Month: April 2017

Every year I place pots at the front door as I think its adds to the overall appearance and looks lovely …I rue when we built our house nearly 18 years ago now that we didnt plan for beds either side of the front door but at the time gardening was not on the agenda!

I have been thinking that two large pots with a climbing plant on trellis would look lovely.. maybe a rose or clematis. I love Jackies Montana and I see Terry has it in a pot growing away … It may be a wee bit too robust for the front door but I like the idea of something similiar. Anyone any ideas?

My front door faces east and the roof juts out so I would be responsible for all watering and feeding??? Ideally I would like something that flowers for a long period and scent would be a bonus 🙂 Would love to hear your ideas and advise. Thanks so much!

Not sure if it’s just me, but for some reason I’m thinking that all the Acers are looking really fantastic this year.

Always a little later flowering in the garden here, this is a real beauty.

Slower to bulk up also compared to some of the others I have.

Super plants.

just a quick journal.  Aren’t these sweet damsels just so sweet?  And fragrant too!  

Such intense colour too. ( Not like those cheeky senoritas. ) 

Amongst an order placed with Heritage Bulbs last Autumn were a number of Allium caeruleum. They’re supposed to be blue, but they’re looking awfully like wild garlic. Like I don’t already have enough of that thug in the front garden.

My composters have been falling apart for the past couple of years, and I get lots of promises that they will be fixed …. soon.  And so they have.

So my youngest son  and his wee man set to and cleared out all the old compost (6 mth old).  The wee fellow is 6 and 2 weeks and is the most capable , hard working child ever.  He was working away, shovelling the compost out on to the path, then like a grown-up, or like the road-men of yesteryear, leaned on his shovel and pronounced “This is very satisfying work, Dad!”  

Then, when they went down to the lower garden, he was ready with the paint brush. 

That topiary Castlewellan gold was just for fun.  Quite a few years ago, I wanted to try my hand at topiary, so I grew 6 Castlewellan Golds from slips, and after a few years I tried on one of them.  Could not do it.  Threw it away.  Then the others got in the way and grew too big, and were ditched.  But I kept one, just in case I would get the urge again, and then one fine day, when I least expected it, I found myself busy with the hedge shears starting at the bottom and beginning the spiral.  Other jobs took over and I abandonned it half-way.  The following year, I thought it really looked quite well and I decided to carry on and reach the top. Success!  That was about 4 years ago and my daughter and daughter-in-law have re-trimmed it for the past two summers.  

It still gives us a laugh, and “sure” isn’t that a good thing?  

These banana plants have improved in recent times. They are not hardy and have gone in every night. Met Eireann tells us that we can expect frost this week beginning to night, so in they go again to night.

About 4 years ago I bought a plant called Ferula communis Gigantea. Well it grew well and produced lovely foliage like Fennel….it is not a proper Fennel, no scent either.

I read that it produced a ginormous flower head with yellow flowers . But this never happened ……………..until today. I noticed almost overnight there was a big stem growing from it, yippeee hope the frost does not hit it. Apparently it can grow to a great height so should be fun to watch. Anyone have experience of this? For some reason I think I got it from Crug but not at all sure must see if they list it. Couple of photos to show you progress so far. Hope they show the lovely foliage well.

Started to flower the other day, and I notice little buds starting on some of the others too.

I love this little Acer. It looks great with the sun shining through.

Veronica prostrata ‘Nestor Blue’ took a while to ‘settle in’ to the Alpine Circle. But now it has become well-established and is beginning to spread out. Lovely delicate shade of blue.

I bought this clematis about 4 years ago in Aldi as it was reduced to 90 cent and half dead. I repotted and then did nothing with it for over a year so was just neglected. I then decided in a last attempt to save it I planted it at the base of an apple tree here and nothing again last year. But this year I am delighted to firstly see loads of buds and now loads of flowers. Don’t have a clue about the name tho?

I have this shrub for years. There is a  great fragrance from it. It is quite hardy.

Never throw anything out . The ” spare ” aldi greenhouse shelving with a little head scratching has made a nice end wall to wall shelving unit . Thats the floor space cleared .

Some amazing Magnolias in Bloom in Marlay Park at the moment. 

As everyone here on the site knows that my favourite tree is the magnificent magnolias, but flowering their socks off at present are a few other spring flowering trees. Amelanchier lamarckii, a nice tree for a small garden, in spring is covered in delicate white flowers and turns an amazing colour in autum. Another small tree is Malus floribunda, red buds open to pale pink flowers and at this time of year would stop you in your tracks, giving the magnolias a little competition. However, the yellow magnolias are just starting to flower. What a beautiful time of year with so much to admire.

Well  Scrubber started in traditional style thinking he might raise a rock a few inches. Yes you may yawn and pass on! In fact he ended up turning the rock completely around and upside down!. Its not perfect but its better!

That as usual took four times the time he thought it would. Next he got the Strimmer out and did a lot of strimming. He’s not good at threading the strim in so the air was a little blue. Got going and quickly ran out of strim. More blueing but finally managed to get down to Bottoms and cut back a lot of three cornered Leek- plagued with it. Luckily Scrubber enjoys the smell! And the flowers are beautiful so he’ll count blessings instead of moaning.

Then got mower out and had great fun dodging the snowdrop and daffodil clumps. Got a good bit done so was pleased enough if tired at the end of the day. Bit of a dull day workwise but there was the rock to cheer him up.

Took some lovely photos and will later do a photo journal but will show three here if I can.

Those of you who have read my journals over the past few years might remember my struggles with my Auriculas. They have been through many adventures – they originated in Rush and came as a gift from Liga – on the occasion of my first ever visit to a garden.ie gardener to they are very precious.

