Month: April 2017

We were told by Met Eireann that it would be 16 C in the east and 18C in the west. Well it was above that temperature 16C here in Carlow. In fact the temperature recordend in my car was surely 20C. I drove to Woodies in the afternoon and bought 2 packets of Gladioli@ €5 in toto. There were 16 corms in my purchase and I felt that it was good value. The tomato plants in the greenhouse have grown quite a lot. It was necessary to have the vent and part of the door open and cooler air blowing into the greenhouse. As usual the tender banana plants were out during the day and they have come on a lot. Peter W has given me advise about these Musa ensete plants. I would ask him is it time to feed them. Antirrhinums which came from last year’s seed have come on a lot too and over the next few days, they will be potted up.

I potted these up last Sept and so pleased with them.  Mount Tacoma is a beautiful double tulip – can’t wait for the rest of the pot to come out in bloom.  

And Erythronium ‘pagoda’ giving an encore!!!   I bought Nar.V.Lynn in Lidl last Sept and sooooo  glad I did.

Well, im just in from helping out Tommy Man & David man, they were a laugh a minute, made a great evening as the sun shone to keep us warm, They are back tomorrow evening again to do more, i will post more afterwards tomorrow, sleep well my friends

If the Ash before the Oak

Then you surely get a Soak

But if the Oak before the Ash

Then you only get a Splash

So now it begins – the anxious watching of the Oak and the Ash to see which will break into leaf first!

Well this evening I took a photo of both and neither is showing any signs of opening yet! 

Having arrived home safely after my Dublin trip I did the thing I like best to do – I fill my lungs with good Laois air while I stroll around the garden! 

Having seen that magnificent Fatsia that Jackie (?) posted I went to check on mine and Photo 1 is the result. Definitely NOT a winner!

As I strolled around I spotted this unlikely plant in the Maple border in the front of the house. This is a plant from a generous .ier but I have no idea what it is or what to expect from it. The leaves mostly fell off but it has been back in growth for a good few weeks now and I’d love to know what it is!

I have a fair number of yuccas in the garden, front and back. Late in the year several flowers appeared but the cold weather was on the way. However one Yucca was near the house and escaped the cold and now that the days are continuing to get longer one of them seems to be a cert. I noticed another on the way recently and that should also be safe. I cut away the ones that were gone. The second Yucca is near the house and has got over the cold weather.

No name on this one, but it’s fully luved all the same 😉

A good friend is getting married on the 5th May and is giving her house a face lift as she will be hosting some relatives beforehand. She has a number of containers – window boxes, a hanging basket and some pots and has asked me to help her to plant them up with plants that will be in flower on that date.

This is quite challenging, I think, because I know it is the hungry gap so I am looking for help. What plants would you recommend? What will be in flower? 

Bear in mind that we are a few weeks behind here in Donegal when compared to the south of the country.

Hosta gave me some seeds of this lovely little plant. It is now self seeding around the place. Isn’t it great the way plants find the perfect places to grow, I love it’s choice of home 😉

It was like Grand Central Station here all day so I got nothing much done. But I was delighted afterwards to spot my lovely Iris confusa ‘Martyn Rix’ beginning to open. 

Here come the Bluebells. Lovely to see how they spread about the garden.

No, not wine, but this pretty Lamium which Myrtle gave me a couple of years ago and is flowering really well now.  I planted it between stepping stone slabs in the front garden where its silvery leaves lighten up this shady area. 

Thanks Myrtle, it’s a great plant for what could be a difficult spot. 

I have mentioned before that I am not the worlds best at House Plants. Most of them survive until the flowers they came with fade. some of them don’t even last that long.

There is one exception that I have kept alive for a couple of years – Ok – so it’t only a Christmas Cactus that can be successfully grown by your average 4-year-old – but hey – its a success for me!

Rachel posted a great video last year onhow to get this lovely plant to flower at Christmas and I followed her instructions to the letter and was delighted to have flowers right through the Christmas season.

However, something strange has happened – my “Christmas Cactus” has decided it will be an “Easter Cactus” and has burst into flower again!!!!

I’m just hoping that this isn’t some sort of Swan Song and that its going to turn up its heels and die on me now!

I am very lucky that there are native Bluebells in my hedgerow and they are migrating into the garden at a good rate. 

Many people are not aware of the threat to these beautiful plants from the more spectacular Spanish bluebells which are commonly sold here.

