The first rule of garden club is...!?!

[Lexilicious]

hoping Humph's Happy Osteospermumsnet chums will find this... la la la... I'm uite used to being betty no mates though...

Come on in and have a seat/kneeler/foam pad and a virtual , anyone who wants to idly chat about what they've been dreaming of planting, actually planting, buying without a care for having a place for it, propagating, harvesting, hacking and chopping...

Will crocosmia grow in poor soil? I'm looking for something that will grow out the front along our fence where currently all we get is the odd nettle and thistle. I could dump a load of compost down but the ground underneath is pretty solid so it would be very shallow. If so, I'll have some off you Maud.

Feeling pretty pleased with myself today as I actually managed something constructive and top dressed / mulched half the long bed with a home compost and leaf mulch mix. Just the other half to go....

My compost is beautiful this year; something to be said for keeping chickens as the chicken poo & mucky bedding has made a huge difference. The down side is the red mite we've got at the moment. Spent some time today dusting the chickens down and wearing most of the stuff myself. Grrrr, as if there aren't enough pests to deal with in the veg plot this year without adding chicken pests in to the mix!

Great, Lexi. Me your address and I'll send you a jiffy bag of corms.

Wynken - I haven't forgotten your plants, but they looked very bedraggled after our holiday so I've been trying to get them looking perkier. I'll post them soon.

Bertha - it grows like a weed in my not very good soil. PM me your address if you'd like some.

Excellent, thank you Maud - will PM you.

Lexi - I'll very happily take some divisions of both the Monarda and the Astilbe when you dig them up.

Crocosmia appears to grow in sand quite well. I've never seen the Lucifer variety here in Australia, at least not for the colour; a more orangey version is common enough. Oddly it's a winter-flowering plant here.

A lovely herald of spring is here in the form of boronia, a plant with tiny round brown flowers and the most intense violet perfume. I've one From last year I'd forgotten about until digging around , wondering what on earth the smell of violets was, only a tiny plant but what a pong.

Hello everyone- has there been a heat wave?
I got back from the land of frangipani trees and marigold garlands to find all the plants in the front porch scorched to a crisp. Including the dahlias that had survived the earlier slug onslaught but excepting the lavender. I am not going to cry till tomorrow. I am hoping the watering today will help.

Lexi is your water barrel arrangement coming into its own?

Oddly enough there appear to be 2.5 tomatoes on the tomato plant. Judging by other posts this is not too bad. This is quite interesting. Perhaps I can be a vegetable gardener after all. I am rather surprised. Should I eat them now or wait till fully reddened? I have set aside the extra virgin olive oil and sea salt in preparation.

The Cyclamen is in flower: it has spread widely under the oak tree. Autumn is on its way.

I think flowers in jam jars would be really lovely at a wedding.

Not so much a heatwave as a lack of rain, I think, Funnyperson. You too have a glut of tomatoes,by my standards.

I would like to add that my two tomato sticks plants growing outside also appear to have actual tomatoes. One on each plant. So I have a whole six tomatoes now. That's practically a salad.

I picked my best cucumber yet today. So proud of it I actually took a photo to remember it by and bore people with.

I now have 12 sweet pea flowers.Am i being ridiculously optimistic to still be tieing them in to the supports[i have lots of buds still].its been cold and sunny here today and the Dahlias are looking wonderful,particularly Black Mambo.Spent hours on sunday clearing creeping buttercup from the anemone bed with dh watching me [not doing anything,annoyingly].

I picked my one sweet pea flower and the plant refuses to produce another one.

My latest garden recommendation is RHS Hyde Hall. 'Tis lovely, and smaller and therefore easier on the feet ::elderly and arthritic:: than Wisley.

I need gardens we can visit with the dog. Our Wisley membership is very unused now . Not something we'd considered prior to getting the bonkers puppy.

Yesterday I spent an hour watering the parched and browning lawn. Sixty minutes later, inevitably, it rained.

I think I am going to tidy up the greenery for winter- introduce more shapes into the rampant foliage. There has always been some topiary but I am thinking of neatening up the whole look. I have no hedges, but the winter jasmine, cotoneaster, japonica, chaenomeles, climbing roses etc could all do with shaping. Do you think I will stop the winter jasmine from flowering if I prune it now? Maybe I will leave the climbing roses alone as I do love a bit of free flow.

