weather warmed up.

Anyone interested in going to visit Mount Usher on Thursday 10th. at about 10.30am.

Can’t gaurantee the weather but the Autumn colours should be starting to show their best side.

This is a lovely fuchsia that I have had in the garden for years. No need for a name – it’ll still be my favourite.

Woke up this morning to the patter of rain and was so delighted as the garden realy neded it , I have been treating the grass over the past few cuttings and YES     the rain played it’s part. 

We walked the walk to Greystones via the cliff walk and rain stayed away ,we stopped for lunch in Greystones before we headed back it was so nice , we were so lucky as when we arrived back to Bray it started to rain again 

Having just read the latest issue of The Irish Garden, I’m very tempted to hack out a hole and plant a vine on the east-facing gable. Something self-supporting but less manic than a Virginia creeper. Any ideas? 

I’ll give it some thought while bulb-planting….

At our last Christmas get-together Bruno and Conrad were organising the Kris Kindle.

All the numbers were called, one after the other, and still I was sitting there. In the end I realised that I was the only person not to be called (those tricky boys!).

Anyway, when I was called and came up to claim the last pressie, it turned out to be the lovely blue pot pictured.

So, a great big thank you from me to the anonymous person who put this lovely pressie in.

PS Has anyone else noticed that the spell check is now no longer available on garden.ie???

…………….when I bought this plant. But it is a difficult plant to photograph as it has such fine foliage. I had it in the ground for a couple of years and it made very little growth, so I was going to give up on it but decided to put it in a pot. It has still grown very slowly but I am pleased that I kept it. I havnt seen one anywhere else so would be interested to know has anyone got one. It is an unusual Nandina.

These photos were taken a couple of weeks ago and I like the rain drops on the leaves.

Snapped this one at the weekend.

I put up a Journal about a Hellebore that’s flowering out of season.  I was going to cut all the flowers off but then, thanks to Perriwinkle (who was horrified) , I changed my mind!!!  Tuesday I went to visit a friend  who had a bowl of water with pansies floating in.  As you can see from photo I immediately thought of my Hellebores and yesterday I did cut the flowers off but they are now at home floating in water!!!    

The rain is coming down again. Oops, there’s thunder!

No chance of planting bulbs.

I can’t figure out where to put the large number of Narcissus ‘Geranium’ that I recently bought. I bought them for a particular area but they’re not suitable for it after all.

There is always the problem with daffodils that, if you plant them in grass, you can’t cut the grass until June and the whole place looks messy. But if you plant them in borders, the foliage chokes everything else.

Hmm, another cup of tea and another coat of thought required!

I came across this growing in altamont and searched everywhere for it

I tried seeds ,but they failed to germinate

Then myrtle kindly offered me a piece from her garden ,which she sent with Rachel

It sulked for a while when i planted it first,but now just look at it

Thank you myrtle so much

I took some cuttings from a plant we had while we were in Spain and it has struggled up to last year and this is it today ….now it is going to drop all the lovely leaves and start all over again .   I am going to try and pot it on and see what happens ..

It’s raining cats and dogs at the moment and doesn’t look like it’s going to clear up any time soon. In the meantime, the pumpkin pulp and stringy bits are on the stove. 

Let’s hope the rain stops so I can get my new planter planted up.

I plucked this little baby from its mother plant in Lanzarote four years ago. It’s doing well. It’s alive, so with MY record, that’s considered ‘doing well’. Conrad has identified this as Agave attenuata.

After looking at all the work Peter has done this weekend, it has put me to shame. Nothing done Saturday, apart from making up a silly planter. Absolutely NOTHING done yesterday except baking, going out to lunch, and generally lazing about.

It’s another awful morning here in the Capital. But nothing planned to distract me from the garden, and there are still lots of bulbs to be planted. Although, I do have some One4all vouchers to spend. Hmmmm, and I notice there are a couple of garden centres that take these.

Enjoy your day, whatever you get up to!

