Blooming into Flaming June

[Blackpuddingbertha]

Keeping the potting shed party going from the previous Rhubarb Society thread and all threads before it.

Please feel free to join in all gardeners, whether novice, professional or aspiring. Plenty of blackberry gin for all.

Congrats to australian gardener too. I am really looking forward to Saturday: will get there at the crack of dawn!
Garden is a lush jungle at the moment. Sprinkled with flowers. The apple blossom looks lovely near the geranium phaeum and a pale hosta is coming up near there too. Magic. Its about this time of year I'm not sure what are weeds and what aren't

Humph I have lots of bumble bees on my comfrey/sweet rocket patch in the problem child front garden. Honey beesnt so much, I would normally expect to see quite a few by now so I am worried about them. I planned my plant selection to have something providing nectar/pollen through as many months as possible, not forgetting nesting sites for pollinators like ivy, and berries for birds like pyracantha. The great thing about gardening for wildlife is that they don't much care about design, front/back of border etc, and they love it when you are too lazy busy to mow the lawn (18 days and counting...)

I want a great big rambling rose across the front of my house (having seen the bit on the Chelsea show about the David Austin stand!). How long would a Paul's Himalayan Musk take to grow across a four-metre wide roof above the front door/living room window? If I bought a reasonably mature specimen that was already door height (can you get those?) would it get going across the roofb the end of this summer?

What a fabulous day that was, two country bumpkins at Chelsea. Had to get used to seeing the presenters around the place at first and concentrate on the plants. First thing we did was look at the Artisan Gardens and were surprised at how much smaller they are in RL compared to how they look on TV. The NSPCC childhood one was both our favourites for that.

I'd been really looking forward to the David Austin stand but we took ages finding it and saw the Peter Beale one first which was lovely. We didn't get quite as long as we wanted there as Alan T was interviewing some Actress. Shortly after we finally found David Austin and were really disappointed. The roses were looking decidedly the worse for wear in comparison and I think my next purchase might well be the Peter Beale Pippin.

The Raymond Evison stand was absolutely lovely and an order will be going in there, possibly for Samaritan Jo. There will definitely be more Aliums in my garden next year and I'm having an alpine thing at the moment after seeing a couple of the stands. The South African Kirstenbosch one was excellent, really enjoyed that. I loved the Pavillion as have never seen anything like it.

We took an age to find the Sentable garden which we both wanted to see and must have walked past it. Unfortunately there were loads of people standing around on it so slightly ruined the effect. I liked Chris Beardshaw's Arthritis garden and the one which depicted 100 years of Chelsea, can't remember what it was called. We were rudely interrupted by Alan filming at that one as well. I think we probably didn't get as much out of some of the larger gardens as we could have with hindsight as were a bit knackered. Just looking through my leaflets, I did like the SeeAbility Garden and the one with the embroidered flowers was good. The Perrier one wasn't my cup of tea but liked the more modern Pergola structure.

Things I have taken away is to use more of the same plant, I think we did talk about that earlier up the thread and it brought it home to me. Lots of Acers, Heuchura, Cat Mint, Aqualegia, that shrub with pom poms flowers, it it a vibernum ? Spurge, Mecanoposis, Sedum seen in a lot of the gardens. A fair few of them are dotted around my garden and I am going to use them to better effect from now on. I've also come to terms with my raised deck and have seen with the right furniture and planters etc it can look lovely, so that's another project to be getting on with.

I could probably ramble on for ages. It was a lovely day which will definitely be repeated next year with a couple of people who weren't able to come with us this year, though I really want to go to Hampton Court as well. And the question DH dared not ask, how much did I spend? Neither of us spent a penny other than on food, not even a pack of seeds. We were just so busy looking we kind of forgot. But I will be sitting down in the not too distant future and placing a few orders. I'm very tired today as we didn't get back till late, but loved every minute of it.

Was sniffing the Paul's Himalayan Musk yesterday, it's gorgeous Humph and I'd love it here but not sure I have room. No idea how long it would take to grow I'm afraid.

Knew there would be something I missed. There was one that was Sutton Seeds I think with two sides. One was an old style veg patch with old greenhouse, the traditional style of veg planting. Thenon the other side there was a geodesic dome with Hydro salad crops but the same back drop of a lovely old wall and cottage style planting. Really like that.

Geums, geraniums and cow parsley.

Oh cr@p. I've only just found out what happened in Woolwich and don't feel enthusing about a flower show as I did feels right . DH mentioned very quickly something happened but totally underplayed it last night, I didn't get in till 11. I went to the Eden Project on 9/11, think I'd better stay away from everything horticultural from now on.

Don't beat yourself up on this wynken. Life goes (and grows) on. There are other threads for the sad business in Woolwich , and this thread for the gardeningy-type stuff.

Yep, and the gardeningy-type stuff provides a very much needed happy distraction from all of life's not so happy stuff.

Sounds like a fabulous day Wynken, thank you for sharing.

I wish my alliums would flower properly, I need some colour in the front bed. The slow start has made me realise that I need more plants with different coloured foliage. I have two heuchuras offering a small splash of purple so may put more of those in.

I have very few bumble bees but plenty of a range of the smaller varieties (going by the numbers in the house anyhow). I'm hoping they're happy in the orchard as there's not much else for them yet. My chives aren't far off flowering now, they normally like those. We need sunshine though to warm them up (the bees that is, although I'd like to be warmed up too).

Oh Wynken, it sounds like you had a great day. I wish I had been there too.

Glad to hear other people have some bees...I was wondering if the rape fields are distracting the honey bees. I do hope we persuade someone to put a hive in our orchard.

It is pouring rain and hail here today. yuk.

