Camellia 'Night Rider' possesses the sort of qualities that would lead one to expect it to be massively popular, yet it is but rarely seen. Raised in New Zealand by Os Blumhardt, its parents are C.'Ruby Bells' x C.'Kuro-tsubaki'. It first flowered in 1980. The flowers are dark red and the petals waxy textured.…
Conifers
Conifers have become a somewhat tricky subject to talk about. As indifferent to the zeitgeist as I like to see myself, even I know that they've been deeply unfashionable for at least the last twenty years. You probably have to go back to the 1960's to see the start of what now looks like a…
Gastropods
My relationship with slugs and snails is a simple one; they vex me greatly so I kill them. I read somewhere, probably Twitter, that this year was going to be a bad one for slugs and snails because it had been such a mild winter. That is to say, it was going to be a…
End of month view May 2016
One of the fascinating things about the end of month meme is that it provides an opportunity to compare one month with another. Up until the end of April there seemed to be very little to comment on by way of change, with one month end being little different from the one before. Not so this…
Trial by allotment
I went up to my plot yesterday morning, did a bit of weeding and thinned my autumn raspberries. On the way out of the fruit cage, heading home for lunch, I noticed a branch on one of my gooseberries was almost bare of leaves. It could only mean sawfly, so I set to squashing them.…
Shopping trip-2
A week ago, I went to Barracott Plants on a plant hunting expedition, coming home with enough goodies to write a blog about, which I duly did. Trouble was , a couple of things I'd been wanting I was unable to find and the nursery owner was away so I was advised to come back.…
Allotment update
No dig veg growing throws up the odd dilemma, like do I or do I not earth up my spuds. I chose to do so, but not to the extent that everyone else has done theirs. Having made and carried out the decision, it seems a bit late to turn to Charles Dowding's book and…
