Month: October 2016

A few Roses –  Compassion has been ther for a long number of years, and gets very little attention because it is hard to reach it,  such a beautiful perfume.  

The plant on picture 1 is Hydrangea Limelight, positioned in quite a damp area at the foot of the rockery slope.  The plant grew its flowers all atvthe same level, until suddenly at the end of August this huhe tall stem shot up.  The flower here does norpt appear to have the usual oblong shape, but isn’t it really well-named?  Limelight, indeed. 

Aconitum carmichaelii Arendsii mus be 6ft tall, and the aster 5ft6. 

A few Fuchsia. 

Also the lovely Sorbus Forrestii that remains a very neat size. Even at age over 20yrs. It is much over 8ft.  The berties start pink and then turn white.  The birds do not eat them At all.  Fortunately, I have a number of them for the birds to feed upon. 

The lovely saxigfraga Fortunei, with Hebe Sparkling Sapphires beside it.  There is just one little blue to be seen in the middle foreground.  It flowered well in early Summer. 

Behind is Verbena rigida. 

I have just put up an album of the Colour that is still in the garden this late in the year.

I re vamped the garden 2 years ago and this summer has been the best one yet.  I hope you like them.

A few views of the garden taken last Thursday. With this beautiful weather plants are lasting well into Autumn.

This is becoming a very commom sight around the country at the moment. I think it’s a great idea and adds great interest. These trees would normally just have been cut down and nobody would ever have know they were even there.

Spotted this in a park in Mullingar at the weekend.

Forgot about photo issue with photos from a phone, sorry.

The weather has been quite wonderful for the last couple of weeks and even though it isn’t as good today, we can’t complain. The garden is settling down into it’s Autumn/Winter mode and it’s a time of year that i really like.

Here are a few photos i took last evening. The first is of the berries of my Callicarpa bodinieri, it didn’t berry well last year but this year it is brilliant. The colour of them never cease to amaze me.

My Camellia sasanqua has opened its first flowers of this season and they are as exquisite as ever. As most of you know i have a lot of japonica and williamsii Camellias in the garden but the sasanquas add a different dimension with their Autumn flowers.

The last photo is of flowers of my Eucryphia lucida ‘ballerina’. Eucryphias are wonderful in the late summer months and the larger growing Eucryphias are mightily impressive this time of year. ‘ballerina’ is one of the smaller growing Eucryphias and is suitable for a garden of any size.

On the Rhodo front i have ordered the following from Glendoick in my Autumn order. R.campanulatum ssp aeruginosum, R.huanum, R.sphaeroblastum var wumengense blue leaved, R.proteoides, and A.koromo shikibu. When they arrive, i will give more info on them.

Hazel kindly gave me this lovely plant back in January, but for the life of me I cant find anything with a name for it. 

So does anyone have any idea what it might be called?

Today while I was taking the photos I got the shock of my life. When I looked to check out if there was a label on it, I found what looks like a map of the Underground of London with all these little runners coming from the centre of the plant!!! Holy moly I got such a fright, will this be a very invasive plant? It had only one or two stems a few months back now it has about 6/7….I dont mind really as I will keep an eye on it.

So do you know what it might be? Thank  you as ever

Yesterday was a glorious autumn day here so the camera came out and a few photos taken in the front garden.  I’ve put up a small album and will add to it as the season progresses.  

I hope you’re all enjoying your gardens these lovely days. 

I thought my Dahlias were finishing up for the season a week or so ago, but they have got their second wind. These are ones I grew from seed last year, not realising that they would come on again this year, so I’m delighted with them.

The original title of the journal wasn’t going to include the word ‘clad’ but for the sake of the site moderators blood pressure, i relented. Despite the very benign weather of late, slowly but surely the leaves are starting to fall on the deciduous shrubs and trees.

Two shrubs that are still fully clothed are my Chimonathus praecox and Edgeworthia chrysantha, both i usually feature in my January and February journals showing their beautiful, scented flowers on bare stems. The Edgeworthia has very attractive foliage but the Chimonanthus wouldn’t be noted for its foliage , having said that i think it looks very well.

The deciduous species Azaleas can have lovely Autumn colour as the third photo shows. It is A.schlippenbachii, one of the finest of all Azalea species.

Funny to see Heather’s post as I was about to make comment about how the Dahlias are at their best now in my garden. Heading towards the middle of October they took their time. Very windy here today.

Definitely when I put one plant up on this site another one wants to be there too! I put up Fuchsia “Tom Thumb” a while ago, and “Snowcap”, which lives near “Tom Thumb” decided it wasn’t going to be left out and now has several flowers and buds.

Gidday folks,

                   the rose blooms will be good again this year but right now the foliage is lookin pretty good to.Still no Spring planting here,we,ve had frost the last 2 mornings so it,s a battle of wits with Mum nature & we know who usually wins that battle.lol.

2 more nearly out.

I went to B&Q yesterday with my husband to get some paint, paper etc as we are doing a bit of redecorating. 

Once we had that done we both went our separate ways, him to the tool section and me to the garden section.

You can really see a big change in that section now that Autumn is here. Lots of Winter bedding, bulbs etc but the real zingy colours of Summer are long gone. However, that didnt stop me having a good look around and finding some colour.

I bought this lovely anemone Anemone hupehensis var. japonica ‘Prinz Heinrich’ A nice little double pink flower on it. I have two others here and I really do like them so really glad to have this one too.

I also picked up another Salvia, this one is Salvia Lemon Light. A delicate lemon colour. Im really into Salvia and I have lots of varieties now and am trying to take cuttings of them all, so that I will have a good selection in time. Plus Ive sown some from seed too which have been quite successful.

