2: Our gardening diaries - from latest toys, flowers to wildlife .. Please upload pics

[Logan]

 

[Upsy Daisy]

Morning all , hope you're feeling better now @alp .....very scary!

Have you looked at the Ken Muir's web site , might have something there for you . My mum was very knowledgeable on all garden related subjects and that is where she bought our trees from and we always have a good crop of apples and pears each year.

 

[Zenj]

Morning all looking like a better day today weather wise.alp I received a fruit tree Catalouge yesterday Pomona they had Katy in it never dealt with them so how I got it ?

 

[alp]

Thank you, @Zenji and @Upsy Daisy for the suggestions. I will certainly have a look. Deacons have different root stalks and when about £9 for a tree. Even including the expensive postage, it works out much cheaper. Shame diy stores only do very boring stock.. and always same old, same old.

Won't be buying any now as Apricot and nectarine are very dear now, compared with those I ordered. After new year, all prices jump up. When I get my sharp knife and clear plastic reading, I will try to graft a bud into two trees to see what will happen. Might not work, but won't kill the tree.

Finally, got 2 pyracanthas. So pleased. Phoned everywhere and was told no stock. Went to one there were 6. Paid £6 each. Used to have them at the back and got rid of them. Loss of innocence caused by burglars from the back garden has made me realise that thorny plants are actually lovely.

Went to the park again and was snubbed by avian friends.. And it was so cold. Didn't expect that. The whole day has been glorious ..

 

[alp]

Morning all looking like a better day today weather wise.alp I received a fruit tree Catalouge yesterday Pomona they had Katy in it never dealt with them so how I got it ?

You know, we are all probably on suckers' lists.. Join one site which sells your address and data to another seed/fruit/plant catalogues. That is one way of making money. Let this nosy woman go onto this Pomona to have a butch!

 

[Logan]

If you don't order anything after a few times they stop sending them. It happened to me with seed catalogues. I don't get one from Thompson and morgan anymore,i don't mind they're too expensive and i won't order any trees. Don't know if i'll get the right one, ordered a apricot patio tree from them, when it started growing it was a peach. They sent another one but that was the same. They sent another, every time they sent one the quality kept going down so in the end we had a refund. They wasn't bothered about sending the others back. But we didn't keep them because of peach leaf curl.

 

[johnny canoe]

Hello Alp,
Hope you're feeling better. Well I took along a suet block this morning (your suggestion) and the woodpeckers took to it right away. Thanks for the suggestion.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/139842551@N08/39864119942/in/dateposted/

 

[alp]

ordered a apricot patio tree from them, when it started growing it was a peach. They sent another one but that was the same. They sent another, every time they sent one the quality kept going down so in the end we had a refund.

Same here for Black Swan hellebores. Ordered some 7 and none of them black! . Last year's "Black Swan" have yet to make an appearance. Frustrating! Yes, and I bought a phyllostachys Nigre which turned out to be an ordinary phyllostachys. But when it was young, it had black stems. T&M are really frustrating.

 

[alp]

Hello Alp,
Hope you're feeling better. Well I took along a suet block this morning (your suggestion) and the woodpeckers took to it right away. Thanks for the suggestion.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/139842551@N08/39864119942/in/dateposted/

Johnny: I hardly slept but physcially have recovered. The chest was just very tight. Could be indigestion, as @Logan suggested or stomach being acidic or could be a minor precursor to a heart attack. Don't know what. But just very depressed as the fumes just lingered in the house and even opening the windows could not dispel them.

Suet blocks/pellets are very popular with birds. Here on a shopping channel, a guy specialising in flower has been flogging suet pellets. He said that birds this time of the year need a lot of fat to build up reserve. So I listened to him and bought a bag of pellets. I am sure if you get the pellets, you will have loads of takers as well. Don't think they will take the feeds from my hands though!

Don't you think it's pure fun feeding birds? I love it. I went to the park, but it was so cold and the popular feeder was empty. A disappointing journey. Son was disappointed not to have seen the green parakeets. He said we would be earlier this coming Sunday 9.20 shift!

Woodpecker without its squabbling partner?

 

[alp]

Got hold of my snowdrops. Only 3 but 2 of them looked dying and dry. The petals of Diggory are limp and dying. Cost me an arm and a leg. It's from the man who wrote an article on snowdrops on this month's magazine. Won't buy from them again. Charge £6 for postage and took 3 days to come and I had to tell son to wait next to the window as I thought it was from Royal Mail.

Whilst googling yesterday, I read that T&M paid more than £1000 for one snowdrop bulb and a year later, there was still ONE bulb!

https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2015/02/single-snowdrop-sells-for-1390-welcome-to-galanthomania/

 

[Logan]

Same here for Black Swan hellebores. Ordered some 7 and none of them black! . Last year's "Black Swan" have yet to make an appearance. Frustrating! Yes, and I bought a phyllostachys Nigre which turned out to be an ordinary phyllostachys. But when it was young, it had black stems. T&M are really frustrating.

Yes i remember about your black swan hellebores.

 

[alp]

Yes i remember about your black swan hellebores.

 

[Silentrunning]

You folks are making an excellent argument for only buying local plants that you can see before handing over the money. Even if it means having a much smaller choice of plants.
Thanks for relaying your experiences.

 

[Logan]

Morning all

 

[alp]

Good morning to all.

@Silentrunning I love to go around garden centres, but their prices are very, very expensive. Even when they half the prices, their plants are more expensive than those in diy store gcs.

Even these gcs won't store hellebore Black Swan as the demand is not there. I must say going around gcs is a very pleasant experience as it stocks some exciting plants which I can choose by comparing the sizes of the tubers and there is a lovely pond and a feeding station for the birds. The great tits I videoed were from the gc I visited nearly every week. Do you have a feeding station in your shop, SR?