Month: January 2016
We all love to hear the birds singing in the garden especially first thing in the morning. And here is no exception. They are awake so early but it’s great.
As I said in a previous journal, we have a huge amount of birds here, of all types.
But some are more special than others. These two ring collared Doves have been visiting us for months now. Everyday religiously. They come together and go together. They mainly sit on the Gazebo, like in the photos, and just take everything in, occasionally helping themselves to some food. Or often you would see them high up in the Silver Birch trees which surround the garden at the back.
It’s a lovely sight each morning when I open the blinds.
That goes for most things in life, let it be gardening or technology! I was out in the garden this morning and got some more tidying up done and a little bit of planting.
I had lifted Saxifrage Apple .& BlackBerry and moved a couple of pieces of Bergenia in to its place. Now I have planted the saxafrage on the bank in a few places and hope it will do better there. It had some flowers on it.
I planted in an Astellia Silver Shadow which I bought in Johnstown for 4 Euros, a good buy. The poor thing was pot bound so hope it will like getting its roots in to the soil.
Now for the technology trial. I took these photo landscape with my phone – here goes!
My favourite annual for 2015 is Rudbeckia cherry brandy
I look forward to growing it again this year in my garden
Gidday all,
been abit slack on the contributions to the site of lately.It,s been quiet a job keeping the patch alive the last few weeks but thankfully abit of rain has eased the problem & the temp has been more high 20,s than high 3o,s.
I suppose all you good people are lookin forward to the end of Winter,Spring will be on you before you know it,stay warm my friends.
This weather would wear anyone down. One good day, and a week of bad. Had a quick ramble about the garden. Nothing different, except the gorgeous blooms of Rhododendron ‘Christmas Cheer’ greeted me at last. Love that shade of pink.
I seem to have a thing for the large snowdrops. Of the ones I have, ‘Comet’ and ‘Drummond’s Giant’ are my favourites
Yea, I think I’m conjuring up a fifth season, which will be known as SUMTER, a season that combines summer-flowering flowers like my famous Nicotiana which is out the front, and my first winter Crocus which opened today. So strange to see the two flowering on the same day. So many plants are confused.
I started weeding and clearing the main herbaceous border beside the deck at the beginning of the month and as I m under strict instructions to “take it easy” it has taken me the whole month to get it tidied but yesterday, the last day of my wonderful helper Jean-Baptiste, with much help from him a good layer of mulch was added.
This bed hasn’t been mulched for a couple of years so I’m expecting great things from it this year. I’ve also removed a few overgrown bits and lots of Japanese Anemones (your name is on them Jacinta!) so I can now fill the gaps with some of the Johnstown Swaps that were requested for just this!
Our timing was perfect – just as the last barrow full was coming up from the compost area the rain started! It was so awful the rest of the day that it wasn’t possible to get any photos but this morning we really have the “calm after the storm” here with even a bit of wintry sunshine!
Just wondering if any member knows any thing about re-potting a Strelitzia. I went to re-pot it today and was amazed at how large the root had grown in the five years that I have it. Was there something on one of the FB pages of Exotic Gardening in the last few days about cutting some of the roots off? I am not on FB anymore so if anyone has read anything, maybe you would let me know. The Strelitzia has never flowered for me, so I am not looking after it very well. Thanks.
Just think of seeing Daffodils in January. Last year I saw them in February but it was within the last few days I took this picture. I suppose it was due to the mild winter. To day was no mild day. I wonder was any member of the Club at the garden to day. Temperatures were 3 or 4 degrees. Yesterday was pleasant enough and some clearing of the rose beds of weeds was done and Met Éireann tells us that it will be as high as 13 to morrow.
The strange gardening year continues in the garden here. There a re still a lot of snowdrops just peeking up above the ground.
Lecojum gravyetye, is starting to flower. I have never had it flowering so early here, it’s normally another six weeks or so.
Delighted to see it all the same.
Planted snowdrops in the autumn but I never kept the name of the variety. Any snowdrop experts out there?
Never grown them before and can’t believe I never tried them before. So lovely and simple and elegant. Will certainly be planting more. This time I’ll write the variety down!
Discovered some growth beneath the mounds of old nasturtium stems… Plenty of new Montbretia stems, boy that stuff spreads… A blossoming Primrose and most excitedly what I hope are garlic chives that I thought hadn’t survived their transplanting from a friends garden… Spring has sprung!
it,s truly my pleasure to share my world with you good people& it works both ways I love seeing what you lot get up to in your gardens,amazing given what the weather dishes up to you.
Typical Summer here hot& dry,it,s quiet a job keeping the patch alive,thank god I,ve got the bore water.Would be the poor house if I had to rely on town water.
Look forward to the up coming year,lets hope it,s a good one for all.
Have you a song written for the get together,last year was brilliant
Cathy was delighted to see some new flowers in my garden named after her, and thrilled that the wallflowers she planted with me in September were in bloom. Aaron went round saying, ‘Hello, baby flowers’ to all the sprouting daffs. So lovely to share the garden with them between downpours. And of course they had to play ‘King of the Castle’ on the rocks in the stone garden….
This morning I discovered one clump of my much-loved Lithops (Living Stones) has gone to a messy mush in its pot. Not sure what went wrong. Maybe nothing as I’ve been treating it the same way since buying it a few years ago. Maybe they’re just a short-lived plant. A bit disappointed with this first casualty of the New Year. But luckily there is another good healthy clump beside it. But they’re definitely a plant worth having. They make a good talking point too.
Following on from yesterdays journal about my Lithops, the central part of the rotten plant seems to have survived so I’m chancing my arm and we’ll see if it takes root. But maybe I should let the surviving bit callous over before planting, what do you think?
