Month: September 2014

I hadn’t ever heard of this but saw it in the 3 for 10euro section at Mallow Garden Festival and as it said it was good in shade I bought it. I didn’t expect anything until next year but today spotted a lovely yellow flower on it! My other buys that day were Epimedium and Rodgersia.

I saw this for the first time a few years ago in Fota house gardens and was smitten. I have it now for about 3 years and this year it has produced quite a number of spikes. I took this pic a few days ago and there are many more spikes now….yes I should have taken another….duh!

I have been walking around the harbour communities of Cork, and I can see there are plenty of gardeners growing their own fruit and veg in the area.

I think it would be a great thing to try and bring all of these people together, so that we can meet to share and enjoy each others gardening experiences, knowledge and arrange a few talks, events and trips.

The Grow It Yourself movement I feel fits the bill and supports the objectives that I have, so I am going to give it a spin to see how it goes.

Please bring this flyer and event to the attention of people you know who live in the lower harbour communities in Cork around Passage, Glenbrook & Monkstown.

lots going on the last week how ever not gardening but family time young Williams christening on the weekend in Clare. back to the garden today Johns mowing the lawns  I have been picking up wind fall apples. The sure sign that Autumn has started the cotoneaster full of berries . we have had a wonderful crop of tomatoes this year we grew a few cherry tomatoes to this year they have been very popular with the locals

This is my only sedum and its coming into some color…

Well it was in Dealz really 😉 

I popped in there yesterday while out doing another errand. 

They had a few good plants there and the girl in the shop told me that they are finishing up with the plants for now for more seasonal buys, ie, the C word!!!! 

So of course I had to buy some didn’t i? 😉 

So I picked up some:

Helenium hoopesii…….lovely yellow flowers on this one x 2

Tiarella wherryi x 1

Physostega rose x. 3

Knautia Melton pastels x 3

so potted them up and put in the greenhouse for now. 

Might need to make a return visit later just in case……..;) 

Another Cosmos here that was so late and is coming into flower now, this one i got free with a magazine. A very nice colour and in a few days should be a great hsow of them as there is lots of buds waiting to open.

Well i was very happy to see this again as i had never kept seed from it last year and had completely forgotten about this lovely creeper. It was a few weeks back i noticed somethin growing out of one of my daff pots and wrapping around a tall weed and on closer inspection i recognised the leaves on it so had fingers crossed it would flower into the Canary Creeper and it did. Very happy as i love this annual and will save seed this time and put in a proper place in the garden but for now will enjoy it sticking out of the pot.

Can’t let the year go by one at least a couple of mentions of one of top plants, Cuphea cyanea.

Love everything about this one, but the main thing is that I can’t look at these flowers without smiling.

On another note, as you know I cleared out the border in the back garden at the weekend. This along with all the borders in this garden are totally overplanted. One plus from this ‘habit’ is it leaves little room for weeds, I had planned on digging over the border and clear any weeds out. This took a very short time as there were so few of them.

I moved one plant about about a meter, this was a Peony given to me by Clara I wanted it in a more promeinent position. I was surprised to see that this plant was from tuburs, I never knew that. So for the fun of it I broke a few off and planted them up. Time will tell what happens.

Isn’t it great how we just keep on learning all the time as we garden.

I noticed a lot of bee and butterfly activity today as I did a bit of weeding.

We got this plant last year and it flowered its socks off…I didn’t think it would appear again but it has and its doing very well…it must be the mild winter that helped it survive… I still not got a clue what it is but its lovely…

The Hydrangea hot chocolate don’t look to good…I wonder what could be wrong..

Look at this fella starting to flower here, picked this up in January in tesco for a couple of euros and remember thinking ya that’s nice willl buy that and when getting home realised it was one of the those Jack in the Greens. Don’t know if it is early or not for this plant? And only planted it in the garden the other day, it has been in it’s pot all year.

While I was tidying up the garden after all the work yesterday , I came across this little gem Is it a primula or Auricula. Haven’t a clue what it’s name is, again if anyine knows!! If not I will dig out the thousands of labels I have amd check it out  But it’s so pretty and dainty. 

Must finish labelling all those plants so that I know where everything is for next year. I started ages ago but never finished. Typical!! 

The Irish Garden has a good article this month on Tricyrtis or Toad Lilly. I didnt realise that there are so many varieties. 

Last year on a visit to Ballyrobert Nursery I bought this Tricyrtis formosana and I am very pleased with it. Its such an unusual flower! And the other great thing about it is that it gives interest late in the season, mine is just coming into bloom.

It clumps up nicely too, and me being me, I have divided it and now have two nice clumps!

Second year here in the garden and absolutely love it, sowed these straight into the ground quite late so just starting to flower now but plent more to come.

Just a reminder that some of us are visiting this wonderful garden on Thursday at 11.30am, meeting in the car park. Rachel, JoanG, Myrtle & Ron, Clara and myself are going, Scrubber is a maybe. So if your interested in joining us, just let me know.

I have added an album of some colour in the garden today, hope you like it.

Any of you who have little girls will know that they love to walk around in Mummy’s high-heels! Wanting to feel all grown up and enjoying imitiating Mum!

I was reminded of this today when taking this photo! My eldest daughter bought me a tree fern for my birthday and let me choose a pot to put it in. I thought I was cheating a bit but now I just think its playing “pretend”! and like all Mums I’m proud of this little one!

And this Mum will be taking off its high heels and tucking in to a warm bed for winter 🙂

This appeared in one of the containers; I think the seed must have been in the compost. You never know what’s going to happen next, one of the joys of gardening!

I will be giving my talk on Exciting Annuals at the Rathvilly Flower and Garden Club later this month…

Exciting Annuals by Rachel Darlington

Rathvilly Flower and Garden Club

GAA Hall, Rathvilly, Co. Carlow

Wednesday, 24th Septeber 2014

Time : 8pm

Maybe I will see some of you there.