Osteospermumsnet.com - flutter your foliage, pick your produce, shake your seed packets and bring your blooms to the Spring Show

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Welcome to the gardening quiche :)

Earlier malarkey was here

All welcome whether you are a Sackville-West or a Dimmock, an Oudolf or a Swift. Whether you dream of digging or dig for dreams.

Fair weather or foul, we've got disco lights in the potting shed and fairy lights on the terrace. Bring gin, wine just doesn't cut it round here.

DH just dragged me out into the garden in order to smell the roses. We stood in the rose walk (stepping over the giant catmint) and examined each one under torchlight and seeing which had the best scent.

Winner - Constance Spry.
Runner up - New Dawn (a wholesome rose!)
not placed - Blush Rambler

The others smelled ok, but there was no William Lobb low enough for my nose to reach. Blush Noisette and Belle Vichysomething pleasant but not amazing.

Also Young Lycidas was a strong contender, but isn't in the rose walk so wasn't placed.

Two of my roses are hedgerow gleanings. Not wild but little old ramblers that are probably from the remains of old gardens. They both took really easily. I have two wild roses that have appeared in the garden hedgerows too.

I am training my DS to grow up to be like your DH Humphrey. He conducted his own scent test today. Winner is an unknown hybrid tea, with dark pink petals which are white on the back, second is Abraham Darby, third an ancient scotch rose and fourth the Alnwick rose. The Generous Gardener is the winner of the top rose award this year though although the wind has damaged it a bit. Its the biggest, healthiest most vigourous plant and is covered in flowers and buds.

Following the posts about roses, I went to a farmers' market in rural Victoria today, and the gardens were full of roses. It's winter now, and 4 degrees this morning when I walked echtpooch, so all the rose bushes are bare, nevertheless, it made me think of how English the rural areas are compared with the city, where so much is Mediterranean, not even Australian, I fear.

Rural Oz is knitting heaven, too. A knitted wombat, half life size; brush-tailed possum, ditto. Those long winter evening in the bush have a lot to answer for.:)

Back to the garden, I've never been lucky with roses, so don't bother now

Ah, echt, my aspidistra refuses to nudge beyond two leaves.

I didn't see the thread about Crocus, but on the whole I think it's a good site. The stuff arrives promptly and in excellent condition and, although the packaging is excessive, at least it's robust and the plants aren't damaged. My big proviso, though, is that they're expensive - I bought all my roses at half price, which made them only just slightly cheaper than the full price on the David Austin website!

I am feeling very Victor Meldrew about there being no GW for 4 weeks for the sake of the bloody sport. I can't belieeeve it.

Oh and, being now the proud owner of a crocheted iPhone cover, I want a knitted wombat!

I totally agree about the sport.

Hazel fence, plus two arches, finally completed today. Hurrah. It looks lovely, and I can finally plant up all the bare patches around the base.

Now we have to decide what to plant over the arches. We have got two New Dawns ready but am not sure I want to put them in. There is already a Francis Lester in the ground on the other one, so will train that up with a honeysuckle.

I've always been a bit ambivalent about New Dawn - I have one growing through the apple tree and one up a fence - but this year they are lovely. I think the world needs more honeysuckle and less sport on TV.

I want a type II clematis with Mme Alfred Carriere. Dh says it is too bushy. He wants a leggy rose

That's it.
I give in.

Having looked at the expanses of fence in my garden, I'm going to give climbing roses a go. Lots of bare-rooted plants on the market, so I'll report back asap.

The rose of choice in Melbourne is a standard Iceberg floribunda, which, when you've seen it in a gazillion Aussie yards is as boring as, so climbers will entail more of a search.

I think my ivory climber is actually Alberic Barbier because it hasn't a hint of pink. It is phenomenal though. Not at all leggy.

I'm going to get Paul's Himalayan musk next year for my parents. I think I'll also get them an orange one for their border- a neighbour has an orange one which looks fab with deep burgundy /chocolate cosmos and blue love-in-a-mist and lavender.

Humph your dh sounds lovely and so precise.I wish my dh appreciated roses.I nearly bought a New dawn yesterday but i didn't have any space left.Though i wonder whether it would grow up the house wall which is east facing.The violet rose i bought from Crocus is looking suspiciously dark red but is not yet fully open so i shall wait and see what the final colour is.
Open garden day today and there is actually a bit of sun[mixed with a lot of cloud].Three of the dc's have decided they're coming with me .I'm very glad dh is stying with the youngest so i can buy more plants.Good luck Echt with the rose search.

We went to two lovely gardens today - gorgeous green spaces behind huge Georgian houses. I want one.

Plant haul today: two lupins, three baby zinnias and some more black grass.

Been at MILs again this weekend. Today's offerings which I have returned with are Brodiaea (?) in a couple of pots. Anyone know if I can just chuck them in the bed and leave them to it? They looked glorious when flowering in MILs garden when I was there last time but not sure how well they'll transfer.

