Month: June 2016

I found this bent over and hiding in other plants the other day. A bulb of some sort, there are 3 of them which I was watching last year but they never flowered. Obviously something I bought and then forgot about!

Well, it’s growing away to its hearts content, despite the mountain of buttercups. Hoping that in the next few weeks I’ll be able to tackle this problem and let C.S. perform with full glory.

No sun to day but plenty of rain so activities were inside. Gooseberries which were picked on a fine day were topped and tailed and washed. The gooseberry jam is on the way. I took photos of vine and Tomatoes. Neither ripe yet.

A cloudier morning here but lovely all the same hopefully it will burn off.

Some shots from yesterday.

I was texting my sister last night as she’s suffering through major house renovations. She lives on the Kent-Sussex border and tells me that the weather has been awful, cold wet and windy. As we were watering pots and polytunnel and eating dinner on the terrace, they had their heating on! Let’s face it, it’s not often that we in Ireland get the chance to gloat over the weather, is it? 

….glorious morning to wake up to! This weather is just lovely and just in time for Bloom too. I’m heading there soon today to have a peek before I ‘officially’ go with my sisters on Saturday 😉 

Everything is shooting up in the garden now and looking great. The heat and sunshine is making everything smile. 

Hooe  you are out enjoying this weather wherever you are. Have a good one!! 

……..well in my garden today, went for a wander about to see whats new out today, here are some shots for ye,  i added more to the album Bloom 2016 but its not showing up, hope ye enjoy

Yeaterday I headed to Bloom around 10am. The traffic was heavy going in but as usual it’s well managed both going through the Phoenix Park and inside in the parking area too. 

The weather was perfect and the place was heaving, even that early in the morning. 

I went to the Show gardens first as this was my main reason for wanting to go yesterday, as I’m going with my sisters on Saturday, to have a good look around and take it all in, as they are not that into gardening!! 

Some beautiful gardens. Lots of cottage feel to them. Lots of Foxglove, cream in colour seem to be dotted through most of the gardens. Also Lychnis was the plant of the day. Almost every garden with this theme has this plant and there were so many people then walking around carrying pots of these gorgeous flowers. Some beautiful planting.  

I wasn’t impressed with the Super Garden at all. Found that a bit dull. But then each to their own. But all of the Show Garden looked fantastic in their own way and I did think they were much better this year. 

I then headed to the marquee and the plant stands, well sure I was in my element lol. Did a little bit of shopping in here, but have my eye on a few for Saturday too when the extra arms for carrying will be with me ;). I met Hazel as I was heading for the plant creche. She had just arrived. Unfortunately I didn’t meet any of the other .iers who went, Liga, Joan, Rachel, Clare, Moya to name a few. Bit disappointed. We need to organise this a bit better. Maybe next year put up a jpurnal and see who is going and if anyone would like to meet up. If not that’s ok too.  I would have loved to have seen everyone yesterday but it wasn’t to be. 

My overall view on Bloom……..I found there was less flower stands both inside and out and that Bloom is now more geared to family day out. Which is great. But for me it’s all about the gardening. It felt more like the Ideal Homes Exhibition, with Windows for sale and the like. Yes lots of garden related items like greenhouses, polytunnels, tools, etc but I wanted more choice for buying plants. I wasn’t there to buy bags and clothes Etc. But as I say that’s because it’s now more about the food and family day out. Having said that I will be back on Saturday and next year too. 

Here are a couple of photos I took but will do a proper album after Saturday After that visit! 

At last I got around to making a garden seat,I abandoned that previous wood as it would not have lasted that long.

Good advice taken from a comment here on Garden.ie .Thks. 

 See the older seat @ https://www.garden.ie/post.aspx?idpost=57596

delighted, hard work paid off

After a very harrowing 4 days in hospital I finally got home today and managed to get out and look around the garden very briefly. I was laughing at what I had previously described as my mini Jurassic Border. It couldn’t look any less Jurassic now. But it’s good that another season of interest has appeared. I just adore these Irises, for which I have no name.

Also my favourite blue Lupins have opened up by the Lower Pond.

It’s good to be home, but it’ll take a while to get things sorted.

To day, I moved out seven of the tomato plants. The forecast tells that it will not be cold at night. As Mary (Gracedieu Lass) suggested, I made a few holes in one of the peanut boxes and in went one tomato plant. Examining the pots where I had Pelargoniums I found a number for another six and the pelargoniums were planted out. I still have a multitude of Pelargoniums to deal with. Some pots were simply placed in beds and left there for the present. It was a great day and the place is looking better every day. Four tomato plants are still to be dealt with. They were potted on. Roses are making good progress.

A new plant here this year and the flowers are just opening, I feel a new plant has just jumped the ‘must get more of’ list. It’s stunning.

The colour is not correct at all, there is more pink in it, I’ll try and get better photos later on.

I felt this year that the variety of plants for sale at Bloom were quite sparse.  There seemed not to be as many nurseries as other years and even the indoor displays did not have that many varieties. The show gardens were totally dependant on Lychnis flos jovis ‘Alba’ and Lychnis flos jovis ‘Jenny’. It may have been the cold spring that reduced the number of varieties. I did spot a beautiful delphineum in one of the displays which had double flowers, but was not for sale.

I did buy a few plants, Allium ‘Mount Everest’ 5 bulbs, a pot of Rhodohypoxis (pink), Podophyllum Spotty Dotty ( good leaf) and Eryngium alpinum ‘Blue Star’. Nothing very exciting, a bit like Bloom.