I was down in Mount Usher Gardens today and have never seen the river so high.
It has come out in to the gardens in parts and some of the paths along the edges
are now part of the river. I have put up an album of some of the pictures.
Well I know about volcanoes but at present my Hill is erupting, yes it is. Started a few days ago and each day gets worse and worse . Each day another spot erupts the biggest, is almost the whole way across the road the others are smaller but creeping up the hill . The asphalt is badly cracked in many places so more to come. Just keeping fingers crossed it does not proceed up past my gate or I will be TRAPPED!!!
I was out working in the garden this morning as it was nice and dry and we even had a little sun. Gardens at this time of year can be very miserable and wet and it is very difficult to get yourself enthused to do very much. The snowdrops are well up and a lot of them are flowering and they will soon be joined by crocus and winter aconite which have just started to push out their flowers. Yellow crocus are the first to bloom here, a cultivar whose name has been long lost. The hellebores from Lidl, that we bought last year, are looking great, well worth the money. Hellebore ‘Anna’s Red’ has been flowering for the last few weeks and will last longer than any of the others.
I just noticed a couple of camellias in the lane have a sprinkle of flowers and a white one that I won in a raffle last summer in Mount Congreve is well on its way with plenty of beautiful fat buds. I am hoping that it is one called Camellia ‘ Buttermint’, missing label when I got it. The witch hazel is just gorgeous at present at the top of the drive, in a place that you see it every time you arrive home.
The shrub that attracts you with it scent at this time of years has to be the one and only Daphne bholua ‘Jacqueline Postill’. I don’t know if it was the weather this morning but the scent was just wonderful. The Irish Garden magazine has a nice feature on it this month by Helen Dillion. They are an expensive plant to buy and are prone to dying but all I have growing are from suckers. I had one that lived for over twenty years and had reached a great size and was heartbroken when it died, but a friend kindly gave me three suckers and two have grown to be nice shrubs.
With the change in the weather this afternoon I decided to give the glasshouse a tidy-up and see if by picking the leaves from the pelargoniums it would reduce the botrytis. The mild damp weather over the last few months has just destroyed them. I live near the river and the air is always damp and opening the doors and the vents in the glasshouse makes little difference. I think a fan to circulate the air would be the only solution. Other plants in the glasshouse are coping a lot better and some are thriving in the warmer conditions. I have not lit the heater so far this winter.
I have just returned from holiday, and this afternoon I went out with the camera to find some signs of Spring. I cannot even find any little shoots of snowdrops or of anything else.
I did, however, find some remnants of the Autumn: Pink Paris Marguerites, and White Hesperantha, which particularly like the wet.
I have finally been able to get out to the garden today. I havent been out in ages, well weeks if Im honest, been a bit housebound, but on the mend now! So I am really looking forward to meeting everyone again on Saturday. After a look around, I never realised how many ‘bits’ of plants and what not I have in pots, so here is what I have up for grabs, so dont be shy!!!
Pulmonaria ‘Blue Ensign’ x 3 – Nuala(AitAlainn)
Sedum ‘Bon Bon’ x 4 – Margot, Bruno, Mary(Gracedieu), Doreen
Buddelia x 2 ( not sure what colour, could be either white or blue!
Echium pininana x 3 – Eilish, Bernie (yellow rose)
Delphinium x 3 , again not sure of colour, blue maybe! – Elizabeth7
Aconitum x 3 , blue
Tree lupins x 3, yellow
Campanula ‘Pink Octopus’ x 3, small seedlings – Margot
Phygelius ‘funfare cream’ x 3 – Hazel
Lavetera x 1, Pink
Lysimachia ‘firecracker’ x 4 – Doreen
Lobelia fan ‘burgundy’ x 1 – Margot
Lobelia fan ‘blue’ x 1 – Moya
Salvia ‘hotlips’ x 2 – Eilish, Mary(Gracedieu)
Sweet Woodruff x 1
Geranium ‘Dragonheart’ x 1 – Bruno
Rehmania elata x 4 – Moya, Terri, Doreen
Terri I have a Pulmonaria ‘Blue Ensign’ for you and also an Achillea yellow, which I think you had asked me for earlier in the year
If anyone has anything that they think I promised them at some stage would you please let me know!
So thats it………..
Well sort of.
Today I spent a while out in the garden and it was pure bliss.
Its been about 6 weeks or so since Ive had a chance to spend anytime in the garden, what with the weather and feeling under the weather. But thankfully things are looking somewhat better and today was my day to be out and enjoying myself. The weather was lovely too, sunny if a bit chilly, but I really didnt mind.
After sorting out some of the plants I wanted to bring to Johnstown, gosh I have a lot of pots still, I then had a look around the garden. There is a lot of tidying up to be done, plants that have long gone over and are very very untidy and brown! but that will have to wait another day!
I noticed some plants that are really taking off and some that forgot to go away. Still flowering I have Cosmos!, yes Cosmos in January and some Gazania in the pots in the front garden also some Nasturtiums! This mild weather we have is really getting all the plants confused, bit like myself lol
Also showing are Hellebores, daffodils and some lovely little snowdrops. I even have a Pink Hollyhock in flower in a pot!
I hope the floodwaters recede for those who are suffering throughout the country, we really have been so lucky here in the East not to have experienced such hardship.
Roll on Spring!
I mentioned Daphne bholua ‘Peter Smithers’ in a journal earlier today and thought you might like to see photographs of it. There were taken in Mount Congreve Gardens recently.
The reverse of the petals are darker than those of ‘Jacqueline Postill’.
