Archives: journal

I love this purple wallflower, I think it is called Bowles Perennial Wallflower, it flowers all year round and you can take cuttings easier than you can say Jack Robinson, they are a must have if you want colour all year and so easy to grow, except when the dogs decide to play on them (won’t get a chance when I have my radio fence in place!)  Also my first (ever) alliums are all coming up, I planted 1 Gladiator (Purple), 5 Aflatunense (Pink) and 8 Nigrum (white), I am really looking forward to seeing them flower : )

It was a nasty frosty morning and the minimum night temperature was -2. I did well to bring in my plants yesterday. The greenhouse looked very strange, covered in frost. Stepping into it was like entering one of those "ice hotels" they have in Finland – not that I’ve ever been but I do have a TV. It was all silent and frozen.

Inside the greenhouse the soil in pots was frozen solid. I had taken the precaution of wrapping a towel around my Sago Palm, although it can take some frost. I hadn’t covered the small Dicksonia Antartica I recently bought. Perhaps this was an oversight. I’ve wrapped the two up together now but I hope it’s not too late for the Dicksonia. The only other potential casualty is one small chrysanthemum which had started to regrow – it’s probably been knocked for six now.

Since there was no gardening outdoors today, I decided I would use up the sprouting trays I had recently freed up from potting my tomatoes etc. on.

I sowed a tray of Helenium last night and, this morning, one each of Echinacea, Dahlia (thanks, Lorraine) and Mignonette (thanks, Alison). I also sowed some Sweet Basil, that Lorraine sent me, in a small pot. I put my fourth set of Dahlia tubers in a tray for forcing (hope it’s not too late in the game for that). The other "forced Dahlias"  have small shoots now so soon I will need to cut these off.

 

 

My Camellia has one flowery side (the back) and one not-yet flowery side (the front).

I want to grow giant showy flowers this year – you know, the really kitsch uncool types that our grandparents loved?

So I ordered 6 large-flowered Chrysanthemums, 3 giant Fuchsias (Royal Mosaic) and 5 giant Begonias (Angelica) from the Bakker catalogue. I also ordered an edible Physalis as my third child loves this fruit but it costs a lot.

I was so excited when I got the call this morning from t e courier, asking directions to the house. I’m not so excited now, looking at the collection in my sink. They look a bit sad – like something kept under a stone for too long. I’m sure they’ll pick up though with a bit of TLC.

The Begonia corms (not pictured here) are quite small – like those for sale in Aldi at the moment. I thought big corms/bulbs meant big flowers! I hope they grow as promised in the catalogue!

Yesterday I’ve got this cutting of red kalanchoe. I have the same but with flowers of cream yellow. I think, red one will be good for nothern window-sill.

The sun is here again. The hellebores are making a fine clump. These are growing under pine trees so they are in a  bed full of pine needles. Im convinced pine needles keep slugs away. I know I should cut the old leaves off. I’ll get around to it someday.

This was taken yesterday. I think  these will open shortly.

These Pulmonaria are growing quite near the pale Hellebores so they like being surrounded by pine needles. This bed can get quite dry too with all the roots of the pine trees which are about 25 years old.

This is a young plant given to me two years ago and all around it are lots of seedlings. I love the colour!

Got to plant some more cauli,spinach,and some beet,also to move basil and tomatoes to single pots,this evening.We have had another bitter raw day today, but still the sun got to shine down on us for a while at least especially between 1 and 2 today.Some trays need the greenhouse asop and lets hope that the weather picks up by the weekend or not to long after then.

There is now a noticeable difference between the geraniums in the heated propagator and the others. Both are in the unheated greenhouse but one  lot is inside the propagator. I’ve a photo of each in my latest album and the difference is obvious. I’m sure the slower ones will eventually develop all right. Very frosty nights but what lovely sunshine this last day or two. I divided phloxes and hope that the frost doesn’t upset the newly planted offshoots or the delicate buds of recently planted roses! Bye.