I am having an open day for Marymount Hospice on June 18th from 2-6pm .   So I have been putting in silly hours to get the place into shape.  If any of you are free it would be lovely to see you here for this wonderful charity.  There will be tea and cake and a raffle on the day.  PM me for address if needed.   Thanks  🙂

Yes it’s him going on about one of his top plants again.

I discovered via google that this plant trives when grown against a wall. So last Autumn I planted a plant in a large planter out the front. With the mild winter it produced leaves most of the winter.

I have never seen such an amount of flowers on any plant of mine so early in the summer. I think I’ve found a perfect spot for it.

Have a great day.

PS Maria’s report on Bloom was mixed, but she even noted the reduction of the plant stalls. I’ll be happy to go next year, I think absense does makes the heart grow fonder.

Hello all, hope ye all had a lovely long weekend, i was s=down at my parents house this morning and as i walked about, something i do regularly there and at home, these are a few photos of his lovely garden, 

ps. thanks to you all for the lovely birthday wishes, i and all had a fab day & night.

I havent done much this weekend as Bloom has taken its toll on me, plus the little ladies stayed over last night! Awake at 5am thinking it was time to get up lol

So I went out early this morning to look at the garden and really this fabulous weather is really helping everything to blossom. We had  a small shower of rain this afternoon about 2pm, lasted about 20 minutes and then the sun came out again, but it is very warm.

The plants certainly needed the water, my water butts are empty! But I dont want to see a return to those wet wet days yet!

Here are a few that are open in the garden now:

First one is from Moya, its Geranium, but I dont have a name for it. The flowers look like little stars!

Second photo is my Rose ‘For your eyes only’ I bought this in Lidl last year and its just going from strength to strength. I moved it to the bed beside our water feature and its looking great

Third photo is a gorgeous Geum I picked up in Bloom, well  3 pots to be precise, its Geum Cosmopolitan. It has lovely little creamy/yellow flowers with orange tips, really pretty think and stands upright!

Hope you are all enjoying this weather and long may it last!

It is about 6 days since I posted a photo showing the Roscoea Kew Beauty appearing above ground and here it is in all it’s flower glory, talk about a fast mover.

The speaking of moving Dublin Bay is rushing up this Ash tree and looking very good as the flowers appear to be coming from the Ivy!

Finally one of my favourite shrubs Vallea stipularis.  The flowers are so lovely in clusters at the end of the branches. My one has rather bare branches and can look a bit straggly. I was thinking of pruning it but having had a Google it seems the habit of the shrub to have these bare branches…..anyone grow it and if so what is your one like.

Cut the old fronds off my main tree fern today and think it looks just brilliant now with all the new fronds about 16 or 17 so far. I’ve only ever got 13 – 15 fronds in a whole season in the first two years so this is obviously very settled and very happy. Also two pics of some garden ornaments which are not usually my thing but I like these that I picked up in Portugal last year

All I’m managing to do in the garden since Saturday is basically spend about ten minutes outside – mainly taking a few photos – before I’m overcome by the heat. Something seriously wrong there. LOL

The garden has become a jungle over the last week, with buttercups coming up everywhere. But all the colour is just so welcoming. We had a heavy spell of rain here so Steve was off the hook to water everything. But the sun came out shortly after that and everything is now as dry as before the rain.

Three of my Clematis are opened – no, four. But I don’t ever remember C. ‘Piilu’ and C. ‘The President’ ever being in flower together.

Nicola did the mini marathon yesterday with her friends who all have Special Needs. They walked it in about 2 and a half hours, so chuffed with themselves  and so proud also.

I was on driving duty for one of these friends and today while dropping her home, her mam had a lovely surprise for me.

The first is a lovely planter with Begonia’s, Petunia’s, Calendula and well Im not sure what the one in the middle is, if anyone has any idea.

Then she gave me this gorgeous Alstroemeria ‘Diana’

She knows I love my garden and said she knew exactly what to get me to say thank you!

Have to say I was so delighted with them both. Now to find a home for them lol

I recieved this plant from Rachel at the johnstown get-together 2015 and was labelled as so above. I believe it is from a former .ie member that passed away. I for one think it is fantastic that I am growing a piece of this persons plant in my garden and long may it continue to be passed around. Thank you Rachel and delighted to finally see it flowering.

I think it is important from time to time to give ourselves a small pat on the back, not too much to be getting above our station, but a pat nonetheless. What has brought this notion on is that the garden has been quite splendid over the last month or so, i haven’t been on much as the weather is there to be enjoyed for as long as possible and it is not the weather to be on computers by choice, not for me anyway.

Here are a small sample of the treasures in flower at the minute. The first is R.furnivals daughter, a not so common hybrid and a great bloomer.

The second shot is of a couple of deciduous Azalea hybrids, A.glowing embers and A.golden sunset with my Kalmia photobombing to the front. 

Lastly, i am showing the beautiful flowers of the fantastic species, R.wardii ludlow & sherriff

The showers overnight certainly freshened up the garden and after a light drizzle this morning, it was another lovely warm afternoon.  I cut the grass, tidied up withered bulb foliage, weeded a bit, planted out a few annuals (cosmos, scabious and sunflowers) and took some photos in the back garden later on.  The light was lovely.

It looks like the nice weather will stay with us for another couple of days, so I hope you get chance to enjoy your gardens before it breaks.