Rhubarb Appreciation Society

[Blackpuddingbertha]

Going with Rhihaf's thread name suggestion, following on from the first rule of gardening club is thread.

Pull up your kneeling pads, crack open the elderberry wine and the blackberry gin and come and join us. No real experience or gardening know-how needed.

Also I want to grow some Lilium Martagon, but I am confused as some places say they like shade, others say they like the sun, and I am not clear how tall they grow so where in the border to plant them?

Am wondering if the cleaner of the consultant on-call room will be very surprised to find seed trays of cerinthe and echinacea growing.

Comfrey has self seeded everywhere this year and i have left it as it is quite pretty.
Has anyone made comfrey tea (for the plants not to have with breakfast)before and is it worth the bother or should i just add it to the compost heap?

You know what, I've never actually forced rhubarb! I tend to prefer the full blown tart flavour of the unforced stuff. As a kid, we always had such prolific and extensive rhubarb beds that we just ate the youngest, reddest, tenderest stems and left the hulking great green ones to feed the plants. The young red stems were sweet enough to eat straight from the plant anyway so we'd run round the garden with rhubarb sticking out of our mouths whilst playing tig and whatever else it was we were occupied with in those hazy days of childhood.

Funny I love the idea of seed trays occupying the window sills of your on call consultant's room!

I love the idea of plants in the on call consultants room and think you should do it FP !

Cantspel I have made comfrey tea. Did it in a bucket but if I do it again (and am now tempted) then I would shove leaves in old bottles with water on top. Reason being is the awful stench which everyone tells you about but needs to be experienced to appreciate properly. If you have it in bottles then you can simply open, pour what's needed into watering can, job done. Much better than taking lid of bucket, trying not to breath, dipping things in and getting old smelling stuff on hands which won't wash off for ages.

I'm going to email neighbour to ask for a tiny bit of straw for our pondchen (mini pond) and am on watering duty fir neighbours greenhouse which is great as I'll be able to take a moment or two to appreciate their gorgeous garden. Our house is built in what was their orchard. Which reminds me I need to find a place for my Mirabel Plum to go in.

may .i ask a roses question?
do I soak the whole plant before planting or just the roots?
do I have to remove all the waxy stuff?

hello

The greenhouse is going up - about half way so far

Wynken good idea about making the comfrey tea in a bottle. I might try that myself.

Mouse just soak the roots. i always pick the wax off but i dont think you have to.

Wants pictures of the greenhouse.

I just realised how late all the vegitation is this year.
we viewed our house for the first time a year ago and the climbers (no idea what they are) that cover the back fence were in full leaves as were the wine.
both have just started with big purple leave bulbs...

I don't pick the wax off my pound should roses and they always die. I often wonder if these things are connected.

Have had a happy morning in the garden, planting yet another clematis (Purple Spider, so dark it's almost black), sowing cosmos seeds and putting together the willow potato planter. I also rescued the still-living bits of a bilbergia which was mistakenly left out over winter.

I love hearing everyone's garden news and agree about using the on-call room as a seed nursery.

Argh. Pound shop roses.

I already sowed the seeds last week in trays in the on-call room actually! I left the packets out with the photos, so the cleaners didn't think I was growing anything erm..odd...but am a bit nervous about whether they will be still there next week! I'm banking on the fact that the room rarely gets cleaned anyway.
Looking forward to seeing pictures of the greenhouse and architect designed Victorian lean-to!
The lotus seeds have arrived! Recorded delivery. Apparently I have to file away a bit of the thick seed coat with an iron file, before submerging in 8 ins of water.

I have today invested in a weigela floribunda variegata. It was a bargain at £2 from morrisons a bit on the small side but it is to go in a pot for a couple of years.
And 6 hollyhocks to go along the back of the fence.
At the moment seems like every time i leave the house i buy yet another plant or 2

Woohoo to Humph's greenhouse and Funny's lotus seeds! I grew Cannas from seed that had to be stratified like that a few years ago. I'd read that they are very tricky, and managed to smash/break most of them with the knife I was using. I didn't hold out much hope, but against all the odds loads germinated. Very exciting.