Hyacinthoides non-scripta is our native one and it is a deeper shade of blue – almost purple – than the Hyacinthoides hispanica or Spanich Bluebell.

Our native bluebell also has a perfume which the Spanish one does not. Gardeners World this week had a very good explanation of the diference – Hyacinthoides non-scripta is also native to The U.K.

The problem is the hybridisation between them. 

For the past year I have been systematically digging out anything that looks non-native. Its a pain, but I reckin it is worht the effort.

Yesterday we visited Heywood Gardens and I was blown away with the native bluebells in the woodland and they are not yet fully in bloom but the gentle perfume wafted out to us as we strolled by.

My appeal to you is that if you are buying bluebells please make sure you only buy Hyacinthoides non-scripta and try to preserve this lovely plant.

A few years ago I took in a full delivery of Forget-Me-Nots in work. But when filling up the shelving I spotted just ONE pack of white. I hadn’t even seen white before.

So as I was in the right place at the right time I bought the solitary pack of white. But over the years their numbers have decreased dramatically. So I was delighted to see these ones opening in the last few days.

Even though the flowers from my blueberries haven’t quite opened yet, it didn’t stop the bees from trying to extract some early nectar all day.

Last year, the blueberries were in the Acid Quadrant – neutral soil with an annual top-dressing of ericaceous compost. However, when the fruit was harvested last Autumn, they were all planted into the raised bed that Steve and Wee Davey made for them, with 100% ericaceous soil. So it’ll be interesting to compare this years crop with last years.

This looks awfully like a Ricinus coming up. Or could it actually be Veratrum (as labelled on the pot)? I thought I lost that last year and I use pots over and over. But I’d never chance a Ricinus seed to germinate outdoors.

Before it did I managed to get down to that path edge. There was a huge reed growing over the main stone. I went at it with an axe and it just folded! I was quite surprised and wondered if I went at more things, people, taxes with an axe would I clear them as easily!. The main stone the one at the end, caused me no grief but the one beside it was awkward. easy to dislodge but difficult to reinstate. The secret was little by little and no straining. Funnily enough the muddy ground below yielded up quite a few nice small rocks- I had no idea they were there- also the top of an unbudgeable! I just cleared the clay from the top and left it. Had some nice wildish looking primulas and I put them in and today I transplanted a few dogwoods which should look well in Spring next year.

Yesterday as I laboured at the new edge of the bottom path I got a text to say the new obelisk was ready. I had asked ian to make me a sort of columnar obelisk that would fit a narrow border. When I saw it I was delighted. Exactly what I requested and he capped it with a spearpoint from an old railing he had. I spent a happy two hours painting it today. It began to rain when I was halfway through it so it was fun trying to get the half painted obelisk into the garage without mucking it or me!

I took a photograph or two so you could see it. Hope you like it as much as I do.Sorry have tried twice to upload and it wont work.Ill try one more time.

In February we removed a bamboo which was too big in our small garden. Truth be told, I never liked it much anyway. Finally got round to planting up the freed up space this weekend. With special thanks to kind iers who gifted mist of the plants at Johnstown in January. Delighted now with the result.

This lovely little Phlox started life in the Alpine Circle. Over the years it came up less and less. Then all of a sudden I discovered that it had travelled across the grass and self-seeded on the mini island in the Greenhouse Pond.

It has come on even better in this area. The Alpine Circle had great drainage and full sun, conditions that they like. But there is actually very little soil on the mini island and I’ve never seen it looking so good. It looks great with the single Caltha palustris in the pond too.

Alan came home from Tescos a few years ago and presented me with a pretty little aquilegia he just liked the look of. It’s has just kept on getting prettier and bigger every year since. One of his best buys!

This year the cherries have bloomed their socks off, so hopefully we’ll get a nice crop if the cold weather promised for the weekend doesn’t do for them. I like the blossom and green leaves against the red cherry leaves, the woodland corner is getting nice and full now. 

I showed this Magnolia earlier on It has grown somewhat since.

Discovered these growing happily away in the front garden the year before last and I decided to leave them be to see if they would multiply. They have done so. But as I’d never seen WHITE bluebells before maybe they are hybrids. They are growing alongside some of the blue native ones, which I want to keep. Am I taking a risk of them hybridising and drowning out the native ones?

These photos were taken at Lough Lannagh, Castlebar. My niece Patricia known locally as Pippi planted  them last year and the photos were taken in mid April. She is very interested in the environment.