Magazine style - all inclusive

[alp]

A very busy day yesterday. Took cuttings, but wish I had used Jack's Magic. Now I have to repeat the whole process again. By the way, Jack's Magic is on sale in B&Q for £7.19. Only one out of the 3 we had been sold them. There were about 20. So if they were on sale and you have a geriatric card, you get one for £6.48 on a Wednesday if they admit that card that is. Also, even the bigger one in Enfield didn't store them. These are the 60L ones.

Chopped my bird of paradise into 2 and chopped off half of their roots. The roots are so fleshy and bulky that I had to forgo them. Now I have 3 plants and hopefully, they will flower next year. No luck this year.

Went to the allotment 7.15 and watered until 8.24pm. A good night sleep. Sadly, some newly transplanted plants didn't fare well. Slugs and frost from before. Now I have the trauma of mixing potatoes with sweetcorns! There are 2 sweetcorns from a hole as the previous one refused to say hello. Tons of clematises were very happy there so was the standard with hundreds of roses. Some agapanthus were verging on blooming and they were so happy there. My Echinacea Twister will flower soon. Very happy. Will upload something later.

Margaret Hunt

Friend got this for me at Langthorns. Seen a lot of these in National Trust properties and so pleased that she got this for me, WITH FLOWERS!

 

[Perki]

Well it been a muggy day and been threatening to rain all afternoon then it did good job i wasn't outside might of got washed away. Been busy the last few days planting out tender stuff and moving thing around , I've done all my larger pots / troughs for a summer display just got some little pots to fill in now . Give the back lawn another feed its showing bits of red thread , with all this warm / wet weather perfect conditions for red thread. Got quite a few plants with a lean on it been quite windy late last week.

Penstemons are looking nice . I am having a brain block can't think what to put at front of the borders but a penstemon may do .

£7 odd is expensive for jacks magic even if its on sale. Got one bag from B&m early winter last year sure it were a fiver.

Manged to get some plants at weekend for my pots at the front some little White/cream dahlias and yellow mini petunia and some more chempak 4 for feeding.

 

[alp]

Think you've been busy! Everything goes. Couldn't even get money from my neighbour. I just gave it to him, telling him that I wanted the pot and seeds back! LOL! Then asked him to cut my tree which had a keen affinity to heavens. No fruits but willing itself to reach heavens. None of the petunia pirouette seeds germinated and in the end I was so fed up that I put all the petunia rainbow mixed in and they all germinated. And now, they are struggling for food in a polystyrene tray.

Apple Lord Lambourne has bits near the tips covered with white dust and bugs. Very gruesome. Chopped the bits off and yet another barren tree with no treat for summer!

Penstemons and salvias are going to be big, especially with salvias. Penstemon Blackbirds has big flowers and is really worth getting. It was so dry and hot this morning that I spent 2 hours attached to the hose, and still couldn't water the entire garden.

Said to son that we shouldn't have gone to Clockhouse so soon and yet they had quite a few Thalictrums but sadly only Delavayi Splendide, black stocking. Yet, I managed to get Agapanthus Fireworks and another mixed one with buds. So quite happy. Got 2 bags of compost £3 each for 40L.

Talking about feeding. I bought 3 x 4kg BBF from Wilko at £2.50 each and then the man who fashioned a lovely garden with tons of lovely flowers was featured as a repeat in GW last Friday and he said he had added about 130kg of BBF on the soil right at the start. He's really is brilliant. Mowing the lawn every day is a bit obsessive. Any way, think I should do the same to improve my soil with BBF and went to Wilko. Only Bonemeal and reduced to £4! Remember the rude cashier when the BBF was reduced to £2.50. She said £15 in total for 3. I told her they had been reduced. She said she didn't know and that I had to tell her and that she only scanned and that's her job!

We had 2 minutes of rain and that's my luck.

Jack's Magic definitely was £5.99 for 60L in B&M. But strange times and hence strange prices. Usually, there are loads of compost on Wilko and Asda floors. This year, all snapped up.

 

[Perki]

Some pics from last weekend .

 

[alp]

Anybody wants my Indian Chief irises please? Save you buying any dry and old rhizomes. Glorious flowers and lovely planting combo. Amazing how you alliums are still going strong! Mine have more or less setting sets. Very lush! Your irises are very pretty here! I stil have some delphiniums to plant out. I can't bear it as I think the slugs will have them all as soon as they are out.
Salvia

Agastache - I think Kudo Gold

This lily is every so sturdy and strong and I saw a young girl taking a selfie with it last year! LOL!

taken after 2 minutes of rain.

Supposed to be Yellow Mellow!

Salvia Euphoria thinking it was a gunnera.

3 years' old Gazinia

Was this the begonia you're after, Perki? It overwintered in my workshop. I didn't even feed it.

Beautiful abutilon

Got the seeds from a certain gc!

 

[Zenj]

A rather drab day at the moment but at least it’s dry ,went down the coast yesterday with our part time dog she had a great time in and out of the sea fetching her ball no wind so it was pleasantly warm .A few from our garden this morning.

