He who dares not grasp the thorn should never crave the rose

[Blackpuddingbertha]

New thread for the potting shed crowd using Rhubarb's rose suggestion and Squeaky's quote for the new title.

Spring is underway with promises of summer in our gardens big and small.

Elderberry wine for all

Funny, the ones that have come up in my bed are just starting to open. Some have come up blind but most not at all. I think the bulbs have probably rotted in the months of wet. I envisage another big bulb order this year to replenish. I love my alliums.

Don't think I'll be able to cover everything in recent posts, but ...

Oh no. I was planning to spend tomorrow morning in bed with Monty. Fnarr, Fnarr.

I used to love the plant fairs at the Museum of Garden History, but now they always clash with a family party, so I haven't been for years either.

Come to think of it, none of my alliums or nectaroscordums have surfaced this year. Add that to the missing geums and lathyrus vernus (there was masses of it at Hidcote, as under planting) and it's quite depressing. Still, more space for new planting.

And poo to the spoilt carpet.

Phew. Tonight's GW does seem to be on iPlayer so my Saturday morning can go ahead as planned. Looks like there will be lots of gorgeous tulips. Swoon.

Hello pop and silk :)

funny jobs for the weekend, sow courgettes, pinch out top of sweet peas to make them bushier and that's all I can remember.

All my Alliums came up but only one has signs of a flower does that mean they are blind?

Dismal failure on the Allium front here too.

Missed GW too as out boozing at a village fundraiser. I have videoed it though (or whatever we are calling that these days).

had to google pictures of alliums
mine are coming up, but they are in the south facing bit which tends to be a bit dryer.

How lovely to have a boozy village fundraiser to go to, Rhubarb. You make it sound like Ambridge.

Funny how videoing now seems so quaint.

thank you for the welcome, funny and poggle. I've posted on here a couple of times in the past, but do tend to lurk quite a bit!

Have taken another look at my clematis. The leaves look healthy, it's just the bottom few flowers that have dropped their leaves. Dboyfriend says it's normal, but what does anyone else think?

Hmm, silk knickers. I think it might be clematis wilt or (if it's newly planted) it might just be a bit of planting trauma. If it's clematis wilt it may be too late, but can you dig it up and plant it deeper? If you're lucky, it will then produce new shoots.

Are you in the UK, silkknickers? Are you really looking at your clematis at 3.30am? Even I am not quite that keen.

::grin::

Whats everyone doing up at 3.30?
Anyway, Monty episode 8 is on iplayer thank goodness- they must have activated it at about 11 ish. Previously it used to be on iplayer about half an hour after going out live. I don't know why there's been a delay recently.

My Alliums are in a dryish bit but I only have 4 buds on purple sensation while last year I had 14. Good news for allium farmers...

My "72 perennials for £21" package arrived yesterday full of teeny tiny healthy little plants. I haven't got any pots left to pot them on into & can't decide whether to make 72 paper pots or bite the bullet and buy some. I am definitely going to have to buy another mini-greenhouse and some trays. Not turning out such a bargain after all!

The village is a little bit Ambridge, really. But less authentically farmy and more everyone-commutes-to-London. But we all love it and there is always something going on, everyone gets stuck in organising stuff which usually involves getting drunk on home made sloe gin.

I'm also impressed and bemused about you all up at 3 and 4am talking about clematis and alliums!

Hmm. In my case, insomnia. Not so good.

I could have joined in at 3am last night too. Insomnia mixed with snoring DH who came in with a few too many in his belly from a night out. Grrrr.

Bear if its just plastic pots you need try your local garden centre. One of ours has a free pot exchange thing where people can put their unwanted pots in and other people take them away. I use it a lot.

Bear - Remind me where you live. If it's anywhere near sarf London I have hundreds of pots and cell trays you could have and the horticultural society has even more to give away in return for a nominal donation. (We're very much into reduce, reuse, recycle).

Today, I am planning to buy (or better still, find in my seed box) morning glory seeds. I have some obelisks that need filling and hope they'll do better from seed than sweet peas.

no, lush, I wasn't looking at my clematis at 3.30am! I was exaggerating a tad when I said that I had just looked at it. It was the insomnia talking!

the sweetcorn is in the veg patch, the woodruff will have to wait a bit (I want to make sure I haven't smiggled in ground elder by mistake). the garden furniture is going up right now.

Couple of hours in the garden this morning. Deadheaded the spent daffodils, spot of weeding, manured the French bean bed, prepped the courgette & squash tubs with a mix of manure / soil. Then direct sowed some sweet peas to go with the ones I've started in pots and sowed my parsnips (as per Monty's tip of sowing radish in the same drills).

Then I collapsed in a heap and had to lie down for a while. I'm hoping its the lack of sleep catching up with me rather than just age...

Oh, and started off another batch of sweet corn. I'm germinating them in a plastic bag of compost this time as this approach worked well for the peas and broad beans so figured it would work for sweet corn too. Fingers crossed.

Ooh everyone seems very busy in their gardens! Have been away since Tuesday, and looking forward to getting back tomorrow to check on all my plants!!!

Happy waves to Slinky and Bobbly , looking forward to hearing about your gardens!

My sister's wedding was fab, and the bouquets were gorgeous: blue forget-me-nots featured strongly with several shades of pink roses, white baby's breath, white hydrangea, white peony roses, and a flower I can't identify with many white bell-shaped flowers on each stem, like campanula.

The unidentified flower looks like a hyacinth until the buds open into lots of small bell shaped flowers. Must post a photo when I get back to my laptop....

Probably a crazy idea, but I have always planned on planting the same varieties of flowers from my wedding bouquet in my garden.
What did you choose for your bouquet?

I had white, light pink and darker pink roses, white veronica, purple-pink wax flowers and eucalyptus...as far as I can remember!

Could the mystery flower be galtonia candicans? I was thinking of it the other day, as an afterthought to the conversation here about summer bulbs that aren't alliums.

My bouquet had roses, freesias, and lily of the valley but I confess I can barely remember it now. I have lots of roses here - although not the same colour (white, tinged slightly green) - and all the lily of the valley I have planted has failed.

::ashamed::