Such a lovely lecture we had on Rare and Classical bulbs tonight at the AGS. The speaker, Gill Hazell, was excellent and her slides glorious. She brought many rare bulbs to sell and they were very cheap. She even let us have Lachenalia free. I had aurea the yellow one. I came away with her catalogue to drool over.
Looks like another good day for gardening, dry and warm. My friend who came to supper last night before the AGS meeting had been food shopping and brought me some treats including feta cheese so I will be using some of the last of my tomatoes and my new cut and come again salad leaves and rocket to make a Greek salad for lunch. Sowing those saladings at the end of September outside for mr. Fothergills trials has certainly paid off with this milder than normal October we have had. But it is a bit too risky not to bring in my orchids so five cymbidiums in their big pots will come into the conservatory today. I shall look up the internet to see what I do with my new freebie, my lachenalia.
Cymbidiums indoors and diascias in my cold frame. When it started to drizzle I came in and pricked out 15 of Mr. Fothergills aubrieta plants. There are so many you would not notice I had touched the seed tray. I can see a lot of them will end up in the raffle at the AGS. I will put my Lachenaliaaloides aurea freebie into pots later. The bulbs are very tiny so may have to wait for flowers.
Seems too good to be true but another dry warm day on the cards for Bristol so I shall abandon my pricking out to get out there. Soon be time to plant tulips of which I have hundreds and I have not scratched the surface of my bags and bags of daffs yet.
Oh my gosh the fairies visited my garden last night. After clearing a metre or so of border for some hemerocallis I went up the potager to check on my newly planted Pea Meteor plants and found in one of my raised beds six huge lavender bushes had been laid out along one side, presumably by one of my neighbours who works in demolition and often puts lovely big pots tetc over the fence for me out of the skips. This is the first time it has been plants and loads of very good soil on the roots! The smallest is about two feet across so I will plant that one in a big pot which will be denuded of its pelargoniums and the other five will become a lavender hedge somewhere. I have lifted them out of the raised bed and put them in the bog garden site to be sure to keep damp till I can replant them. Which is why I am sitting typing filling the study with lavender scent. My clothes are impregnated with it. Never a dull moment it seems in my Golden Jubilee Year. I wonder which stately home is digging out its lavender hedges?
Pictures from the garden today. The spindle bush is beautiful, my saladings belie the fact I have been picking all week They were sown on Sept.25th and have been outside all the time. My winter pansies are ready to be planted out to make room for more pricking out in the conservatory.
Marion I love your pink flowers such a lovely picture, I also have a big lavender next to my shed it smells gorgeous every time I walk past. I'm thinking of growing sweet peas next year, when would I need to sow the seeds?.
weather in the north is wet and very windy at the moment, hope it cheers up soon
You can sow sweet pea seeds now, flumpy 1 if you want them early but I found last year , though some survived they were no earlier than sowing early March.and I picked them all summer long up till last week. Sow heritage variety if you want scent.
IT is another mild day with blue skies and sunny at the moment but I think I will take note of the forecast for stormy weather tonight and batten down the hatches today. The runner beans have finished cropping so can tidy that raised bed and store the bamboo canes away in the garage.
My spindle bush was a present from the many birds that visit my garden and until it flowered for the first time I was unaware of what it was. It is a real beauty.
I had to dodge the showers today which were very heavy when they came but intermittent so I managed to pot up another of the freebie lavender bushes, pot up the five pelargoniums that came out of said pot , deadhead the Jubilee Border (Generous Gardener Rose is still covered in flowers) and pick a huge basket of apples to take to the church ladies when I give my talk on Wednesday. Clocks go back next Sunday so soon the days will be so short. Perhaps getting up earlier is the answer to that one.
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Such a lovely lecture we had on Rare and Classical bulbs tonight at the AGS. The speaker, Gill Hazell, was excellent and her slides glorious. She brought many rare bulbs to sell and they were very cheap. She even let us have Lachenalia free. I had aurea the yellow one. I came away with her catalogue to drool over.
Looks like another good day for gardening, dry and warm. My friend who came to supper last night before the AGS meeting had been food shopping and brought me some treats including feta cheese so I will be using some of the last of my tomatoes and my new cut and come again salad leaves and rocket to make a Greek salad for lunch. Sowing those saladings at the end of September outside for mr. Fothergills trials has certainly paid off with this milder than normal October we have had. But it is a bit too risky not to bring in my orchids so five cymbidiums in their big pots will come into the conservatory today. I shall look up the internet to see what I do with my new freebie, my lachenalia.
Cymbidiums indoors and diascias in my cold frame. When it started to drizzle I came in and pricked out 15 of Mr. Fothergills aubrieta plants. There are so many you would not notice I had touched the seed tray. I can see a lot of them will end up in the raffle at the AGS. I will put my Lachenaliaaloides aurea freebie into pots later. The bulbs are very tiny so may have to wait for flowers.
Seems too good to be true but another dry warm day on the cards for Bristol so I shall abandon my pricking out to get out there. Soon be time to plant tulips of which I have hundreds and I have not scratched the surface of my bags and bags of daffs yet.
Oh my gosh the fairies visited my garden last night. After clearing a metre or so of border for some hemerocallis I went up the potager to check on my newly planted Pea Meteor plants and found in one of my raised beds six huge lavender bushes had been laid out along one side, presumably by one of my neighbours who works in demolition and often puts lovely big pots tetc over the fence for me out of the skips. This is the first time it has been plants and loads of very good soil on the roots! The smallest is about two feet across so I will plant that one in a big pot which will be denuded of its pelargoniums and the other five will become a lavender hedge somewhere. I have lifted them out of the raised bed and put them in the bog garden site to be sure to keep damp till I can replant them. Which is why I am sitting typing filling the study with lavender scent. My clothes are impregnated with it. Never a dull moment it seems in my Golden Jubilee Year. I wonder which stately home is digging out its lavender hedges?
Pictures from the garden today. The spindle bush is beautiful, my saladings belie the fact I have been picking all week They were sown on Sept.25th and have been outside all the time. My winter pansies are ready to be planted out to make room for more pricking out in the conservatory.
Marion I love your pink flowers such a lovely picture, I also have a big lavender next to my shed it smells gorgeous every time I walk past. I'm thinking of growing sweet peas next year, when would I need to sow the seeds?.
weather in the north is wet and very windy at the moment, hope it cheers up soon
You can sow sweet pea seeds now, flumpy 1 if you want them early but I found last year , though some survived they were no earlier than sowing early March.and I picked them all summer long up till last week. Sow heritage variety if you want scent.
IT is another mild day with blue skies and sunny at the moment but I think I will take note of the forecast for stormy weather tonight and batten down the hatches today. The runner beans have finished cropping so can tidy that raised bed and store the bamboo canes away in the garage.
My spindle bush was a present from the many birds that visit my garden and until it flowered for the first time I was unaware of what it was. It is a real beauty.
I have been pricking out aquilegias from their seed tray and giggling at the goatee beards my trailing pansies are sporting now.
I had to dodge the showers today which were very heavy when they came but intermittent so I managed to pot up another of the freebie lavender bushes, pot up the five pelargoniums that came out of said pot , deadhead the Jubilee Border (Generous Gardener Rose is still covered in flowers) and pick a huge basket of apples to take to the church ladies when I give my talk on Wednesday. Clocks go back next Sunday so soon the days will be so short. Perhaps getting up earlier is the answer to that one.