I don’t ever remember a year when so many plants waited until October to get started! This was free with Irish Garden a few years ago , I’ve forgotten its name, though someone was able to tell me a year or two ago. Senior moments I’m afraid!

Thats what this photo reminded me of when I saw the mix of colours.

I really love when people come to visit. I know that most of you think that I make all my visitors work for their supper but this weekend I had a visit from my brother who is a total non-gardener! We spent the weekend just lazing about and chatting so no progress has been made on the willow hurdles for the moment. 

I went to Dublin with him yesterday afternoon and having got the shoes I went up for I still had an hour to spare before my train so I headed up to Chapters where I got a second-hand copy of a delightful book – “Dear Friend and Gardener” – a collection of letters between Beth Chatto and Christopher Lloyd. Made a good start on it on the train home.

Did one of those “if i can’t garden at least I can photo” walks and was delighted to see how two of my Persicaria in particular have flourished. The “Red Dragon” from Rachel a couple of years ago wasn’t happy with its position so I moved it and it is rewarding me by actually flowering! The second photo is  Persicaria Campanulata I got in Mount Venus last year. It is a bit of a thug so may have to move – but for this time of year it is a mass of flowers which start deep pink in the bud and gradually lighten as they open. It is beside the drive which also has these self-seeded Cerinthe (from this years plants!) flowering away! I’m dying to see how many of them will survive the winter – I even have some that appeared where I had plants last year. They sprang up at the end of the summer and are now also flowering!

The flowers on this plant are a bit strange but I have it planted beside some Ajuga Repans and the contrasting foliages are lovely! 

I have one here that’s about to flower! Can’t believe how early it is considering that most plants have been late! It’s very welcome though.

These apples werepicked on Monday. They are a late variety and grew on the same tree as the cookers. They are grafted. Can somebody give the name?

My ‘harvest’ of leeks picked this morning. It’s amazing what can be accomplished in a humble little window box. Leek and Potato/bacon soup on the hob as we speak. And even though I’ve just stepped up from the dinner, I may make soup my dessert. It smells delish!

The colder weather must be having an effect on me as I am doing a lot more cooking/baking in the last week.

Very surprised to see Campanula Elizabeth in flower again the other day. There are about fifteen buds still to open if the weather allows.

as you know i have two phormiums but the thing is they have never put up a flowerstalk, i seen them in flower on the arann islands in the summer but i have mine 2 years and nothing.

i havent split the phormiums yet ( maybe saturday) as i have still a load of bulbs to plant and tidying to do. i think if the weather stays anyway mild i will try to put the phormiums  in the garden once i have cleared the beds. peter ( pwiseman) is doing such a brilliant job of his garden, mine is a jungle at the moment and i ddint want to to pull out the cosmos as they are still giving great show, loads to do but i am not going to fret as there is only so much i can do, the veg beds need doing also. there are plenty of saturdays between now and spring to do the clearing etc and put down fym, the veg beds will then be covered and given a years break.

sorry i have photos in the camera to put up but havent had a chance hopefully at the weekend and hopefuly i will have more to add by then

I got little beauty as a very small cutting last month from Rachel and I just noticed this tiny flower on it …it is just so perfect .

Thank you Rachel…I love it.

Does anyone know what this is?

I promised to let you know when I received my Autumn order of Rhodo species and I got them all planted today. So from left to right there is R.arboreum var cinnamomeum which is a most magnificent large growing tree. Next is R.orbiculare which I got for its lovely shaped leaves. Then there is R.tsariense which has beautiful indumentum. Next is R.williamsianum which is the parent species of many fine hybrids. Then there is R.brachyanthum var roseum, a very fine dwarfish species. Second last is R.charitopes which has aromatic foliage and finally there is A.schlippenbachii, which is considered to be one of the finest of all deciduous species. As time goes on I will post photos of each with more information such as flower colour etc. A week or so ago  I posted a photo of my C.sasanqua and I’m delighted to report it has now opened many more flowers. Good times.