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 an shocked. That is the second fete I ave heard of without a plant stall. We're going to hell in a handcart, I tell you.

I had a delightful time at HC with funnyperson. Now struggling home with fabulous bargain plants from the sell-off.

Please ignore typos. Am too tired to focus on screen and fingers too clumsy to type.

Glad you had a good time. I bet it was hot!

Slight panic stations here as ALL of the fruit is ripening at once. We actually DH picked five pounds of strawberries alone today, plus 7 pounds of gooseberries (at least they are now all done), a large bowl of blackcurrants and is now out there doing the raspberries. This all needs processing and the words of the NGS garden inspector are ringing round my head "Goodness. Did you MEAN to plant so many raspberries?"

It was hot, but a bit fresher than at home - the benefit of being by the river, I guess.

I bought some lovely plants in the sell-off at the end. If I had had the strength and energy (and space in the garden) I could have got even more gems. One garden was selling three huge perennials for a tenner.

No such thing as too many raspberries! I have just had my first alpine strawberry from a plant I bought last year at our local botanic garden. It tasted most odd, as if it had been dipped in eau de Cologne. Does anyone have any idea what variety it might be?

oh humph that's a lot of fruit.
hope you have a large enough freezer.
our strawberries went out with a bang this week. picked a large bowl full, I guess about a kilo. they all were eaten all through the day.
our bathroom is nearly finished, the plumber installs the bath and sink tomorrow. no more hanging round the lido.
I saw a toad last night, am hoping it's the one we rescued. we definitely need help on the slug/snail front.

I love raspberries and would like to plant some. :)

humph that is a very very impressive lot of fruit. Summer puddings galore.
Phew! I have had gallons and gallons of cold refreshments since I came back.
Inspired by rhubarb and maud I decided I would not lounge around in the morning in my nightwear as originally planned, and took dad out in the wheelchair up the road (first time since Oct) into the kitchen (ditto) and then mum and dad and I sat and blissfully chatted in their garden.(only the second time this year and first time in his favourite bit) It wasn't too hot.

After a snooze while, and being informed by the DC that they were both 'busy with friends', I made my way to Hampton Court, and beside the alliums I met rhubarb, who was just leaving with bargains from Hayloft at £2.00 a plant, which was a nice co-incidence.

The rose tent was warmish and the roses were wilting, so though it was very very interesting it was not divinely lovely, though I did buy a rose 'Sally Holmes' from Peter Beales at a lowish price, and also a variegated jasmine from the heritage jasmine stall.

Seeing maud was lovely and we dangled our feet in the cool 'long water' and ate ice cream before making our way to the butterfly tent, which was wonderful.

The show gardens were selling off by the time we got to them so I bought more stuff (not too much: probably spent £30 all told) and came home after an enjoyable time, and have planted some plants (the plant rescue operation) and repotted others.

The tv coverage made it look better than it was, good company excepted. All in all a nice half day out, but if you go to one flower show it should be Chelsea, and Sissinghurst's roses take all the prizes in my book.

I have repotted some of the clematis I bought earlier in the year (3 for a tenner at Dobbies). They were small, and rather than planting them out and perhaps not making the winter, today I thought it best to grow them on a bit. This brings the total clematis in the garden to 10, 7 of which are in pots and only 1 of which is currently flowering. maud remains the clematis grower par excellence.

lexi and humph you are doing the right thing.

lexi I have been wondering how your watering system has been working.
The hose doesn't fit on the IKEA taps in the downstairs utility room so all my watering has been by watering can. I quite like the routine of watering the plants but the lawn is very dry.

You are very kind, funnyperson, but as I explained I am also the clematis killer par excellence. There is a high turnover of clematis in my garden. I have florida sieboldii x 2, Miss Bateman and General Sikorski waiting to be planted out. I think I will grow them on for another year (they came as plugs) before I do.

I think the difference between HC and Chelsea is the balance between show gardens and the selling of stuff. There is so much selling of stuff at HC that the show gardens - which are small anyway - are somewhat overshadowed. Of course, I should not complain, as I bought a parasol, an umbrella which had been designed by Chris Beardshaw and according to the woman selling them, had been licked by him too, as she thought this would drive up sales to ladies of a certain age.

funnyperson - I thoroughly recommend getting a plumber to install an outside tap. It greatly improved the quality of my gardening life.

