Magazine style - all inclusive

[alp]

Just read this

Joe Biden's limo can't go down Cornwall's narrow lane! LOL! Definitely NOT. I remember driving down this kind of lanes in my little Vauxhall Astra and I had to fold the mirrors IN! Of all places, they have to choose this spot.

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Another glorious day yesterday, and much less wind. Sowed some delphinium seeds and amazed to read that the packets said sow outdoors in April. Very difficult to have result when sowing seeds outdoors.

That doesn't look too bad!

A hellebore with round petals

Could be Madelaine

I should have hand-pollinated this one with a Trump as the weather was ideal for that. I've found out that I couldn't exact pollen from yellow variety; however, the green single ones are more giving. Well, this kind of weather might be no good for any hand pollination.

This penstemon Etna has never stopped flowering. 2 stems of buds all through the winter. AMAZING!

Took some cuttings and some for Blackbird!

This was Blackbird yesterday. Two buds for the new year!

Diggory


This could be a Heffalump.

a lovely photo from someone else

This could be a Ding Dong or Ping Pong (not Ping Pong! Only Joking!)

Trump!

I have the feeling that a lot of my hellebores had died because of the GH building. Now, we can't even go anywhere to find good flowers. Those in gcs are Dutch grown and I don't like them much.

Another stick arrived yesterday - Davidia Involucrata. My third time lucky stick. The first one was doing very well until the heat killed it. I am not letting this stick out until it is very strong. I have now all the trees that I want:

Enkianthus campanulatus
Davidia Involucrata
Cercius Siliquestrum
Cornus Controversa Variegata
Crinodendron hookerianum
Cornus Kousa Rubra or Rainbow
Viburnum Plicatum Mariesii

Now, I just need a bigger garden!

 

[Esther Knapicius]

Found this interesting, so sharing.

 

[alp]

The whole day was rather grey until 2pm. The sun came out and it was a bit warmer

Awfully cold this morning.

Watched Slumdog Millionaire and I have to say Danny Boyle was rough and cruel. When I tried to watch Trainspotting, wondering what the fuss was about, I was horrified by actors tripping and getting spaced out. All about petty thefting and it was unpleasant watching and I stopped. Slumdog was very cruel: Dripping hot stuff into a kid's eyes so that, together with his beautiful singing voice, he could be a blind beggar with with more earning power.

Some lovely orchids

Some of these hellebores showed up virus and really should NOT have been on sale!

The horrible thing with hellebores is that there is ALWAYS one which I don't have!

I wish I had checked the price for this one!

 

[Zenj]

Freezing cold today been for a walk round big waters just a little walk from where we live .

 

[alp]

We had a similar amount of snowflakes. Once they hit the ground, they more or less melted. It started before 11am. Did a bit of food shopping. GCs round here were pretty boriing. Always stocking the same boring stuff. Was surprised to see T&M seeds selling for 1/2 price in one gc!

The car failed to start in the queue line of MacDonald. Thank heavens it worked OK after that. Required 2 staff members to push it back to the car parking area. Really gave us a fright.

Came back feeling rather short of breath. When I was in supermarkets, the air always made me feel out of sort.

Lovely lake you have there, Zenj! We had a lovely body of water which is about 8 minutes' drive away, in the town centre.

Despite the low temperatures, it looks like a decent day. Quite a few of my seedlings have germinated. The amount of sunshine will certainly help.

Keep warm and keep safe!

 

[alp]

Very cold even though not a lot of snow. Early in the morning, snowdrop bud fell onto the ground and later in the afternoon, with the lovely sunshine, it rose up again as if it had taken a tumble and it was perfectly fine. But they snowdrops stay unopened. Everything seemed to be at a standstill, apart from the chicken. They were very quiet when I approached the coop and I thought they were all dead or eaten as there was not a sound. I think they have developed this as a mechanism to fool foxes which no longer jumped on the coop and run. What irked me most was that they kept toppling the bowls of water. They kept standing on the heavy duty ex slow-cooker ceramic bowl. I boiled some hot water and add some cold to keep the water a tad warm so that they had some warm water to drink No, as soon as I rinsed the dirty bowl (too much rain and mud), poured warm water in, they toppled it. Very annoying.

Is there no end to this cold?

You guys worried about your casualties after the setretches of cold and rains? I am! I might dump a big bag of compost to help the garden a bit. I thought it was going back to normal this weekend!

Trump is very happy - playing golf now! LOL!

Double mauve hellebore

Godfrey Owen

Distinctive Diggory

 

[Zenj]

Yes another cold night seems to have gone on for ages heavy frost again ,after all the rain will be interesting to see what shows in spring .Been looking at seeds but will wait some time before sowing any .

