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.

That does sound very exciting, rhihaf!

I have just had a fun time, potting on seedlings and dividing up hostas to sell at the school fair. I also noticed that a rose I planted last year in the belief it was white - Glory of Edzell - is going to be pink. And I'm afraid I had neglected poor old Nelly Moser, who was growing in a tangled heap, and when sorting her out I snapped off some of the buds. Boo.

That sounds amazing Rhihaf. Who does the garden belong to? The land around our house is a bit like that, it used to be the original garden for the house when it was one big house. Every time I go over the fence I find something else that I hadn't seen before, mostly overgrown and choked with stuff but battling on.

I was very happily listening to the cuckoo in the garden on Saturday morning; it's such a lovely sound. However...we have been discovering the downside of having cuckoos in the garden as the dog has been out catching baby birds on the ground in the wood.

Posted a picture of the mint bath on my profile

Wow Rhihaf - it sounds so romantic. I have just re-read the Secret Garden, this sounds just the same.

I have a mint bath too Bertha, just like yours. It works really well outside my back door. It has been going for a few years now but as long as I feed it early on it keeps coming back.

Bought some of that calcium spray to keep the pigeons off the brassicas. Has anyone else used this? Does it work?

Oh dear about the cuckoos and the baby birds, Bertha. Nature red in tooth and claw. The mint bath looks lovely - it's just like the bath I have catching the rainwater off the 'shed' (aka former outside privy) roof. I think I have 7 varieties of mint now - the herb bed is in semi-shade, which seems to suit it.

Do you live in a large house that's been carved up into smaller houses?

the mint bath is lovely.
my parents have it the other way round, mint in the garden (about 6 different varieties) and the herbs in an old lion clawed bathtub. the mint just took over.
I removed most of the mint today as some had a rusty fungus and were looking rather sad. I never realised they had such enormous roots.
the washing hands with body lotion to get rid of gardeners nails works really well, have now filed a bit of lotion into an old pump soap dispenser to keep by the sink.

have tried to upload more pictures, but for some reason they all change into the same picture. anyway, my blue tree is up.

The resolution on MN pictures is so poor as is my eyesight that I can't be sure about your blue tree, Mousy, but the shade of blue does look like ceanothus.

DH planted the russian kale and the chard in the round veg patch today. It looks lovely. All the teeny box plants are edging each bed now, we figured they might as well grow into maturity in their final position rather than in a nursery bed. Yesterday I planted some rocket in a triangle to go on the edge of the bed with the asparagus in the middle. The other side can have lettuce. My back has gone today, unfortunately, and I can only hobble slowly about. I tell myself I will be entirely cured by the morning

tree looks v pretty Mousy

the tree is even bluer in real life (and smells lovely).
will have to prune it when it stopped flowering, it's a bit leaning away from the wall in the back and it's fighting the russian vine that grows on the back wall. I will need something with long handles as it's tall and in a slighly raised bed, so difficult to place a ladder.
what would a tree suregon cost?

Maud - this house has been in several different formats. Originally one big house, then seven flats, now two semi-detached houses.

Would one of those long-handled pruners reach Mousy? Would be cheaper than a tree surgeon.

would be difficult to precarious.
the tree is 5 meters high. can't get close because of the raised bed and the soil is too soft for placing a ladder safely.
and it's full of spiders

Hello everyone, glad to hear you've all been slaving away in the garden rather than sitting around enjoying the good weather. I thought I was the only one !

I am very excited and full of gardening mojo as in one week's time my war with my neighbour's brambles will hopefully be over and I'll be looking at my brand new six foot high barricade fence.

In preparation I have been digging out the previous gardener's collection of mighty shrubs and planning my cottage garden borders. I'm aching but it's bliss to look at the window in the evening and see how much it's coming on.

That tree is a lilac ceanothus I think
Maud you are telepathic:I have been admiring a hedge of the relevant choisya and have taken cuttings with permission: not only are the leaves lovely but the scent of the flowers is nicer than sundance.
I dont have nearly enough clematis. I never have nearly enough clematis, but this year I am going to wait and see if the ones I do have actually flower before planting any more. Last year there was a wilt just before the flowering, due to pesky squirrels digging at the roots. This year I am optimistic as the clematis viticella Abundance and Polish Spirit are really thriving. I am also mulching with more well rotted compost. I am aso looking forward to a Clematis Marie Boisselot hopefully flowering with the digitalis alba under the oak tree (dreams!) What types do you have in your garden and which are your favourite and what do you plant them with?