It was indeed lovely to see you funny, just a shame I had to leave then and couldn't stay to meet Maud. On the whole I was disappointed by HC this year. It's always been my favourite of the flower shows in the past, because it's been a real plantpersons show. Maybe it was the heat, or the change of layout, or the diminished number of show gardens, but I just wasn't feeling the love today. I did enjoy the rose tent, I have to say, and I loved the concept garden with the fridges planted up with alpines.

Got home just in time to do a quick tour of our village's open gardens day. Only had time to visit five of them, but it was refreshing to be in real gardens after HC.

I'm too hot. I really feel for Tynefilth and Humph.

I was boating up the Thames today (bliss!), and thought of Maud and funnyperson as we passed Hampton Court and saw all the visitors staggering home with their horticultural booty.

This last week I have used my hose for the first time in two years - last year was so wet that filling my watering can from the butt was quite sufficient for my small town garden, but in long hot spells being able to run a hose from an outside tap makes all the difference, especially to the lawn.

I have succumbed to T&M's lucky dip 36 perennials for a penny. Last year's lavender, about the size of my thumbnail when they arrived, are now well established and sprouting vigorously in all directions.

Oh and Tynefilth - nice frock. Actually I liked all of those on the page you linked to.

I nearly bought that lucky dip, MooncupGoddess, but now that I have retired from running the PTA plant stall so don't have anywhere to offload my surplus, I'm not sure I could squeeze in another 36 perennials (even allowing for the attrition rate with T&M's teeny-weeny plugs).

I too feel for all pregnant ladies at the moment. Mercifully for me, I had my baby in the spring.

One has to admire gardeners who are good at getting plants to survive and thrive.

On the way home I saw a front garden with, amongst other things , 4 magnificent Verbenia bonariensis plants: tall, wide, sculptural, floral and frothy all at once.

I realised this is what Sarah Raven's 'blue border' plugs should have grown into. I had 4 Verbena. b plugs, all of which are now growing in a flower bed at home, but nowhere near the tall statements I saw on the way home from Hampton.

Wimbledon last weekend, Ashes this weekend, Royal baby hopefully next weekend! What a summer!

I'm practically imploding with pride that about 40% of the verbena bonariensis cuttings I've been growing in water are making roots! Now I have to work out how to pot them on without killing them, as all this has been happening in our front room, so toasty warm with the central heating. I may start them out in the garage, which has translucent panels in the roof, so light enough, but without the freeze at night which can sneak up on us.

An exciting purchase was a specimen of the Rick-rack orchid cactus AKA fishbone cactus. Wonderful foliage, and some flowers one day, I hope. I bought it at the local Rotary market; all amateur stalls, and the older lady who was selling told me she was moving in with her son, so wouldn't have a garden any more, so was selling off all her plants. I felt sad that someone who could plainly just poke a bit of stem into a pot of soil and make it bloom was having to give it up.

Well done echt.

Our garden is wilting in the heat. A friend came round yesterday to look at roses and see what she wanted for her garden and they had all gone limp. I think we may have to do a serious water of the borders soon.

Echt that plant sounds interesting. I do think it's heartbreaking when gardeners get too old to garden. I remember my grandpa arriving at his old folks' home and seeing a lovely yellow climber around the door, and he said "ooh I'll have a bit of that!" - he'd had a lifetime of stealing cuttings from all over the place and could make anything grow. But of course he couldn't, because he'd just left behind his greenhouse and his garden, and that life was behind him. I remember how sad that realisation made him.

That said, he was still climbing trees to do the pruning in his mid nineties, so he didn't do bad.

Rhubarb

We looked round a garden last year. It had been made in the seventies and was very large and had not been tended for at least five years, other than mowing paths etc. It was still lovely but the owner was in her late seventies and her husband had just had heart surgery. She was most apologetic about the chaos. It was rather heartbreaking.

cross post - I am glad to hear it

That grandpa still climbing in his 90s is most impressive.

What a shame HC isn't what it was; but it does sound like you made the best of it, ahem.

Maud you asked upthread about Alpine strawberries - they do have a very different flavout to normal strawbs: like dipped in Eau de Cologne is a marvellous description. I never used to like the flavour that much, forgot this and grew lots of Alexandria from seed, so now have a surfeit, and actually do now love them. Alexandria is a good variety it seems - larger and juicier than most.

I have been watering everything in sight - including my quince (Cydonia, not Chaenomeles, so fruit are very precious), which is 2 years planted and has two, count 'em, two, quinces on it. They will be cherished until apple pie time.

::joins in with the waving::