Month: November 2014
Now we all know our SuperScrubber could move mountains bit by bit. But if he had this rock in his garden, even he might think twice.
It’s the comet a probe landed on last week, set against Los Angeles. It’d make an interesting rockery, though, don’t you think? A few nice acers and Bob’s your uncle!
Here is a second video about cutting back for winter and I actually do some work in this one…
More Cutting Back for Winter – YouTube
And one of the garden tour videos of Douentza, taken last July…
Douentza Garden Tour, More of the Carnivorous Plants – YouTube
More next Wednesday!
Roofy put up a journal of his Dianthus in flower. And a beautiful picture too
Well here we are in November and I have some just beginning to open here too. Isn’t nature just wonderful.
Still flowering away at the moment 😉
I am delighted with this Orchid which is blooming for a 2nd time.
When raking up some leaves today I came to a pile of sycamore leaves. Most of these have black spots on them. My question is: Is it ok to add them to my leaf compost heap? Or is this a fungus that will infect plants where the leaf mould is used?
Decided it needed a haircut. Now at least I can pass underneath on my sit on mower without getting knocked off or doing contortions ….
Don’t you just love the way alstoemeria keep going on and on!
This one is called ‘Oriana’.
This is my favourite of the two liquidambar trees.
It is called ‘Thea’ and the colouring is very good.
My local BTEI campus are running a “horticulture, veg , fruit and Plant Propagation ” FETAC level 4 course starting January. Has anyone any experience of these? Are they too basic or worthwhile ? Will I learn anything or be bored !!! All comments appreciated as usual.
Thought I would let you know how I got on after contacting both the nursery involved and Parcel Motel.
Firstly as I already knew, the Nursery use a computer generated list for dispatching their catalogues so they have removed me from this list but no suggestion of reimbursement.
Secondly and on a very positive note Parcel motel explained they are legally obliged to deliver all mail addressed to a customer but have refunded me the full amount for junk mail entering their system. All they requested I do was to remove my name from the mailing list of the involved company which I had already done.
So it’s a big thumbs up again for Parcel Motel 🙂
Hi folks,
It’s been a while since my last post. Hope ye are all well. I am presently in the process of developing a cottage style garden. My budget is low so i was hoping if anyone was dividing blue geraniums,nepeta or lady’s mantle you might consider a few for me. Of course i will pay for postage.
Please pm me if anyone can help. Many thanks.PJ.
On the subject of house plants, I grew this campanula in the conservatory at our old house for a long time and it never flowered. I still have a slip of the original plant in the kitchen, and that never flowers either. But I put a few slips outside to see how they’d do, and boy, have they flowered. This one has barely even slowed down!
Many years ago, a friend who was emigrating to the States gave me a tiny shoot of an olive tree which she’d grown from a seed. I had it for many years in a bonsai pot, but eventually I decided bonsai are too much like ‘designer pets’ so I re-potted it. And re-potted it again. I do keep it clipped back or it’d take over the room, but it’s getting on for big enough to use as a Christmas tree!
As Jackie’s started a trend I thought I’d add a pic of the view from my room, if not the leaba. It was looking very untidy so I went out and weeded and cut back everything except the snapdragons, which are very straggly but still a little burst of colour. Last bit of proper gardening I did, though Alan’s weeded the front borders and beds.
In my youth these guys held endless possibilities . Collected them annually in their hundreds on the family farm . The things we made with them. The fights we had pelting each other with them. Bringing them to school. oh yes we also had conker fights. And sometimes i even grew little chestnut trees too. Do any of today’s children enjoy them anymore? Shame if they don’t.
Yep todat was the day . leaves on the lawns and not too many left on the trees. All now added to the cage !
I’ve been in touch with Jim in Johnstown on behalf of our Garden Club and here is Jim’s response:
Hi Hazel,
We would be thrilled to have you all back here again on January 11th.
The sale will be still on that day with 20% OFF all plants and up to 50% OFF other items.
Looking forward to it already!
Best Regards,
Jim Clarke
So put it in the Diary:
Date: Sunday 11 January 2015
Time: 12 noon onwards
I hope this meets with the approval of the majority 🙂
I like some , others not so much. But went to see if Avondale was showing and was amazed at how they had clumped up. I got 8 small plants from one and 6 from another. Dark Rosaleen , not Kennedy, is another amazing clumper . I love these plants and some Primulas/ primroses are the best of value for division.
The cherry blossom trees have very suddenly changed colour, as is their habit in November. I love their autumnal hues.
I did a good bit of work in the garden today, cutting back etc. I also started emptying my large pots of their dahlias, which is quite a job since they’re so heavy.
The paulownia trees are now completely naked and I collected up all their messy leaves from the borders. One good thing about them is that they rot down quicker than other leaves.
Over the last year I have used Parcel Motel to enable purchasing plants, tubers etc that can only be delivered to the UK. This has always worked very well and I had no complaints until today. One of the nurseries I purchased from last spring decided to send me out their 2015 Dahlia catalogue. Obviously my mailing address on their system was the Parcel Motel in Belfast and they posted it there. I was expecting something that I had purchased from Amazon so wasn’t unduly surprised when I got the text that I had a parcel ready for collection. So I have now been charged €3:95 by Parcel Motel for something I never requested and which is free even if I had requested it. I am desperatley trying to remember any other companies which may follow suit and start sending out their 2015 catalogues. Thought I would post this here as I know some fellow gardeners have also used this service and may be able to prevent this happening to them.
Opened cold frame this morning and what a lovely surprise. .. 14 cauliflower heads popped up after 16 days in frame. .. satisfaction. … I never grew cauliflower before or any veg for that matter… go me!!
When I made the video of you orchids in flower yesterday, I noticed a bee on one of the petals of the vanda.
As you will have seen on the video, he was very sluggish and inactive.
Afterwards I forgot about him and this morning I carried the vands upstairs for dunking and back down again and hung them up, without thinking once of the bee. And, lo and behold, he was still there, not moving.
He was off this afternoon buzzing around the cattleyas so he’s definitely still alive.
I remember one year I accidentally trapped a bee inside a plastic bag in the fridge from November to March but the insect was still alive when I opened up in March. Now wouldn’t it be good if we could hibernate in that way!
It was great yesterday, no rain and the water near the entrance is gone. I was able to walk on to the road and walk around the lower rose bed. I spent some time raking the leaves at the back, the same went in behind the compost heap. A lot of work has to be done in the front lawn regarding leaves. Perhaps to morrow if it remains fine, I will get at same. It is amazing how quickly the water rose in the front and equally how quickly it subsided. There will be dust seen on the road yet. I have a bit of a problem with the camera. It takes the photos, transfers them on to the computer and allows the to be sent by e-male but the picture does not appear on the screen on the camera. Can somebody tell me what is wrong?
And just because it’s such a miserable day, I decided to make an extra video, showing the orchids I have in flower at the moment.
