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

Lovely shoes rhubarb !

I can't make Chelsea, but I'm hoping to farm the dc's out and drag Dh for HC. Can I leave tickets till quite late does anyone know?

Amazing shoes rhubarb! Those erythroniums were lovely as were the alpines in Edinburgh, but I agree that a few more tulips would have been interesting Monty. Nice pile of clothes, but more on flowers please...

I'm not going to Chelsea or HC, but intend to make it to the Chelsea Physic garden some time this year, and the museum of garden history.

I love hearing about your wedding flowers. I carried yellow roses and mixed freesia. We put rosemary sprigs on the end of the pews and the church smelled gorgeous.

My mum had lily of the valley - very 1950s, with the same embroidered on her veil. My l of the v have escaped the border and are happily racing along the gravel, and are about to flower.

Poggle you'll be fine to leave HC tickets to the last minute. Chelsea no, but HC is much bigger and there are always tickets available.

Bearleigh I love lily of the valley. I've never grown it, though we had swathes of it under the conifers where I grew up. It's interesting how fashions change in wedding flowers. My Mum had daisies - very sixties - with daisy lace on the sleeves and hem of her dress.

After posting about having Amnesia roses in my bouquet, I googled them to see if I could buy a plant. It turns out the answer is no; they are grown for the floristry trade but don't seem to be available as garden plants. I did find a blog condemning their overuse in wedding bouquets though! Oh dear. And there I was thinking I had an unusual bouquet!

Thanks Rhubarb.

I had lots of lily of the valley at my first house, I've planted a few bulbs here and am hoping they spread.

I've dug up a load of Crocosmia bulbs, joined together in chains, would anyone like some? I'm afraid I can't remember if they are red or orange!

Rhubarb if your wedding is near monmouth do pop by on your way home. Fab shoes

I just looked it up and it's two hours away from Monmouth unfortunately. Boo :-(

Now I want those shoes

Apparently it's going to get cold at the weekend. I'm worried about my baby plants. I also have loads of stuff that needs planting out so I would very much like it to stop fluctuating and just get warmer.

As you say Rhubarb daisies were very 1960s. So fresh and pretty. When I was a bridesmaid circa 1966 I wore a little crown of daisies.

It is interesting thinking about fashions in garden plants. There was a lot of snow in summer in the garden of this house (built 1923) when we moved in, as there was in my parents' (1928), but I hadn't seen any in any house I lived in between. Silver pears are very 1950s (& due a revival I think - they have been lovely this year when I have seen them).

Now: verbena bonariensis and photinia Red Robin?

It's been so warm here today that my lunchtime chocolate biscuit melted.

Today I planted seeds - parsley, convolvulus Blue Ensign and lavatera Mont Blanc - but the last two are so old (found in depths of the shed) that I'll be amazed if they germinate. I have taken a chance and planted out a chocolate cosmos and a canna in a pot in the front garden, where the warm microclimate should help them.

It was a long shot!

Bearleigh - I was a bridesmaid at about that time and also had a circlet of daisies! (Now slightly worried you might be my cousin).

Don't forget geranium Rozanne as another plant of the moment. Today I bought a green polyanthus called Francesca which the garden centre owner told me was going to be very on-trend this year. ::Googles:: Yes, it must be. Sarah Raven sells it.

evening all.
Ive had a good day in the garden today as was off work and youngest 3 dc back at school.
I managed to acquire a few new additions from Morrisons : red salvia, perenial cornflowers, some petunias for my tubs and another pernenial I can't recall.
Then I went to the local nursery that I haven't been too for about 5 years. It was more fab than I remembered! Very ramshackle, basically just 2 huge greenhouses and an outside area, family run, good value and soooo many plants LOL I was quite restrained but came away with some strawberry plants, antirrhinum, lobeliea and 3 lavendar plants.
and I have ordered a wild flower seed mat for my very troublesome sunny , dry poor soiled border on the front...will be nice if it works till I decide what to do properly with it. Am quite loving getting back into gardening.

rhubarb those shoes are fantastic!

re wedding boquets I had loads of cornflowers in mine. Cant recall what they were mixed with....but main theme was the cornlowers. I love cornflowers.

lovely shoes rhubarb

I like 'granny' plants. the hydragena for example. but not too much. not like pansies in a row, planted with a ruler.

last time we were swimming the dc commented rather loudly on a lady with a swimming cap that looked 'just like that pink bush in our garden'

It was just me and my sister as little bridesmaids Lush, plus an older bridesmaid in turquoise dress with matching turquoise Dame Edna uplifts, so I fear we're not cousins.