My dream come true – I’ve got clivia at last! Wonderful flower I’m so fond of.

08.03 we will celebrate  International Women’s Day. Believe me, it will be a real madness in flower shops next 3 days – all flowers, apart from price, will be bought up!

Now all shops are preparing to this: no pots and packs of compost on shelves, just cuttered flowers and flowered plants in pots. I don’t want to be a shop assistant these next days :)))

I want to try this lily – for the first time in pot, and then I hope to find a place for it outside the city.

 

During the last dry spell I took out my Moss-Eater and removed a good amount of moss from my two lawns. For your information the Moss-Eater is like a very lightweight lawn mower with a roller on which there are three spiral rows of sprongs like bent pins. These ‘bent pins’ pull out the moss and loose thatch grass which I collect and put on the compost heap. There was quite a lot of moss and loose grass this time, much more than I would collect from a normal mowing.

Then I mowed the lawns and evened the edges with the strimmer. The Moss-Eater does not do a 100% job but it reduces the amount of moss considerably. What should be done now is apply some moss killer to finish off the job but I have long since given up using weed killers of any description. I believe such treatment does more harm than good, reduces the worm population in my gardens and could harm the birds which feed there.

One of the local robins kept me company mowing the lawn and pounced on tasty morsels disturbed by the mowing

The Cosmos seeds I sowed last February have sprung up and I have transferred them into yoghurt cartons. However, only the seeds left over from last year’s packet took root. The ones I collected from the plants did not come up at all. I think that was my fault because I did not store them properly or the heavy rain which battered them while they were ripening may have done the job on them. Please God the ones in the yoghurt cartons will thrive and produce healthy plants. 

I spent a lot of time tidying up the borders removing dozens of seedlings from various plants which threatened to take over. Forget-me-nots are prolific propogators and I watch out for them every year.

The Helleborus plants are still flowering and have grown higher than I expected while a few daffodils have flowered in the past week or so. There are many more of them and tulips too pushing their stems through the soil and the deciduous bushes are beginning to bud. 

It was bitterly cold today and raining slightly so I didn’t do any work outdoors. Instead I finished digging the border inside the greenhouse. Got to have it ready for those tomatoes!

I measured my tomato plants today and the tallest measures 4 1/2 ". They are all looking nice and perky too since the potting-on. I’m quite pleased as this is my first attempt at tomatoes from seed.

Some roosters nearly ready for the big move.Sowed some more sweetcorn,cabbage[King Slaw] cauliflower[All the Year Round] and some alpine strawberries.Some of the hardy trays to move to the greenhouse tomorrow, along with some broad beans to get planted in the garden too,hopefully. 

Here is another photo of a different hellebore. There is a lovely garden near here owned by Celia called ‘Frogswell’.  They have some beautiful hellebores including some doubles which are really special.

My daughter got some ‘Grow your own Fairy Garden’ seeds for christmas and yesterday we decided to get started on our fairy garden, with help form our fairy friends of course! In fact the Fairies did most of the work and we took lots of photos to prove it. First the magic block of compost had to be soaked so it expanded to fill the seed tray, then seeds were sprinkled on the surface and of course no fairy gardening exercise would be complete without a little sprinkle of fairy dust for good luck. Now we just have to wait and see what favourite fairy flowers will emerge!

I took cuttings from my "forced" Dahlias today.

The shoots were around 3" and I cut them, with a sharp knife, above a set of leaves. I then removed the lower leaves from the shoot, applied rooting hormone and placed the shoots around the edge of a 3.5" pot. I covered the pot with a plastic bag and am keeping it indoors.

The shoots were quite small by the time the leaves were pared off. I hope that I did it right.  I have four shoots. I suppose I should pot up the tubers now!

Finished weeding the circular bed. I also potted on my Chrysanthemums, Fucsias and Physalis plants. I took three cuttings from the Fuchsia, in the same way as I did the Dahlias,  and I pinched out the buds on the remaining Fuchsia shoots to make them branch. I’m thinking of leaving theMums in the greenhouse.