I was going to skip this month, but the meme has a new host and I received a reminder, so here I am, a day late. A few days ago we were looking at a large Magnolia that has been near the centre of our garden for about twenty years and had reached perhaps 22…
Heaven Scent sent to heaven.
White and pale pink Magnolias need a dark background to be seen at their best. On flat ground those of tree habit need a backdrop of other trees or else you are looking at their flowers against the sky, which in the early months of the year is more likely to be cloudy than clear. Magnolia ‘Heaven…
Six on Saturday – 26/8/2017
What a busy week we've had. Last Sunday we went up to the flower show at RHS Rosemoor. It rained, which was a shame, but was enjoyable for all that. Restricted plant purchases to three items. Then Thursday we went the other way, to Penzance, taking in the National Dahlia collection field of Dahlias; awesome;…
This little patch of mine.
Somewhere on this site is a map of my garden, carefully measured and drawn to scale by me a year or two back. Only there is no scale marked on it, so you don’t know how big it is and nor did I. Well, I revisited it and worked out that my back garden is…
Six on Saturday – 19/8/2017
Another week has flown by and it's time for another six. I found myself in the luxurious position of having too many things to include. Hope you like the six that made the cut. One. Cyrtanthus elatus 'Pink Diamond'. Scarborough Lily. A very accomodating bulb that grows well in our north facing conservatory, though I…
Euphorbia mellifera
There are one or two spots in the garden where it's a struggle to get anything to grow. One such place is behind a brick retaining wall where I suspect the builders back filled with a load of rubble. Somewhere down the line we planted a Euphorbia mellifera there and it has loved it, growing…
Six on Saturday – 12/8/2017
There's an abundance of bloom in my garden now so I've gone with six flowery items. One. Agapanthus 'Windsor Grey'. Our Agapanthus haven't excelled this year, with less flower spikes lasting for a shorter than usual time. This one is flowering for the first time and I don't recall planting it. Just one spike which I've pictured…
Six on Saturday – 5/8/2017
Dahlias and Japanese anemones are definitely flowers of the second half of summer. I'm impatient for them to start flowering, then depressed when they do. One. Dahlia 'Orange Cushion'. There is not the remotest possibility of this dahlia ever being mistaken for nearly red or nearly yellow. It's a bang down the middle orange. I've…
Composting.
When something in gardening is agreed by absolutely everyone to be a good thing it seems perverse to ask the question “why?”. I tend to the view that that is when it most needs to be asked. Composting and the multiple benefits of compost are among of the great untouchable sacred cows of gardening, especially…
End of month view – July 2017
Every month, for a day or two leading up to making this regular posting, I muse on what I am going to say. Mostly I am thinking about the garden overall, rather than about specific plants, but overall is the sum total of what key plants are doing, so there's overlap. This month I had…
garden ruminations 