They almost perished when they were planted at the edge of a border and larger incumbents tried to smother them.

They got lifted (and of course divided) and put into pots a couple of years later and I had notions of a regular “Auricula Theatre” but the howling gales that regularly visit us here put paid to those grand notions! Shelving, pots and all ended up in a heap on the ground!!!

So last year I found a sheltered non-sunny spot for them on the wall alongside my side gates and they did well. Full of enthusiasm I divded them vigorously and was delighted to have lots of plants for the Plant Sales this year but alas there were no takers because I had neglected to label them by colour.

So THIS year I’m determined – they are flowering away and I’m labelling each pretty colour as it opens so maybe I’ll soon have them sorted. along with Liga’s original plants I have acquired a beautiful yellow one from Elizabeth’s Fucshia Society and a delicate blue one from no less than Helen Dillon – but it hasn’t opened yet!

So here goes for this years Auriculas!

The mild weather of last winter has resulted in our Paulowinea tomentosa flowering the best it has ever. The tree is about fifteen years old, grown from seed. It came  through the bad winters of 2010 and 2011 without  any problems. They are often coppiced to encourage larger leaves, but we have just let ours grow and only remove the odd branch. The flower buds can be blown off in windy weather, but enough have survived to make a good covering of flower this year. Hard to photograph, but  Paddy managed to get a good few photos of it today. The common name for this tree is the Foxglove Tree.

It was like a summers day from dawn to dusk. Steve managed to get the grass cut, it was badly needed. Last time was January 1st so you can imagine how scruffy it was with growth, plus a lot of debris from my recent spells of cutting back and weeding. I normally just throw it on the grass and wait until Steve takes out the lawnmower. Kills two birds with one stone, but it’s pretty awful to look at until then.

Tomato seedlings are now ‘fully’ out in the greenhouse. Still have to be potted on to their final pots. But I’ll leave well enough alone for now. And there’s a very cold night in store for us on Tuesday, I think. So the fleece is ready, or maybe they can come back into the house for the duration.

Everything was watered in the greenhouse today and there’s a small bit of growth on the Dahlias I stored in there over the winter.

Delighted to see my little Paris quadrifolia bulking up so well. It’s only here about 4yrs, I think. Another bit of sunshine should see them flowering soon. The broken bits of paving are surrounding it to protect it from passing foot traffic, usually mine.

What a beautiful day…While the rest of the house went off to Clones to watch Monaghan TRY to beat Dublin I spent the afternoon in the garden. For the past number of years I have been trying to introduce more spring colour into the garden and today in the sunshine I was delighted to see so much colour….. lots of different daffodils, tulips, primroses, forget me nots…. Have some hyacinths in window  boxes too.. Have to say I love these.. I used to think they were old fashioned but have grown to love them not only for there colour but their scent too! It was interesting to see the pink flowered first,then blue followed by yellow. why I dont know?!

On a negative note I noticed this year alot of my bulbs had slug damage.. my snowdrops and especially the daffodils… see picture 2 lots of slugs inside the flower head. I know we had a mild winter with plenty of rain but I have never seen such damage like this before.

Its great seeing the garden come alive and the long bright evenings are a joy. Have put up a small album !

I was mistified, mist rather that mystery, today. Yesterday Fran joked that I’d probably find new rocks when I began to clear the hedge. I had only just begun when there was a clink. That put paid to my clearing for an hour! How did he know? Well one had to remove it else how could the man put in the new fence. And amazingly there was a gap down near the steps so it slotted in. Now one would think (If you didnt know him), that that would satisfy Scrubber but there’s a niglle and I just know, I wonder does FRAN?, that some time in the future I will get back and the rocks in the pics will be uprooted and reorganised. But that is for the future. When exactly? I dunno. Ask Fran!

The new rock looks quite small in the third picture but its actually the one thats under it is the real niggler. Now if Scrubber raised that one up fully it might look……

Having slaved all afternoon in the vag garden it was a delight to stroll by the shrubbery and capture these ladies in their finery definitely strutting their stuff!

Spiraea ‘Arguta’ seems to have recovered from the indignity inflicted on her a couple of years ago – a bad infestation of Vetch meant that she had to be dug up and the roots combed out till all the Vetch was gone – and apart from an occasional little bit sneaking in from the surrounding beds it seems to have been a success! And she is repaying me with her best display ever!

Cornus contraversa ‘variegata’ – which my lovely Brendan bought me to celebrate our first wedding anniversary – really loves where it is in the shrubbery. I took heed of a suggestion from Mary (Gracedieu Lass) that I clear underneath this pretty tree and just plant a few bulbs – and this is the result!

Photo Three is Colin’s Tree – Betula utilis jacquemontii – which used to have a complete carpet of Saxifrage around its base. The saxifrage got completely infested with a nasty spiney grass that couldn’t be removed without wrecking the saxifrage so I bit the bullet last autumn and removed most of the saxifrage and planted a random collection of bulbs in its place. I’m happy with the result!

I think it was originally Hazel who gave me a couple of Cerinthe seedlings for my garden, and they’re up and flowering already. Love that shade of blue/lilac.

Another of my Camellias have opened up. No label on it, but I think it’s ‘Saturnia’. Love its rich colour.

Another monday rolls around and that means another bud watch photo. Some of the other buds on R. bureavii are a little more advanced, but for the sake of authenticity I am sticking to the original bud. It’s not too far off now.

I showed the opening truss of R. oreodaxa var fargesii the other day and now I am showing it with some of the flowers open and I am dead pleased with it as the flowers are extremely attractive.

The third photo is of some flowers of the species, R. fimbriatum. I have had to move this a couple of times to find a spot it is happy in and all is well now.