Yes, you're right. I'm waiting for my grand total of two alliums to flower. I happened to be in the garden center today and got one of the Japanese Quinces that I'd been admiring for half price - think they are Japanese Quince, it starts with 'C'

Bertha, cut bits with root off your Heuchura, chuck into ground with a bit of water and watch new plants appear. One of mine that went in last year has created 4 or 5 new plants the last month or so.

I have always had mixed feeling about variegated or coloured foliage, but agree that the purple or lime green heucheras are fantastic for giving the borders a bit of bling.

I too have come to the conclusion that the garden looks better when planted with more of the same (which is fortunate, because it is becoming something of a heuchera, aquilegia and geranium-fest).

Japanese quince is chaenomeles, I think.

Thanks wynken!
I think its nice to have the same palette of colour rather than lots of the same plant in a smallish garden. For example lots of different kinds of white plants (main colour) interspersed with pale pink, dark purple and splashes of blue. Green foliage plants are important . I have a Carex pendula with variegated leaves and lovely nodding nut brown flowers atm. (my shady garden) I think if you have lots of the same plant that very much restricts the flowering season of that area.
We will start with the pavilion on Sat. Still not sure how this 'sell-off' works.
As a matter of interest wynken did those prize winning alliums have wires down the middle like the hyacinths at Keukenhopf?

You're quite right, funnyperson, but I fear my garden used to look very 'bitty' because I had so many different things dotted about - and I don't generally plant in threes because that eats up the space - and I think it looks a bit more coherent now that I have lots of different (say) heucheras.

Am liking Sandi Toksvig's seaside garden on the Chelsea programme.

Is some of it about giving a plant room to grow?

I didn't notice them but was a bit distracted by the fact the Purple Sensation flowers were smaller than some of the other ones. I wouldn't be surprised as they were bolt upright.

That's a good point about the flowering season. I guess when you look at a Chelsea Garden you're looking at a scheme designed to give maximum impact at one specific moment in time. And it's easy to become so blown away that you don't look at the bigger picture over time as you never get to see the garden evolve.. I guess it's getting a balance . Think I might have to for once in my life sit down with a piece of paper and properly think about things, rather then randomly bunging things in.

I did smile a bit to find Heuchurahlics stand, having never been very keen on them I've become really quite taken with them of late and see they coukd become addictive. I hope you and your Mum enjoy yourselves as much as we did FP.

Chaenomoles is the one Maud, thanks.

In reality though one does tend to plant not just what is planned, but what one finds on the spur of the moment. Vita SackvilleWest mentioned in one of her garden books that she was quite ruthless about moving plants. I've been wondering about that lately.
I prefer Hosta to Heuchera.

Have been out in the cold and damp to water on my slug nematodes. They've reached their use by date so ran out of time to wait for the perfect weather conditions. Death to slugs.

Popped to the garden centre today to get more slug pellets (there's a theme here I think) and came out with two more large heucheras, three asters for more late season colour, and an agapanthus and some pick & mix. I may split a small chunk off each heuchera before I plant them out - thanks Wynken.

Can I just whisper that I was a bit star struck seeing the various presenters around the place. The rest of you are all very cool and I'm sure wouldn't think twice but I've never actually seen anyone famous and when confronted with the sight of old Alan, forgot I'd been slagging him off on here just the previous might and became obsessed with getting a photo. It got sadder still when I text it to both mine and friend's DHs. They naturally ignored me but DD did text me to tell me to stop stalking Alan and make sure we saw some flowers.

And then we were looking at something and I said oh look there's Andy Sturgeon (not loudly I hope) and then realised what I'd said, possibly fractionally gawped and totally lost track of what I was saying about primroses and Heuchura, much to the amusement of friend. After that Carol Klein was sitting on the floor getting a bit stroppy about flash photography. Then Toby Buckland was filming on the Australian garden as we were trying to look at it.

I would not be cool in the face of celebrity - I would be really pleased I had seen them all! I would LOVE to meet Carol Klein, I really like her.

I love heuchera. I think that a heuchera was the first thing I planted in the front garden after we moved here. But I think I may become addicted to geums, I love the bed outside the back door so much.

I'm not cool in the face of celebrity. I once met Kate Adie through my work (nothing to do with gardening; previous life) and failed utterly to come across as intelligent and professional as I had intended. No, I couldn't string a sentence together.

I think I'd be exactly the same if I met Carol Klein. Or Chris 'Lovely Eyes' Beardshaw.

I was on the look out for Chris Beardshaw but couldn't find him unfortunately . Most of them there was advance warning they'd be there as the film crew roped off the area before they arrived but Andy Sturgeon was just suddenly there, no cameras, chatting to someone and I found myself strangely silent.

We walked round a corner to find Carol on the floor. Think they were about to start filming and people were ignoring the no flash photography signs so she shouted loudly not to use flash. I think it was tongue in cheek but she sounded a bit grumpy.

I've been looking at pictures of the alliums and if they used wires they aren't visible in the photo at all.

I'm just back from the gardening show that is disneyland.
seriously! they must put so much effort and money into keeping it looking that, erm, well, disney

but in those three days my garden has exploded. the fig tree went from tentative buds to full foliage and the hortensia (?) has doubled in size and has some nice flower buds.

the new 'better than poundland' roses have obviously taken, a few new shoots came up, plus no dead ends.

I have a rose question: if a newly planted roses gets many new side shoots, should I take them away? or leave them be!

oh, and a wine question. have a wine plant on one garden wall.

can I find out from the leaves what kind it is?

last year it flowered only in august so was much too late to get fruits.
but I gave the base a good covering with horse manure last autumn and cut it back to the older stems and gave it some plant food a couple of weeks ago. now it's nearly in full foliage and looks nice and healthy.