Fell of the last thread

Bertha - love the mint in bath
The garden belongs to the house behind my parents', which my dad owns and rented out for the last 20 yrs to the same guy. He has now moved on so we are rennovating the house not the garden for holiday lets.
I then got a bit carried away discovering all the wonderful long-forgotten gems under the brambles, like the clematis in an old belfast sink that's grown up through the lilac. I used to play there are a child and now everyone's been seduced by the garden! Plan was to clear everything with a JCB and put a big, low maintenance deck out back, but then we discovered a water-well which Dad is going to build a wall around with a roof on...the walled garden and beds are just so pretty, it seduces everyone who sees it. We will still put a deck there, just smaller

Mousey your blue tree is beautiful! I love lilacs.

Maud I love the idea of various mints, I have a shady bed at the back of the house which my mint loves (bog-standard, pretty robust with quite tough leaves); my Welsh onions less so...

funnyperson - My roll call of clematis is

Purpurea plena elegans growing up an obelisk with summer (white) jasmine (both plants are really too vigorous for the obelisk - novice gardener error - but too well-established to shift now)

Polish Spirit on the fence with cirrhosa Freckles and a blue alpina. Polish Spirit may be dead but it's hard to see in the tangle

Nelly Moser growing through rosa rubifolia

Mad Gran with rosa New Dawn on the fence

Jackmanii with rosa New Dawn through the apple tree (this is probably the best combination I've achieved)

Niobe with rosa Breath of Life on an obelisk

Wada's Primrose through the fig tree

Montana Elizabeth (I think) on the fence and, until hacked by neighbour, reaching into the apple tree

Mystery clematis (probably Ernest Markham) on the fence with montana Elizabeth

Florida sieboldii through the callicarpa (planted yesterday so fingers crossed)

New dark purple clematis (name temporarily forgotten) with rosa Spring Bride on a fence

Arabella through an apple tree

Florida sieboldii (again planted yesterday so fingers crossed) on an obelisk with summer (yellow) jasmine

Waiting to be planted are So Many Blue Flowers, which will go with rosa Zephrine Drouhin in an area that's awaiting planting and some old man's beard types (labels lost) which will go with the honeysuckle on the back fence

Star of India, which was growing through sambucus nigra Black Lace, which was a fantastic combination while it lasted, seems to have perished over winter or been trampled to death by the foxes and there have been numerous other fatalities over the years.

I feel very behind in the clematis stakes ! There's Early Sensation, Ben's Beauty which went in the other day, Ville de Lyon or something like that which is new in plus the end eaten, another new one which is totally eaten, a blue one in with a Galway Bay Rose and a double white one in with the black currant . Clearly I need to write things down.

Just been watching a bit of Chelsea with lunch.

I don't have any clematis, but make full use of the neighbour's one that climbs over the fence.
got 3 roses at a diy store today, this time in a pot (was literally a pain getting those home in the bus, spikey buggers), not quite a pound each but they look very healthy and had very nice roots.
so hopefully this time we are lucky.
a pink, almost purple for the back (thundersorm coloured dc said) and an orange and flaming orange/red for the front.

My roll call of clematis:

A blue one
A light purple one
A new one which I think is dark purple

Joins Wynken in the need to write things down...I'm off to see if I kept any labels.

maud I think you just went into the virtuoso category unless you made all that up, I'm awed.
I bought 3 for a tenner today. mm cholmondely, c montana warwickshire rose and a honeysuckle but I then read a website on clematis which says not to buy plants with no buds on. Maybe thats why they are a tenner for 3!
Already in are clematis montana elizabeth growing through the ceanothus, polish spirit growing next to rosa dr du jamain and mm boisselot behind digitalis alba. viticella abundance behind venetian collection dahlias and cerinthe and echinacea: delphiniums lurking hopefully.

My dark purple one is a Dark Eyes

Have no idea about the other two and at the moment no idea which is which.

Bertha. Total bargain on the rose front Mousey, I do love a bargain. So why on earth have I been eyeing up the new David Austin ones ? A couple are gorgeous but I'm having slight problems with the one called Lady Gardener.

I want Maud's clematis collection, it sounds fabulous . Has anyone had any success with clematis cuttings ? I'm on attempt number 3. Looks easy when Carol Klein does it.

Think I might have Artic Queen.

Oh heck. I didn't mean to make anybody (clematis) wilt, but funny person did ask and, as I said, planting clenatis through shrubs and trees gas been one of my long-running projects. It's a way of squeezing more plants into a tiny garden.

Well it is awesome. I do like asking: replies can be so surprising and inspiring. Thank you!