We have similar taste on plants though: I love Francesca.

I don't have Rozanne but I do have Orion which is similar - but can be divided, which I gather Rozanne can't be.

Gah why can't you edit posts in MN. I meant uplifts to her glasses.

Snow in summer in 1920s gardens - how fascinating! The house I grew up in was built then and we had alternating snow in summer and Aubretia along the wall round the patio. I had no idea that was typical of the time. I rarely see snow in summer nowadays, but it's such a lovely and easy plant. I don't even know its Latin name.

I'm glad you all like my new shoes. Dd was gagging to play with them today. Not a chance.

Cerastium tomentosum. Thank you google.

I went to a friend's house tonight, to give her some of my lobelia surplus. The front garden was full of snow in summer, so thinking of this thread I immediately quizzed her about the date the house was built.

I have just planted Rozanne under one of my new roses. It was part of my haul from the sell-off at Hampton Court last year. I don't have Orion, but I do have Johnson's Blue, which now seems to have been usurped by Rozanne in general favour.

I'm almost disappointed that you're not my cousin, Bearleigh! My mother had some of those batwing specs.

I planted snow in summer under a fruit tree and the rain run-off from the tree killed (drowned) it. That was about a decade ago.

I didn't think anything could kill SiS: I have it in shady clay soil, and it's doing fine, and have known it on dry walls too. Very easy as rhubarb says.

One plant I had been thinking of is Houttuynia - very early 1990s. Then coincidentally on another gardening thread I frequent someone was telling just how invasive it can be. I am so glad that was a fashion that passed me by.

It's a while ago now - I had forgotten all about it until these recent posts reminded me about it - but something I read at the time suggested it might well have been the rainwater dripping on it that killed it. Silver-leaved plants don't generally like having wet leaves. It did look lovely, spilling over onto my friend 's front path yesterday.

I have planted Houttuynia twice - it always seems to be on plant stalls at summer fetes, where I buy lots of interesting plants - but it hasn't taken off. I've seen it recommended as a pond marginal and I think the spot where I planted it isn't damp enough.

I've got something similar to houttuynia. It has yellow flowers and is creeping all over the place. I'm going to have to resort to round up!

I'm never quite sure what's in - the Island is always a decade behind any way. I love some of the unfashionable plants though because I'm stuck in a time warp myself

I have shoe envy, rhubarb

Nothing to report garden-wise, though heavy rain has has been most welcome.

I went down to the beach at sunset to watch the ring of fire solar eclipse. The cloud cleared just enough to see about 10 minutes' worth before it dipped below the horizon. So that's it for another 73 years.

Very jealous of everyones gardening fun, have uni work due in this week so not been able to do much

Tulips are pretty much gone now, sadly, and the garden is looking a bit bare while everything else catches up. I think I must have planted lots at the end of the planting period, as not much looks like it's anywhere near the flowering stage. I have some gladioli bulbs I need to plant today at some point, and have a move around with the pots. Got a climbing rose fom Tesco that doesn't seem to be very happy having the morning sun, so going to try it with the afternoon. It looks very spindly and weak, and as much as I wasn't expecting much from picking up plants with my food shopping, I was hopeful! Pansies from Aldi don't seem to be coming on well either. Really need a car so I can go to proper nurseries rather than buying on the hop.

So, advice for a newbie, what should I be planting right now? Suitable for containers or pots, to be put pretty much straight outside. Easy and bright are my only demands! I have sweet pea seeds, but I gather I need to make a support for them? Anything else? Garden is sheltered and gets a good amount of sun.