 

[alp]

It felt like hot blazing August in here. The temperature has been further heightened by the change of laptop and the uploading perpetual circles. One minute I was watching Dead of winter on dplay on a big screen as in a mini movie house, the next I was downgrade to 21" Toshiba.

I wish I lived in the north just to have meconopsis. But I like to have my heating off though! LOL!

Now the blessed sun is angry again. Those wild orchids grow naturally on your property or were they found along your walk? I love those. Still remember seeing them in Yorkshire
Rievaulx Terrace
I had to google the place name. Such a strange cluster of letters.

 

[alp]

I FINALLY have had a bit of rain. About half an hour! WHOOOOPEEEEEEE!

Said it too soon. The evaporator is out again!

 

[Perki]

Its been rite muggy / clammy today and yesterday , thought it were going to lash it down about tea time went very dark , it did eventually have a thunderstorm and a downpour . Planted out one of the dahlias senior hope and a new plant that arrived today Colocasia hawaiian punch , also potted some of last season wallflowers up they looked to good to throw out .

 

[alp]

Good morning to all!

Never heard of Senior Hope! I stumbled upon some American dahlia sites and some flowers were just so pretty and looked different to what we have been fed here! This Colocasia hawaiian punch looks like a foliage plant. Has it got flowers?

It was so hot yesterday that I felt like having several siestas. Just angry heat. It rained about half an hour and there was about 5 inches of rain. I have been draining water slowly to the front where it was so dry that my callicarpa looked dying - It had spotted tiny little leaves, but then the leaves turned brown and some stems snappy. It's touch and go. And also water to the back where some potatoes just wouldn't leave my hellebores alone.

I'm banking on the rain on Thursday. Long may it rain over me!

I planted out a 3 foot tall Rudbeckia Nitida Herbstsonne, next to Rudbeckia Laciniata Herbstsonne. Is someone pulling my leg? Also planted out a eupatorium. They are apparently the same thing.

Also planted out some veined petunias and hope to get seeds for next year. Today, I am going to use one raised bed to sow seeds for flowers for their seeds. Also planted out some echinaceas.

An examination of various corners of my lean to revealed that I had sown some multicoloured chards. I don't even know how to eat the thing. But I just love the colours. Now they are tiny seedlings. Ooops! One big fail is radish which was supposed to be big red giant. Tunred out to be long red wood block.

One thing strange is that the day time and night time temperatures could be so different that some of my petunia leaves turned white.

Little emperor swapped laptops again and I am bereft of my SD card!

 

[alp]

Wonderful companula Octopus

 

[alp]

Cor! I have never seen the like of it. The rain didn't start until nearly 11pm and this morning, I woke up to 2 inches of water all over my lawn which is basically a dip in the whole 100 foot plus. About 50 feet sumberged in water. Nearly all butts are filled.

The photos are all over the floor. Sorry for the confusion.

A very exciting day for me! Salvia Coccinea Lady in Red - Isn't she brilliant? A screaming red!

Ballyanna Salvia

Salvia Madelaine

Lady in Red again!

Ballyannau

Amethyst lip

Anybody wants to donate a camera to me????? LOL

Black petunia? Er, need a new camera!

This was supposed to go to neighbour's pot. No, too good for him. I keep this for seeds. Any way, I gave him the pot.

Lady in Red is quite distinctive and stunning

 

[Perki]

rained all day. sowed some wallflowers and foxglove seeds early and made up a couple more summer pots.

It is a nice true red , I've grown petunia Black berry before doesn't stand up to wet conditions at all just turns to mush even before they open, lovely colour though.

 

[alp]

Dry all day, but floods everywhere. Middle of the lawn, area near my sweetcorns which concerned me most as I LOVE sweetcorns! I dug 2 long canals and even this morning the side near my elderly neighbour was totally flooded still. I bailed water out from various places yesterday. Dug canals which are about 4 inches deep. I am worried that my lovely plants will die. Renter neighbour told me that there would be a chap coming to clean the pond next week. Had the feeling that it leaked and caused the flood. Last year when it flash flooded the pond was leaking water for 3 days, but it didn't flood my whole lawn area. This time it did. The water on the elderly neighbour side was still an inch all over all over the lawn.

Salvia Coccinea Lady in Red is really striking and it has a different flower shape to the others, but exactly the same as Coccinea summer Jewel. Very pleased this year with my new flowers though Summer Jewel had been teasing me for years and I only got to see the real thing this year. The camera is a funny thing. One minute it could focus on the hair on Salvia Bullyana, but couldn't get one single clear pic of the amethyst lip.

Apparently I have 3 Mellow Yellow. To me they are white!

This one here is a 2nd generation of my yellow and pink alstromerias

Also a 2nd generation

This is definitely one of the parents.

Thank heavens that it's not going to rain or my plants will all die.

Supposed to be raining now. Please don't!

Would love to see this Purple Emperor in real life

An electrifying beauty!

 

[alp]

Ah, just watching Ashwood nursery virtual tour! Bliss!

John's Garden, Staffordshire; step into nature - National Garden Scheme

A plantsman’s garden with a four acre extension designed for wildlife, this is a garden created with passion and in partnership with nature

ngs.org.uk