This time last year the Acer on the left was still covered with leaves. Two years ago it was bare. It also had a backdrop of a magnolia which is now gone. Not much else is different. The real bareness of winter hasn't hit yet and there are still bits and pieces of flower to…
Author: Jim Stephens
Gardener, no-dig allotmenteer, camellia enthusiast.
I love colour, it cheers me up.
Retired nurseryman.
Six on Saturday – 28-10-2017
Six more horticultural Saturday happenings. It's been a benign week weather-wise, the garden looks much as it did a week ago; not good but could be worse. Here's what I found for this week. One. Hydrangea macrophylla You & Me Together ='Youmefive'. Confusingly there is a You & Me series and a Forever & Ever series, both…
Six on Saturday – 21/10/2017
I have to admit that the garden is looking tatty and perfect blooms are in short supply. It's been wind and rain that have done the damage, not cold. Today it's lurching wildly from bright sunshine and fluffy clouds to torrential downpours and black skies. We barely get frost any more here, so things get cut…
Six on Saturday – 14/10/2017
Saturday again! Saturdays seem to come round quicker than the other six days. I'm finding things to put into my six but struggling to find anything diverting to say about them. Well, some of them. Six on Saturday is a meme hosted by ThePropagator, who will have six of his own plus links to several,…
Seeds, lovely seeds.
There's a magic in the way that great big plants grow from tiny little seemingly dead seeds. It fascinates small children and for many of us is no less fascinating when we are past retirement age. I have been collecting seeds from camellia bushes at the National Collection in Mount Edgcumbe Country Park, with their…
Six on Saturday – 7/10/2017
I worked out that after this week I only need to find another 72 things to get me to the end of the year. Creativity will be needed. Perhaps the cat will have to count in a future post. One. Malus domestica 'Holstein'. I nearly included this last week, chose not to. Decided to…
End of month view – September 2017
Even though there is plenty still happening in the garden, it is the end of the growing season and seems like the right time to take stock of the successes and failures of the past year. Autumn is the ideal time for making changes; getting rid of the under-performers, planting something better, moving things around.…
Six on Saturday – 30/9/2017
We managed a few decent days this week and the autumnal slide has been put on hold. The late show is now on, Asters, Cyclamen, Nerines et al, joining the long season Dahlias and Fuchsias. When I worked on a nursery I often got the impression that customers rushed out to buy plants as soon as…
Six on Saturday – 23/9/2017
The "could be anything" list on our host's participants guide to Six on Saturday is six items long. Perfect, thinks me, I'll do one of each. But I don't make plans, I rarely complete projects and I have no features. My favourite tool is up the allotment. I'll start with a success and end with…
Familiarity breeds contempt.
Blechnum chilensis is a large and handsome fern. For all the many years that I didn't possess it, I wanted it very much. Eventually a friend dug a piece from her garden and gave it to me. It took a year or two to settle down and start producing its large, handsome leaves, then it…
garden ruminations 