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.

I am really looking forward to watching GW on geums. These are the first plants I have got into and have started to collect. The geum bed I planted looks nice, but a bit lopsided as the Mrs Bradshaw are all down one end and are significantly taller than the rest of them. I will have to rearrange in the autumn.

trough sounds lovely Wynken. The local pronunciation of trough is 'trow'. I find this fascinating.

I was going to go round some open gardens this afternoon, but I have stupidly dropped a casserole dish onto my toe. It has split the nail and I can only hobble. I was looking forward to seeing this garden, it is up the road in an old farmhouse, much grander and posher than ours but the same age, with a garden that seems to have all the same stuff as ours but on a larger scale and more mature. They have a laburnum tunnel that is in flower and a potager. Plus a lake! I was talking to the owner at a local fete yesterday.

My Mrs Bradshaw geums that I bought as tiny plugs from T&M last year have just come into flower and are v cheering.

Amusingly, one of my friends who was round helping me last autumn identified them as weeds and tried to chuck them out. I defended them stoutly but have been riven with secret doubts ever since, so am v gratified to see them in flower!

Humph! It must be the day for preggy injuries, I managed to tripand go flying forwards this morning and have badly bruised my kneecap. Am sitting on sofa with ibuprofen gel on it because it started to seize up to the hip and I want to be able to walk tomorrow.

ILs are here and not looking much like they're keen to weed for me...

I have just spent a productive few hours, planting some wall pots and potting-up some bits and pieces for the plant stall at the school fete. I thought I wasn't going to have much this year, but actually I do seem to have quite a quantity of mostly perennials.

NotAnother no i have held strong mainly because i have had a busy weekend with my sons footie tournament so no time to garden or be online.

I have started thinking about spring bulbs but i need to work out my budget (which i know i wont stick to) and what spaces i want to fill.
My bargain wilkinsons tulip bulbs looked lovely this year so i might invest in some more with alliums, fritillary, snowdrops and of course daffs.

I also need hyacinth for the front beds as i only have a couple and they looked a bit lonely on their own this year.

::sticks fingers in her ears and sings la la la, to avoid thinking about the temptation of spring bulbs::

And many commiserations to all who have injured themselves. I fell flat on my face a few weeks ago and still have a twinge in my elbow as a result, so I quite literally feel your (or at least my) pain.

hope your knee is feeling better Rake. My toe is better but I can't look at it I am the most squeamish person I know, when DD cut her head open I had to get my next door neighbour round to have a look

Thinking of spring, we need to split the primroses. I want more hyacinth too cantspel, the few I have smelled incredibly nice at a time when nothing else had much scent.

Yes, my s

Yes, my sole remaining pot of hyacinths was by the front door and it was wonderful to get a whiff of its heady scent when going in or out.

My garden really needs some Allium schubertii

www.gardens4you.co.uk/index.php?/Allium-Bulbs/Allium-schubertii-5-flower-bulbs#.Ub4JjRyaIcU

love them

Hello. Manic weekend of social engagements mostly for the DDs has left me no time for the garden. I did manage to sneak in 45 minutes in the veg plot today which was good. I have two courgettes flowering and one little flower on a tomatillo.

Longest day next week. How did that happen?

I grew those one year, Cantspel, but they were too short and stumpy for my liking. That may be a reflection of growing conditions here, which are less than ideal for most bulbs.

I do want some Purple Sensation, though.

I think Schubertii are always stumpy Maud, well mine are too! But I still love them.

I was at an NGS open village gardens thing yesterday (Iffley, near Oxford), and there were Purple Sensation everywhere, along with a white version of it, which I really liked.

I usually visit National Trust gardens, and seeing so many 'amateur' gardens was refreshing. NT gardens seem to use a lot of the same plants, so can be a bit samey, whereas these gardens often had some lovely plants or varieties that I had never seen before. And the planting sometimes was so lush, it was fantastic.

