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autumn and winter
OK, so as previous threads i have some spring bulbs - daffs, muscari, iris, crocus and chionodoxa - all fine, however after now the summer flowers are all but gone im going to be left with a rather bare and colourless garden (ive only started planting enthusiastically around mid/late spring).
so my question is ... is it too late to get some colour in the garden now? im sure there would be some nice little evergreens (hebes, heathers, lavenders etc) that i could pot up with an autumn or winter flowering plant, but as ive not been through an autumn or winter before (in garderning terms!) my knowledge on plants for this time of year is a little limited. help much appreciated!
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Cyclamen hederifolium are looking good now and will go on for weeks to be followed by C. coum.
Have a look and see what the GCs are selling for winter decoration. Winter isn't a full of colour season in the garden though. Shapes from evergreens, dried perennials, lovely in the frost.
In the sticks near Peterborough
If you grow hawthorn, cotoneaster, pyracantha, berberis, etc you can look forward to lots of berries and lots of birds to feed on them. I love asters in the autumn and cyclamen and hellebores and snowdrops in the winter. A good shrub is skimmia - female for berries, male for red flowers all winter long. But my favourite for flowers and fruit together is chaenomeles. Mine is very old and has red little rose like flowers all the year round but mostly from December on.
How about Helleborus sp. for winter, & Nerine bowdenii for autumn. Also, Heuchera sp (although not flowering autumn & winter, still glorious colour)
I have just bought three hypericums for the autumn. They have green, pink, or red berries depending on whether they are called Green Lion, Red Lion or Sweet Lion. Only groe to 40cm so ideal for small gardens or rockeries in a large garden like mine. Here is their picture.
I like those Marion, the pink one for me.
In the sticks near Peterborough
Lovely to see all these pretty plants for the darker days ahead. I haven't been
very well for a few weeks now but hope to get going with my wildflower garden
again very soon. Can anyone please tell me if I should use some kind of
nutritious material when I plant wild daffodil bulbs in my wildflower garden, as I
plan to plant them under trees where the soil is very dry and dusty. They will
be a little apart from the wildflower seeds I'm sowing, so perhaps it might not
matter if I fertilize the ground just under the trees? Any advice will be much
appreciated.
Nutcutlet I'm just about to PM you! But please give me a little while as I'm
still handicapped - pardon the pun!
Just packeted up most of your seeds and left a message on seed share ffb
In the sticks near Peterborough
Thanks Nutcutlet - I eventually managed to pm you (it was my third
attempt - the first two messages disappeared into cyber space when I was only
halfway through them!)
Got it and replied ffb.
In the sticks near Peterborough
Your daffodil bulbs already have the flower inside if they are flowering size. The time to feed is after they flower while the foliage is still green. Deadhead the daffodils till you have too many to do this by which time you may have to dig up the clump and separate out the new bulbs to avoid having blind clumps.