Now we're out of the football, can we have GW back do you think? If it rains enough could they just give up on Wimbledon?

I've done nothing in the garden this weekend except nip out blackfly infested tops of beans and cut a few flowers for indoors. Been packing up everything in the bedrooms and storing in the loft, ready for the big project. Am quite depressed at how much crap I've accumulated. On the other hand, I love how much horticulture I've accumulated in the garden, and it makes me feel quite the opposite still.

Oooh, yes, brodiaea. I planted loads back in the day when they were sold as triteleia. They looked lovely growing among the black grass but soon died out. This might have been because the soil in those days was even claggier clay than it is now.

I have some growing in pots now, ready for the school fete, but seem to have muddled then up with the allium moly and no longer know which is which. That is particularly annoying because I want to keep some brodiaea for myself, but want rid of the allium.

Personally, I'd quite like a 24 hour gardening channel.

My dc's loved the garden with the swimming pool amd the ones with the hidden statues.One garden had dead tree trunks that had been carved into birds of prey.There was one that had a 2 storey childrens tudor house [with a bowl of popcorn inside that said 'please take me'.with a sand pit outside.There were huge minimalist gardens and small flowery havens [and an incredibly productive long cottage garden with several greenhouse and polytunnels and chickens and geese.The largest garden-a hall was really simply planted with lots of topiary and a maze and roses with Nepeta.But most of the gardens followed the maxim -if in doubt add a geranium or two.There was one with a beautiful lily pond with lilys that were just opening and i expected to see Thumbelina poised on a lilypad.

My haul was a box of Love in the Mist,some rhubarb and a box of eggs from the chickens we saw.

I have enjoyed Gardeners World so much this year. It is pitched about right for me. I really wish it would go on through the summer.
It rained here today, and in view of the wet weather predictions we are having a long overdue blitz on paper in the house. This is a mammoth task.

It is lovely to be able to look out of the window at the pretty garden though, and enjoy it, with a bit of gentle weeding, pruning, planting and even sitting when the sun does come out. The advantage of all this rain is there has been no need to spend ages watering, and the weeds come out really easily.

I have sowed Chives and Camomile (into the lawn) today. Already growing in amongst the flowers and tomatoes are Oregano, Sage, Thyme, 2 types of Rosemary, 2 types of Mint. I might plant a little parterre next year in the front garden just for fun.

teta where were these gardens?

Shropshire,in the village near us.Its absolutely beautiful.I came back to my mishmash of clashing lupins and thought mmmm.My only consolation was that we do have a stunning view.Now i really want a pond with pink waterlilys in and a beautiful bright pink climbing rose with a delightful scent.

I've got lupin aphids all over one of my Lupins[and spreading to others].They seemed to arrive almost overnight.I sprayed them with Roseclear yesterday and removed the old flower spikes but i am better just junking the plant?.There are still a few moving aphids left.Or shall i spray again?Sadly i also have rust all over the hollyhock.Have also sprayed this and junked the really damaged leaves.I am really feeling under siege as i don't want the rust to spread to the Hibiscus i need to plant and the Lavatera thats already been done.I also have lots of Hollyhock seedlings that i've grown myself and i think i will have to give them to someone else.
What i thought was ranunculus in the white bed has turned out to be peachy poppies.I must have sprinkled a packet a while ago and forgotten about it.I don't think any of the bulbs/corms/tubers I planted from J Parkers have grown this summer wheras all the ones from the pound shop have germinated.So much for my strictly White bed i will have to be much more rigorous next year.

Is it too late in the season to buy mail-order ladybirds to eat the aphids?

I have just had to hoick a magenta lychnis coronaria out of my white bed. I love it, but I can't allow it to corrupt the purity of my planting plan. Last year, the white phytostegia turned out to be purple and had to be swiftly relocated.

Teta - My hollyhocks have always got rust - MIL said that it doesn't spread to other plants. I have left them in with no problems in the past. This advice comes with the usual disclaimers etc etc. Also I sprayed my Lupins that were COVERED with aphids (it gave me the heaves tbh) with a soap solution and it got rid of them beautifully.

Oh Humph really?.I read on the net that it can spread to any other plant in the Malva family.So the best thing is to remove it,if its badly affected.The hollyhock concerned currently looks naked without most of its leaves.However i trust your advice more than other random bits of information.so i will now wait to see it flower having nurtured it for the last 2 years.
Maud i have the large grey Lupin aphids that Ladybirds won't eat apparently.The plant was totally encrusted with them.Most of them have washed off in the rain today though.Thanks for the soap tip though as i really don't like using insecticide.Is it just normal washing up liquid or a biological one?

normal washing up liquid - I googled the proportions.

Don't necessarily trust my advice! All I know is that the rust has never spread to other plants in my garden, I am even unsure what the malva family is....