Thanks to @Nollie and @Mr. Vine Eye for their earlier colour scheme advice in this thread. I've now cleared the border out and probably got carried away but a large mahonia, spotted laurel and numerous snowberry runners have been removed. I'm left with an L shaped border which is approx 20ft X 3ft widening to 7ft on one side. The other section is 18ft X 6ft. I've left the rake to give an idea of scale in the photos. After the ramble my questions please are : 1) How many DA shrub roses should I consider planting, given I'm looking at mixing them with perennials. 2) My original plan was to have a pink / purple and blue colour scheme but now I've effectively gained an extra border should I think about replicating each border or perhaps move more to a different scheme as it turns the corner. Any input gratefully received
@purplerallim ..I saw one in the garden centre the other day, I nearly picked it up.. I wish I had done actually..
@Woodgreen ..I like those logs. Do you prepare them or can you buy them like that in garden centres? Are they specific for something?  just wondered, thanks..
Oh well, I have suffered my first loss of the season.. a bare root of 'Prince Jardinier' which I had potted up and was doing really well earlier with vigorous growth, suddenly suffered dieback.  ..I've just emptied the pot out and the rootstock has died on me, cutting into it the roots I find they are brown and dead.. No idea what happened there.. it's very rare I lose one in this way..
Here the first colour is finally showing on my struggling pink cloud….:( And no clue what is wrong with one of my guirlande … the laterals on a main is dying for some reason, other mains are also becoming yellow…  The plant is wilting in the sun this week. I think I will need to execute a soil test of something. Have given it a seaweed and iron feed and it is still deteriorating:( Any other advice …Â
@Woodgreen ..I like those logs. Do you prepare them or can you buy them like that in garden centres? Are they specific for something?  just wondered, thanks..
I had to smile at this @Marlorena. Since Storm Arwen devastated parts of this area in November I have been dealing with logs and branches until I am sick of the sight of them. But it will all be used on my little wood burning stove eventually. These are spruce, stacked out of the way until I can split them and store them under cover. I've already dealt with a damson, a grey alder, three big golden alders and the top half of a Scots pine, but obviously this has put me behind with garden jobs so all the rest of the spruce (about twelve, of varying diameters) are still unlopped and unlogged ( I don't do this, as it's a chainsaw job) lying on top of one another in an awful mess. But they'll have to wait. The logs in the photo came from the tops of some spruce that fell onto mowing grass and had to be cut up. Another gift from the storm is the considerable amount of mulch I have made from shredding branches. But how I wish it had never happened. The sight of so many good trees torn out of the ground is not something I ever wish to see again. Here is the lower half of the Scots pine after I'd split the rounds in two in order to lift them...the pine was 63 ft tall, a lovely tree.
I too missed the chance of acquiring the dark red dicentra! She who hesitates.....
@Woodgreen ..oh gosh, I'm sorry about the loss of your trees.. I would need a good few strong men to deal with all that, I wouldn't know where to start.. and they are all cut so neatly. I just think a few cut logs look so homely. Obviously you've got rather a lot of them in unfortunate circumstances.
It's strange but I don't remember that particular storm, maybe it wasn't an issue so much here, it was the later one, forget its name, that tried to demolish the lot of us..
I've just watched on youtube, videos of that tornado the other day ripping through a town called Andover, in Kansas. Unbelievable destruction. I can't help but think something like that will brew up here before too long..
Meanwhile, I hope your roses do well this summer to bring some cheer..Â
@Imprevu .. that's a shame about your Guirlande rose.. I wonder if that cane has snapped somewhere?.. otherwise I wouldn't know what's gone wrong there.. Â
Oh I cannot tell you how happy it made me to see this at breakfast time. I ran down the stairs like a child on Christmas morning when OH called up that she could see a blue tit in the garden. We had multiple visits, from different birds, all hopping about the roses.Â
After that long time waiting for the birds to come back to our garden they all came at once. I was so pleased - literally squealed with delight 😅
Posts
I'm left with an L shaped border which is approx 20ft X 3ft widening to 7ft on one side. The other section is 18ft X 6ft. I've left the rake to give an idea of scale in the photos.
After the ramble my questions please are :Â
1) How many DA shrub roses should I consider planting, given I'm looking at mixing them with perennials.
2) My original plan was to have a pink / purple and blue colour scheme but now I've effectively gained an extra border should I think about replicating each border or perhaps move more to a different scheme as it turns the corner.Â
Any input gratefully received
..I saw one in the garden centre the other day, I nearly picked it up.. I wish I had done actually..
@Woodgreen
..I like those logs. Do you prepare them or can you buy them like that in garden centres? Are they specific for something?  just wondered, thanks..
..I've just emptied the pot out and the rootstock has died on me, cutting into it the roots I find they are brown and dead..
No idea what happened there.. it's very rare I lose one in this way..
...this was it 6 weeks ago...Â
And no clue what is wrong with one of my guirlande … the laterals on a main is dying for some reason, other mains are also becoming yellow…
 The plant is wilting in the sun this week.
I think I will need to execute a soil test of something. Have given it a seaweed and iron feed and it is still deteriorating:(
Any other advice …Â
Since Storm Arwen devastated parts of this area in November I have been dealing with logs and branches until I am sick of the sight of them. But it will all be used on my little wood burning stove eventually. These are spruce, stacked out of the way until I can split them and store them under cover. I've already dealt with a damson, a grey alder, three big golden alders and the top half of a Scots pine, but obviously this has put me behind with garden jobs so all the rest of the spruce (about twelve, of varying diameters) are still unlopped and unlogged ( I don't do this, as it's a chainsaw job) lying on top of one another in an awful mess. But they'll have to wait. The logs in the photo came from the tops of some spruce that fell onto mowing grass and had to be cut up.Â
Another gift from the storm is the considerable amount of mulch I have made from shredding branches.
But how I wish it had never happened. The sight of so many good trees torn out of the ground is not something I ever wish to see again. Here is the lower half of the Scots pine after I'd split the rounds in two in order to lift them...the pine was 63 ft tall, a lovely tree.
I too missed the chance of acquiring the dark red dicentra! She who hesitates.....
..oh gosh, I'm sorry about the loss of your trees.. I would need a good few strong men to deal with all that, I wouldn't know where to start.. and they are all cut so neatly. I just think a few cut logs look so homely. Obviously you've got rather a lot of them in unfortunate circumstances.
It's strange but I don't remember that particular storm, maybe it wasn't an issue so much here, it was the later one, forget its name, that tried to demolish the lot of us..
I've just watched on youtube, videos of that tornado the other day ripping through a town called Andover, in Kansas. Unbelievable destruction. I can't help but think something like that will brew up here before too long..
Meanwhile, I hope your roses do well this summer to bring some cheer..Â
.. that's a shame about your Guirlande rose.. I wonder if that cane has snapped somewhere?.. otherwise I wouldn't know what's gone wrong there.. Â