Yes, the flower heads of Schubertii are gorgeous but they didn't waft Hugh above everything else, as I had hoped. I like nectaroscordum for that, too.

I have rarely been to a disappointing NGS garden and still aspire to get into the famous yellow book!

Argh. Waft high ....

Rake & Humph - Hope you're feeling better?

Maud - How did you get all your spare perennials?

DC had me up early yesterday morning so, while DH had his father's day lie in, I dug in some compost and tried to level off the scarred patch of lawn before sowing grass seed. We were out all day so when I got back I just had time to slaughter 20 snails and secretly order 330 spring bulbs for next year. It was at this point I realised I'd gone absolutely garden bonkers.

My defence is that it is a new garden and I'm designing it from almost scratch. Do you think this will hold?

The bulbs are a mix of alliums, tulips, Russian snowdrops, anemone and oxalis. I haven't gone for all the more common & traditional plants I would have a month ago and I hope I've been a bit braver with colour (although I'm still worried about creating a bland sea of purple). Carol said on GW that "one great clash is worth a thousand mediocre partnerships", which I thought was a great philosophy for planting by.

Yes, that's an excellent philosophy for planting (and so much else).

My spare perennials are hostas (am officially Giving Up on hostas) and things that were free for postage from GW magazine which I know I will never plant. A lot of them are lavender, which does not thrive in my back garden because only one spot is sunny enough.

Maud - Why are you giving up on hostas? Is it the slugs?

Next year I may well give up veg and use my raised beds as annual flowe nurseries. It just doesn't excite me and no one is v enthusiastic about eating what I grow.

I managed to walk past a white rose tree for £8.99 in lidl today. I really need to develop some patience and enjoy watching the plant's I've already put in my garden grow.

Yes, I have been beaten by the slugs. I do manage to keep hostas in reasonable condition when I remember to use the SlugClear, but when the summers have been so wet even that doesn't work very well.

I've decided I really need a yellow rose.

I put in some hostas for the third time and they have pretty much vanished again.

Am impressed with Notanother's will power !

I'm looking at an Arthur Bell in flower Maud under the chestnut tree, it was £2 at local garden centre. Thing is it is looking suspiciously like a climber and it looks like there is a climbing version. On one of the trellis I have what I think is Golden Showers that was here when we got here. It has flowered into December before.

Inspired by friend at allotment sitting there filling in an allotment diary, I bought one. Decided that it would be good to do a kind of inventory of plants in the garden so have just been doing that. Hardy Geranium seeds turned up today so am hoping some of them will germinate in time.

I just don't dare try hostas, not with our slug problem. It is a shame as I love them.

I transplanted the orange opium poppies into plugs yesterday, they still seem to be alive today. Hoping I have got away with it.

It has turned into a lovely evening here. I have done a day of teaching today and I am not used to it anymore so am rather tired and am sitting watching dh mow the lawn instead of strimming The back door is open and I can see the cottage borders. These need a good weed, as do the herb beds. That is the plan for tomorrow.

My toe is better thank you, although a lovely shade of black!

I did some planting yesterday - my 50p astilbe and a couple of foxgloves - which brought me up close and personal with some perennial weeds which I must dig out.

I have a few opium poppies in the front garden, but they're rather feeble specimens. My dad usually has some magnificent, purple fringed opium poppies. I must scrounge some seed from him.

Hello everyone,

I've just been catching up on this thread, you've all been so much busier than me . I am enjoying the garden at the moment . I've just noticed we have an elderflower tree and thought I might try to make champagne this weekend.

The dandelions seem to be subsiding so frequent mowing has worked.

I've never been to the Chelsea flower show but enjoyed reading all your stories about it, so have vowed to go next year. The clematis exhibitor is the father in law of one of Dh's colleagues - he has promised us some plants :)

Can I join the Facebook page?

I had better luck with Hostas in pots humphrey stupidly removed them from the pots to plant out and never saw them again!