I wanted to put up a photo of this gorgeous plant Saxifraga Rubrafolia which I got as a cutting from an .ier. Last year it flowers lovely but this year it is just amazing. It has the most beautiful flowers and also the foliage is lovely on it too. Im going to see if I can propagate this. Does anyone have any idea if I should divide it or can I take cuttings from it? Its a real beauty

I noticed these the other day, Rudbeckia “Cherry Brandy”, which has been in this container since last year and had a couple of flowers earlier on; Gazania, which i grew from seed this year and had almost given up on, I see it’s actually a perennial so hopefully might do something next year if it hasn’t time this year; and some buds on Rosa “Whiskey Mac”.

A fairly recent addition to my garden is this pretty dark-leaved Eupatorium. Can’t remember seeing any flowers on it last year. But today as I was picking  my way throughout the North-facing border I noticed their first flowers. Pretty, delicate flowers. I’m delighted with it.

I’ve been beavering away woth my helpers the past week. It is a great encouagement having someone to do some of the heavy stuff for me. Many of the borders are seriously overcrowded this year so there is major dividing going on. 

The fruit trees were getting swamped so that was one big task done and dusted. There were also some big roots to be dug out and new doors for the compost bins – and the compost needed turning too!

So with all that going on I haven’t had much time to actually notice whats going on in other parts of the garden! I did notice that the bargain begonias the Ciara got for my porch for the open day were starting to look a bit bothered by a few chilly nights recently so I decided to move them to the greenhouse and see how long they will go on flowering. 

Then I found these lovely fuschias that are really late flowerers and they really brightened my day!

Viburnum bodnantense ‘Dawn’ is starting to open, and fill the air with its intoxicating aroma. This is one for the raised bed when it’s made.

My order from Heritage Bulbs arrived this evening. Can’t wait to have these to adorn the patio in planters next year. I hope to get them planted tomorrow. I hope I remember to plant the Fritillarias on their sides.

I hope the good Lord wont mind my borrowing a hymn title to describe my latest endeavour. It was only today when I began to strim my new cleared area that I realised how vast it was.Its about 100m long and about 20 metres broad-thats a very rough average as it goes in and out in places but that makes about 2000m square. Well maybe 60 meters long which still gives me 1200m sq, I was never a mathematician as SisterJosephine used avow to every visiting inspector or even  a sister looking for a school of thread,’Scrubber will never upset the stock exchange’ she used intone. I thought it was something like jesus upsetting the tables in the temple so I let it sink into oblivion like so many other things, multiplication tables, proper way to address a bishop, always wash you hands after rubbing a dog!!!!

But even though its a huge space its a very serene one, presided over by Lord Buddha who gives a sense of calm to the place.The space is quite empty at present but I think thats not a bad thing. I dont want to divide it up into lots of areas but I am going to let the space dictate the pace-now there’s a clever phrase! Sr Jo I hope you noticed! and work in things as I see them or as a place suggests them, Did you see that garden in the mag this month where they planted 30,000 plants in a fortnight! Im sure its lovely but that way lies Bankrupcy!

I have put in two new Tetrapanex, loads of bulbs (two packets!) purple loosetrife, some of Paddy’s irises and lots of his Lily of the valley. Lots of Lobelia, and next month five guelder roses and anything else I can spot in Glanbia Sweeneys and Kehoes. I pass these places once a week so the temptation is always at hand, I splurged on a big Eleagnus last week, About 15 Euro but as I said in my last blog there was a miserable specimen in Mr Middletons for about 8,75! and this one had a lovely thin edging of gold against the dark green, Having splurged I shouldnt have dropped into Kehoes-I also did Sweeneys but he hadnt the cyclamen I wanted-with great big corms and in Kehoes there were two rosa glauca at 595 each reduced by a third and a lovely Japanese Fern for 6,75. I thought Id get those the following week but when I got home I found them in the back of the boot somehow!

I have learned that Daylilies like boggy ground and I have HUGE clumps of same so I shall divide and plant them in drifts.A lot to keep me going. I spent a long time strimming today and it was very satisfying. The only thing is will Scrubber be able to keep up with everything? I know some people do very successfully (We wont mention names or embarrass them but Sister Josephine never gave us classes on Juggling so I may be at a bit of a loss!

Ps you can just see back of Lord Buddha’s head to the right in middle picture

 We had a lovely few days in Roscommon,from Wednesday evening to Sunday ..the weather was great except for Sunday when it rained…  we managed to get most of the tidying up for winter done…we took a few photos of the changing colours in the Autumn sunshine….we liked them and hope you do also 

I thought I’d post some pictures of a few of the plants that were kindly given to me at the plant swap in Johnstown in January. They have performed so well all Summer and are still going strong!

The first one is Diascia personata given to me by Myrtle. What can I say – this plant has been stupendous – it has been flowering now for about 5 months.  It drapes itself beautifully over plants that have gone over and has made a largish clump although it is very delicate looking.  Thank you Myrtle.

The second one is Geum rivale ‘Leonard’s Variety’. I love the colour of the flowers on this one. I actually got 2 of these – one from Joan G and one that Margot (left in the car without saying a word). They are both thriving and I recently dug one up and got 12 new plants!! Thank you Joan and Margot.

The third one is Rehmania elata from Jackie. I can’t believe how well this one has done as I thought it was a bit tender. It was flowering beautifully for most of the Summer and now I see it is flowering again. It is so beautiful and looks really exotic. Thanks Jackie! Should I take it inside for the Winter?

What an abundance of riches to receive, I am very grateful.