Pfft to architect designed lean-to. Believe it when you see it. The budget gets more stretched by the day. Humph's greenhouse is real and happening. Mine is pie in the sky

It was strim strim strim here today. Loving my new strimmer. We are responsible for keeping the verges of the lane tidy where it borders our property. I was very impressed with how it made short work of the brambles - buzz buzz swish! Unfortunately the line is not feeding properly though, I kept having to dismantle the mower head to extend it which isn't right. Waiting to hear back from customer services...

Anyone done any direct sowing yet? Tempted to do dd's hardy annuals tomorrow, but we are still getting the odd light dusting of frost on a morning.

Have not dared sow anything yet. It was bloody freezing here this morning.

Doors going on now

Wahey Humph, doors - you don't hang around !

I have chucked in some Nigella and poppies oh and some calendula. Don't think anything is up yet though the Nigella might be. Hedged my bets and sowed the other half in the greenhouse.

Watered neighbour's greenhouse and was looking at what she had in her borders enroute in the hope I could ask for cuttings when she gets back (she's into cuttings). But couldn't see anything I didn't have, with the exception of my nemesis, aka Peonies.

It is done! I love it. Was sadly too poorly to start putting things in it tonight but am really looking forward to getting stuck in tomorrow.

There are lots of shirley poppy plants growing in the crab apple walk, self seeded from last year. All the forget-me-nots are that really deep blue colour they are to start with.

Sorry to hear you're feeling so rough Humph. But the greenhouse must be the perfect thing to take your mind off it

Thinking of you and hoping ou get some rest today Humphreycobbler and wishing you and the offspring well. I am totally awed that any person can put up a green house in one day!
This is a glorious morning here. I have been tidying up the bamboo, thoug h I am not sure what to do with the spindly stems from last year and whether i should cut it all back or what, since my bamboo nodes are not looking at all alive.
I'm annoyed with plantsforshade, since when I looked at the pots they sent me in the light of day this morning, they have sent me corydalis instead of astrantia and meconopsis and didn't even bother to ask me by email if thats what I wanted, and as I dont want corydalis and was looking forward to the astrantia and meconopsis I am annoyed.
On the plus side the £1 plum and pear sticks from Lidl which I planted last year are bursting into leaf. Fruit trees dont seem to get much blossom in the back garden. Perhaps it is just too shady.

Is there anything I can do to encourage a fruit tree to blossom at this stage?

Funny it's really annoying when they substitute plants like that. Donkeys years ago when I was first getting into gardening, I ordered a patio pot collection of a dozen mixed bedding plants in blues and whites. They sent me a big box of fifty pink busy lizzies instead. As I only had a little roof terrace with three pots I was a bit about what I was going to do with them. I ended up doing a spot of guerilla gardening with them, about a decade before anyone coined that phrase!

Wynken i wish i had neighbours i could swap cuttings with but alas mine are the type who buy plastic topiary balls.

Cantspel: at neighbours' plastic gardening fetish

Humph: WOWZERS at your greenhouse-erecting skills! doffs cap deferentially Hope you're feeling better today and enjoying it.

Rhubarb: bonkers re pruning permission. Totally bloody barmy. Have a

Bertha: thanks for the fig info. Was all for it until I saw Monty planting his Black Hamburg grape (ah Monty), but the terrace is quite large so I'm thinking both options are viable

Oooh, didn't realise that makes stuff bold*. I am learning.

As mooted further up the thread (might have been on a gin fuelled Friday night!), I have name-changed. The hovery over thing will tell you more if you are confused...!

I am becalmed on the sofa for a moment while digesting lunch (potato salad involving our own mint and chives). I should then do a load of weeding and mow the lawn, but I'm not sure where I'm going to find the energy... Or I could pot on some seedlings and start off more. It's a bit chilly out there, but I suppose at least not chucking down sudden showers like yesterday!