Month: September 2015

I overwintered my one and only chilli plant from last summer in the house. I had been told if I got any chillis on it this year that they would be much milder. Not so. In fact they seem to be a tiny bit hotter. And indeed there are way more chillis on it this year. We’ve been picking them for the last month, and so many more to come. I’ll be trying to overwinter it successfully again this year.

Helenium ‘Lemon Queen’ is starting to put on her Autumn display. A little later than normal but knowing there will be blasts of colour in different area of the garden for the coming weeks is great.

while picking up a few bits in dunnes this evening i picked up these begonias. i am not really into them but this one with the delicate flowers and the lovely dark foliage looked so exotic and at 3.49 euro they were just the thing.

also at the claregalway show in july i got those scabious, i deadheaded them after floweing and now they are starting another session…….love them. i got a free pack on the weekly garden news mag and cant wait to sow them next spring they are a lovely wine colour.

Climbing Rose ‘Teasing Georgia’ was only planted out last year at one of the posts of the Loggia. It did really well this year and not a sign of blackspot. 

It’s producing a nice second flush at the moment.

Very nippy this morning, and it didn’t get much better throughout the day, apart from about an hour during the afternoon. The bees were huddled together trying to maintain some body heat. The greenhouse wasn’t even opened today.

Enjoyed a terrific day with .ier’s in Wexford. Two gardens were visited, one being The Bay Garden and the other being Coolaught gardens. Two brilliant gardens with terrific plants and very enthuasiastic owners working in them. I could go on and on about the gardens but will let ye see how great they are for yourselves in the albums I uploaded. Thanks to fran for organising another great day out and was well worth the trip and really enjoyed meeting everyone again with some good laughs and plenty garden talk.

1st photo is part of the grass borders in the Bay garden and just tought it was spectacular planting.

2nd photo is in Coolaught Gardens of a verbena walk and this was truely stunning a plant I will now be getting to pop in here and there in the garden.

Hazel and Peter have perfectly described our garden visits today, so I’m not going to add anything except to say thanks Fran for organising another great outing and for your company on the drive and bearing with me during our little “excursion” en route!  I’ve posted two albums which I hope will give other .iers a flavour of these two beautiful gardens.

Thanks to Mary & Paddy (Gracedieu), Mary (Keego), Hazel, Rachel, Peter and Fran for great company and chat.  I had a wonderful day.

A lot of hedgerows are festooned with purple loosestrife this time of year, and how often do we stop and have a close look? It’s growing behind our pond, and it’s a glorious plant and not at all invasive. The bees love it too. 

A small plant went into the new tropical area in April, it is now turning into a lovely shaped plant.

Love the lance shaped leaves on this one.

Got this lovely plant off Ted & Margaret the day they came to visit my garden and the flowers are just looking great at the moment in a bit of sun. Thanks Ted and Margaret for this great plant.

I’ve kept a few Cannas over winter a few times and nothing much ever came of them on their second year. But I have this one three years now. After a lot of T.L.C. and cossetting, it has finally flowered. It’s been outside all summer. But with the recent plummeting night-time temperatures I took it in yesterday. Regular tomato feed, I think, is the answer. 

After the two great visits to The Bay and Coolaught gardens on Thursday, my gardening weekend continued with an early start yesterday. I had booked myself into one of Deborah’s  half day courses, Elements of Garden Design. It was a real eye opener, simply explanations of things that may well be right on front of us but we can’t see the wood for the trees if you know what I mean. Fantastic explanations of how this garden developed, mistakes, warts and all and how they were corrected. Serious food for thought, well explained and discussed by Deborah.

After that we headed to an amazing nursery where we met Hosta, Joann, TedK and a few other gardeners. It was the most amazing display of the healthist plants I have seen anywhere in their thousands. Needless to say, despite super prices the wallet is not too healthy after the visit LOL

After that it was a short journey to a local garden of a member of the Limerick Garden group where we were welcomed and given a tour of the garden (Album to follow). It was a lovely evening in a most peaceful garden.

Then it was back to Terra Nova for a delightful evening of food, wine and great chat till the early hours. This was then continued over breakfast this morning. Deborah and Martin, thank you for a fantastic weekend from the both of us.

I wonder how many times I’ve bought Hippeastrum bulbs to flower for just one time, and discarded them afterwards. But having been a member of this site for quite a while now, I hope I have learned a few things.

Last December I bought three more, and decided to make more of an impact by planting three into the one pot. When they went over, I let them die off. But once the weather got milder, out they went to the greenhouse. They never lost their leaves completely, and I gave them the odd tomato feed throughout the so-called summer.

Was out inspecting things today and lo and behold I have a flower bud on one of the bulbs. The last time it flowered was 8th January this year. So this is its second time in 8 months. Chuffed.com

Lots of colour in my shed border but I didn’t expect a second flowering of my primula viallii!!!

Bought these bulbs in Dealz the other day. Hadn’t heard of them before. According to the packaging, they should be planted from August to December, and should flower April to August, and sometimes flower twice a year. These ones from Dealz have obviously suffered from lack of light. So I have them planted up and already they are starting to turn greener, a must for building up healthy growth for next year by the process of photosynthesis. 

They are reputed to be hardy, but I’ll keep them in the greenhouse until they have fully greened up. And who knows, I may even get a couple of flowers before the cold weather really sets in. Then it’s into the house until next year. These should get to about 6 feet. Fingers crossed.

I have this plant here several years now in a large planter, it provided a great display over all those years. This year it started well and slowly started to fail. This evening I decided to investigate and my suspicions were correct, totally over crowded. I had a hell of a job getting it out, only way was to get the bread knife and cut sections at a time.

So if any one wants some I keep it untill the get together in the new year. It flowers for months and in a mild winter I have had flowers till nearly Christmas.

There’s lots of it so shout away.

The leaf of this Canna in the greenhouse has been thoroughly eaten. And the pattern is so regular. Any ideas please? It hasn’t affected the flower, thankfully.

Tonight it’s Keego’s turn to be thanked for this wonderful plant. Bulking up nicely and will be splitting it next year I’d say. Thanks Mary.

These little plants always cheer me at this time of year, and especially on a wet afternoon like today.

Many thanks Heather (Fraoch) for the lovely pink ones given at my first Johnstown get-together, 2013 I think; they are still going strong in their dish.  The purple ones were bought later at Mount Venus.