 

[Perki]

Afternoon a wet day can't decide if it want to snow or rain . Haven't been up to much recently I've been waiting my seeds grow and that about it for home . Did some more work on a sub base for the path at my mums just need to put another drainage pipe in and some Indian stone to turn up , my brother supposed to be getting me the flags but he's unreliable so I may have to payout the extra £100+ to get the stone else where , I am not sure he's been working himself due to the weather so he may not of forgot after all.

What seedling have germinated alp ? my hellebores look like they showing signs of life.

 

[alp]

Yes another cold night seems to have gone on for ages heavy frost again ,after all the rain will be interesting to see what shows in spring .Been looking at seeds but will wait some time before sowing any .

Good idea! I sowed some Echinacea Twister seeds and they all germinated, but I didn't use the propagator heat. By the time I transplanted them, they all died on me. Now I have to do a new round. Wise of you not to sow anything as this see-sawing of cold, warm, wet, frost is not ideal for seed germination, especially with the lack of light.

 

[alp]

Afternoon a wet day can't decide if it want to snow or rain . Haven't been up to much recently I've been waiting my seeds grow and that about it for home . Did some more work on a sub base for the path at my mums just need to put another drainage pipe in and some Indian stone to turn up , my brother supposed to be getting me the flags but he's unreliable so I may have to payout the extra £100+ to get the stone else where , I am not sure he's been working himself due to the weather so he may not of forgot after all.

What seedling have germinated alp ? my hellebores look like they showing signs of life.

It hasn't been that cold, compared with yesterday. The toes hurt yesterday despite woolly socks. It's now raining.

I have all sorts: coriander, spring onion, big onions both red and white, Costoluto Fiorentino Toms look excitable. My small bedroom in which you can't swing a cat is full of trays on the bed with 2 yoga mats to keep the base warm. I'm only showing you some. There are so much more in form of tubers, cuttings ..

These sulphureus cosmos make me want to cry. Some bugs sucked the sap and some snapped in the middle of the stems. Damping off, I guess.

Dephiniums are looking very well. Petunias are a bit slow.

Pointed sweet red peppers. I took the seeds from one bought from supermarket. I need to do something about this.

I have some gas money credit, so these plants are enjoying some much needed warmth and we have a timer for a light on Economy 7 at night. Was changing suppliers of gas and electricity. Yorkshire went bust and HSBC keeps suspending my son's account, on the excuse of fraud. We couldn't even cancel DD. If there were fraud, we wouldn't know as he couldn't go online ON ACCOUNT OF FRAUD; he couldn't get to the bank which only opened from 10 and he had to cut short his queueing to go back to work. Phoned the fraud line, constantly engaged. When we phoned the 2nd time, the woman was surprised and said, "But £500 was transferred and I don't see any fraud!" Any way she rambled on and my son had to go to work and we had to cut short the conversation. This bank is nasty and I wonder which banks are famous for money laundering?

Any way, forgot the cashback when I switched yesterday and so asked to switch again. £44 is not to be sneezed at. Can buy A LOT OF SEEDS! LOL!

 

[Perki]

hard work banks especially when you speak on behalf of somebody else they don't really want to know .
far to early for cosmos they be so leggy by planting out they be worth planting out , I usually wait till April for cosmos, you probably be able to sow 2 week earlier with it being much warmer . I should be due to sow another batch of seeds next week its the 1st February on Monday , think I'll get the bike back on the ride if the weather forecast is good

 

[alp]

Last year, I sowed my cosmos direct and they didn't do well. By the time they had seeds, it was wet and I had very few seeds. Very frustrating. So I did it early.

I am really worried about the casualties this year as it has been cold, wet, cold wet! Not good for anything.

The weather seems to be a bit better than predicted.

A Desdemona or a Greatorex. If you're interested, please read this.

A double yellow hellebore

I like this most as it's so unusual!

And this as well as it has a red centre!

Very annoyed as I should have 2 bulbs and now there is only one as one got snapped! Trump

The inside of Trump! Very distinctive green stripes inside the tepals.

 

[Zenj]

Morning all yippee no frost that’s a first for a while but back to the rain I think ,anyone who as a wickes near they had 1lt bottles of organic miracle gro liquid feed on clearance £3 a bottle got 4 yesterday check there stock on line first before going .

 

[alp]

Need to dash there to have a look.

 

[alp]

Didn't go as Little Emperor had to go to work 9.30am. I need to check if my comfrey seeds have germinated. It was only when I drew LEmperor's room that I realised I had totally forgotten I had a big propagator there. That's the trouble with too many pies or pots!

Much warmer today!

This is a Wendy's Gold with much longer inner markings!

Plicatus with leaves folding each other and this has longer inner markings

Source: Judy's snowdrops

This one looks a bit confused.

So much going for this little hellebore! Edge of petals, markings, tubings ..