Come into the garden with Maud - all obsessive and wannabe gardeners welcome

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

Whether you've got rolling acres or a tiny courtyard, whether you're a novice or a gardening die-hard, whether you're aiming for a garden of Sissinghurst loveliness or self-sufficiency à la Felicity Kendal in The Good Life, this is the place to be. Take a seat on the tastefully-painted Lutyens bench and chat with fellow enthusiasts. There may even be a bottle of gin in the potting shed.

I love the look of the tree lily. I've never seen it in in Australia, so I suppose it's illegal because it hasn't passed quarantine, it would clearly grow very well here.

However tree dahlias do grow well and bloom beautifully in winter.

I love the look of the tree lily too. I have a lovely spot for one or two!

Sleeting here

Where are you, mistlethrush? (love the name btw, one of my favourite garden birds!)

Yorkshire.

I chose it because I like them and see and hear them regularly round and about. Had waxwings the year before last in December - visible out of the office window!

At the moment we've got the coal tits and bullfinches singing regularly in the garden.

I love hearing what other people have got in their garden.The only trouble i want to immediately go out and buy it!.Now i really want a viburnum for scent and the white double tree lily [if only i could decide where to put it].We have lots of boring prickly and laurel shrubs and rhodies and bloody self seeded mahoni,.holly,ivy and mini beech trees.The old buddleia was pulled out today-it was mostly rotten, and a very old woody hebe.Luckily the hebe had grown a few babies which we replanted.We also found some white anemones and aquilegias in the process.Now what do i plant?.Its a toss up between a summer flowering shrub or a spindle tree for winter colour.I would love a really stunning summer shrub that can cope with very free-draining soil.I now have vases of honey-scented Mahonia which is now banned from the garden officially.

Oooooh. I would love a spindle tree. I also fancy a Szechuan pepper.

I like the look of the spindle tree.

I need something to replace a broom that has died so I have been browsing through different sites. If I had the money I could spend a fortune on trees and shrubs

The mercy of a small garden is that it forces one to rein back on the buying of huge shrubs and trees - mind you, it also creates a ready-made excuse for getting rid of anything that isn't earning its keep and replacing it with something nicer!

I was the only one in my local garden centre tonight at 6.45.I trailed in with 5 kids in tow[one xtra friend] only to get some funny looks.I wondered round looking at all the shrubs while they were being shrouded with fleece.Meanwhile the kids were lounging on the very expensive wicker furniture .They probably thought we were undesirables!.Yes-i am a recent plant addict[holds up hands]

Question for you all - my amaryllis has flowered and gone. Can I keep the bulb until next year? I usually throw them out but it occurred to me that I don't do that with any other bulbs so is there any reason I can't treat it like a hyacinth-type thing?

Dowager - I have had very mixed results trying to keep amaryllis/hippeastrums going (some died, some thrived) but, as ever, the RHS has advice.

DowagersHump if you water and feed it now then leave it alone until next winter you should be able to get it to flower again

Oh - I accidentally found your thread!

I should add that, when they died, it was because I hadn't seen the RHS advice and had let the bulbs dry out immediately after flowering and hadn't fed and watered them. I've fared better this year and one of last year's bulbs is about to flower again.

Welcome, Jacksmania!

::Gets out the gin::

Hic! :o

I hav crocuses and hyacinths and tulips in pots in front of out townhouse. The crocuses are in full flower, the hyacinths are thinking about flowering, and there's tons of tulip green.

And last weekend I planted some rose bushes.

MIL is giving me some "Green Envy" echinacea plants for my birthday link here - I'm so excited!!

Oooh, lovely. As you might have noticed, we do a lot of plant porn in here.

Did you ever get your obelisks for greater planting opportunities?

I fear it may be too late but I will give it a whirl :)

Cheers. Sorry for being lazy - I'd rather have your advice than RHS theory though

It's worth a go, Dowager - the reason mine is only on the point of flowering now, I think, is because I let it dry out too early and so it has got somewhat out of synch.

I went with trellises against every flat surface - looks like that's going to work rather well. If that doesn't satisfy me, this may be the summer of the obelisk :o

Post some pics, Jack!

I had an amarillys bulb for about 5 years (until it got left outside and didn't appreciate it) - not having seen any info, I just let it do what it wanted which seemed to be grow rather nice green leaves during the summer, then die back at about Christmas and start again in about Feb / March time - it didn't want to flower at Christmas but quite a bit later and I wasn't worried about that. Wanting a white one though rather than red.

I have a lovely spindle - I think we paid about £6 for it, as quite a big bush (there's a very reasonably priced garden centre a little way away which has lots of ordinary things but also some interesting ones). Its next to a red hazel (from my Parent's previous garden) and a nice dogwood. And I planted a bare-root field maple at the same time and that's doing well.

Snow covered garden this morning . Even Ds has agreed to put trousers on again and not turn up in his shorts, so it must be cold!

What will your field maple do, mistlethrush? Are you going to prune it to keep it small? I ask because we've got one in our garden which is about 30 years old, and is a 40foot tree! It was planted when dh was about 10 (we live in his family home) and now we have to get it pollarded every five years or so to keep it under control!

Do spindle bushes cast much shade mistlethrush?.It will be between 2 paths with hebes very near.It will also be next to 2 beautiful acers that look lovely in autumn.i know the leaves open up late but will it be after the hebes flower?.I havn't seen this tree in real life so its really difficult to envisage it so sorry for all the questions.Fot the rest of this very dry area i will probably go for a blue,violet and white theme using Buddleia,russian sage.rosemary and white mallow as these are the only plants suitable for a dry south-facing site.I really love the white/blue french lavender but it probably won't survive winter unless i pot it and move it onto the patio.
Does anyone have an office in their garden?Or can recommend any good companies to build one.We are looking for a traditional design that will replace our old rotten summer house and can be used all year round.
We also have snow in our bit of shropshire.It was snowing really heavily at 8 am but is now slightly drizzly and already looking a bit slushy.I ended up covering the plants with fleece and then took it off thinking that the weight of the snow on the fleece might damage the plants.