I'm off to another show at RHS Rosemoor today, the RCM Group Main Rhododendron and SW Branch Competitions. As usual, my main focus is the Camellias, which a month or so ago seemed likely to be all over by now. However, when I did my volunteer day at Mt Edgcumbe on Tuesday I was pleasantly…
Six on Saturday – 20/4/2019
Oh my, what perfect gardening weather, I'm knackered. Finding six things wasn't a problem though, it's all happening. One. With a strong sense of not having a clue what I was doing, I pruned my 'Victoria' plum tree. Shortened all of last year's shoots to a couple of sideshoots and thinned it out some. There…
Six on Saturday – 13/4/2019
I'm away gallivanting. Judging Camellias at the RHS show at Savil Garden. Which means I'm away from my computer and confined to an iPad. If I can pull this off it'll be a miracle. One. The blue riband class in camellias is the twelve. Twelve perfect blooms. Tragically the competitors who had staged their exhibits…
Allotment update – 10/4/2019
It's been a while since I posted anything about my allotment. We've had some very mild weather and things are maybe a little ahead of where they'd usually be, but not by much. Last year I sowed peas on 13 April; today I sowed this year's, three days earlier. I'd sown a strip of Italian…
Six on Saturday -6/4/2019
I spent a good deal of yesterday on the showground at Wadebridge, helping set up a stand for the International Camellia Society at the Cornwall Garden Society Spring Show. I'll be back there tomorrow on the stand. My plan for today's six was to take some pictures up there yesterday, but it didn't work out that way,…
Six on Saturday -30/3/2019
Immediately following last week's post I got stuck in and did quite a lot of planting out, of things I'd bought or grown last year but kept under cover for the winter. It seems too long ago to include them in this weeks six and besides, there are too many things flowering and clamouring for attention.…
Six on Saturday – 23/3/2019
I suppose it had to happen. I've included a camellia in quite a few sixes and on a couple of occasions have indulged myself and gone with two. I wouldn't say it's the best year I've ever had for them but I do have several particularly good ones flowering just now so I'm going to…
Six on Saturday – 16/3/2019
It hasn't been a good week for gardening. Let's just leave it at that and move on. I'm off to Rosemoor today for the RHS Early Camellia Show. Glad I'm not competing, it's going to be very hard to find undamaged blooms. Bit like that finding six things for this, for starters I didn't really…
A Sowing of Seeds
I claim no special knowledge of growing plants from seed. I’ve done a lot of it and I think I’ve had reasonable results, but I’ve had my share of failures too. There is an abundance of information available online about seed sowing, to the point that I wonder why I bother writing about my own…
Six on Saturday – 9/3/2019
This week has been a bit cooler and I might have expected the precocious spring to be put on hold. Not a bit of it, buds are swelling, in some cases breaking and there's a sense that we're into the growing season proper, leaving behind the usual early performers. One. Scilla luciliae. These are spreading…
garden ruminations 