I am also going to move the ferns from under the apple tree where they emerged this year.

Flowering in the garden: Japanese anemones, hydrangea (lacy), cyclamen (carpet), hibiscus, roses, shasta daisies, potentiella, alchemilia mollis, acanthus.

What is flowering in your gardens?

Oooh here goes: crucifix orchids which bloom all year round; Dendrobium speciosum, a massive native orchid; boronia; hebe; kangaroo paws (we plant different kinds so something's in flower from August to May; native hibiscus; four kinds of bromeliad; clivia; three or four kinds of grevillea - prostrate and shrub; phlomis is about to arrive; jade plant; freesias; nasturtium and limonium, which flowers all year round.

Oh, and a shrub/tree I've never been able to identify which has yellow flowers for nine months of the year.

And breathe.

I have very little flowering now. ::sniff:: The Japanese anemones are sulking, the cyclamen might I guess be flowering but are being swamped by other things. There are a few flowers on the white jasmine and a couple of the clematis are still going strong, although others gave done nothing and Polish Spirit seems to have died. A few snapdragons and calendula. Some zantedeschia in pots. 'Tis pitiful.

In better news, my Olympic rose is on its way.

Flowering: my current crocosmia are still going but on the turn, arum lilies, oxalis, cyclamen seems to have put its effort into spreading this year but there are one or two flowers, sedum spectabile absolutely covered in honeybees, verbena bonariensis (came up from seed this year so only a single tall spike with a small flower head), nepeta and some of the culinary herbs like dill/oregano/thyme/feverfew are very heavily flowering, then of course there are the climbing veggies which need pollination - squash, courgette, cucumber, beans. In the front garden I have another heavily flowering honeybee-feeding sedum which grows as a mat on the ground, comfrey is abundant, borage, acidanthera, buddleia, lavender.

Lots of clover flowering in the lawn too!

Flowering - cosmos, verbena bonariensis, sweet peas (finally) penstemons, borage, marjoram, pheasant berry (whatever that is actually called), rudbekia, salvia, verbena, a few different roses are still putting some flowers out, scabious, verbascum having a second flowering, gladioli, sunflowers, marigold, daisy, geraniums, mint, honeysuckle, russian sage, catmint, hyssop, masses of feverfew which I love so don't object to at all and one solitary dahlia

I have just ordered 3 callicarpa which i have never grown before. Not sure quite where i am going to plant them as the only space i have available at the moment is in shade and i think they prefer sun.

Yet another impulse buy that i am going to have to re jig the garden to find a spot for.

Flowering - japanese anemone, sedum (with nectar-drunk bees everywhere), lavender, verbena bonariensis, sweet peas, borage, salvia, first of the asters peeking out, red valerian (just a few hanging on), scabious, solanum glasnevin, cosmos, catmint, oregano. Plus some veggies; beans, courgettes, pumpkins & squashes.

Flowering that shouldn't be - broccoli, rocket, basil, lettuce .

Pheasant berry is leycesteria formosa. I have two self-seeded babies if anyone wants them.

Callicarpa is gorgeous - mine looks as if it's going to have its gutsy decent crop of berries this year.

thanks Maud. I have just informed DH. He has always wondered and always forgotten to look it up!

You're welcome! Horticultural Latin will be my specialist topic on Mastermind!

My garden seems to be having a bit of a late flush with most of the roses in flower but also rudbeckias, phlox, shasta daisies, marjoram, scabious, verbena bon. sedums, cerinthe, a little white allium, schizostylis, marigolds, nasturtiums, cosmos and some lovely frilly polyanthus I was given in the spring which are spreading and flowering like mad. I too have a solitary dahlia and my sweet peas are still going strong.

I was wondering if anyone might be interested in a seed swap later in the autumn? I will have lots of seeds on my cerinthe this year (which I grew from seeds I was given), and have quite a few seeds saved from my sweet cicely and foxgloves, there might be other bits and bobs that I come across too.

Seed swap yes! Also, anyone going to RHS autumn show in London? I think I will try to go on the Tuesday evening. (9th oct)