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

Hug for you Maudant although not a grubby one as all I've done in the garden today is tie my hollyhocks up again (they just keep growing!) Japanese knotweed sounds awful.

I have just noticed that although I thought my apple tree is free of aphids, they're actually just hiding! They've curled the leaves over and are living in groups underneath!! I am peeved to say the least.

Has anyone ever bought ladybirds or ladybird larvae online, and did it help?

Thank you, kinkytoes.

I have been tweaking windowboxes and if it doesn't rain in the next 10 minutes might go out again to do some Chelsea-chopping.

I have never bought ladybirds because they seem quite pricey and I'd worry that they would fly off and someone else would benefit. ::selfish:: But I do have greenfly on the roses so need to intervene in some way ...

maud no experience with knot weed. but hugs from me. sounds awful. I wonder if the council could advice the house owner? I seem to remember that they can put an order on them to remove the stuff.

have you tried washing up liquid on the roses? best to do it just before it starts raining or rinse it with plain water after.

Poggle -Thanks for the Sarah raven tip. After much agonising, i ordered x2 mystic dreamer and x2 incredible pink collection. I have never ordered from her before, as the prices are so extortionate, but I spend hours gazing at her catalogues.

Big hugs maud - I think the council might be able to help/give advice about knotweed?

I went to visit to Eltham palace today with the DC and a friend. They have some very nice herbaceous borders, and lawn running along where the moat used to be. I came home with a pink hardy geranium (sanguineum var. striatum).

Not much actual gardening getting done here - due to wet weather. My municipal euphorbia and wallflower cuttings look happy, the fancy euphorbia is less so.

Ps to those of you who grow dahlias - do you lift them over winter?

Oh no Maud! Are you sure of the identification? You can eat it unhelpful

I think you can 'force' your neighbours to control it legally but how you actually do this I don't know. Not an issue for good neighbourly relationships really...

'Fraid so, Bertha. It looks exactly like the photo on the Japanese Knotweed page of the RHS website. ::sobs:: it was poking through the fence and I thought it was a random interloper. It was only a little while later I had a ghastly lightbulb and realised what it probably was.

I believe it takes years of noxious chemical treatment. Can also affect your property value if it gets near your house. Harbinger of doom...

I know.

::sobs::

I will email the council tonight.

::goes to lie down in darkened room::

Oh no. Japanese knotweed sounds awful. Hugs from here.
I wouldn't know it if I saw it. I pulled up some weeds, chelsea chopped the geranium pheum, pulled up some hollyhocks by mistake, and failed to plant out the sweet peas. I cut off the main spire of the digitalis album as advised by rhs but am dubious as to whether this will result in more flowers and think I have probably done the wrong thing. The garden is rampant and looking a bit like a cluttered room with plants jostling for space. I should be gathering Carriere blooms to make jam but like looking at them too much. The hosta has reappeared, apparently slugless to my astonishment!

oh no maudant grubby hug from me. i know nothing about japanese knotweed sorry. It might be worth devoting a thread to it either in gardening or property?

I've never grown Dahlias before but will definitely lift them, only got 30% off mine

Thanks humph that's very kind, goes without saying any one can look me up on the Isle Of Wight.

rose petal jam sounds scrummy!

Busy long day in the garden, potted on the teacher sunflowers yet again, 10 ltr pots, plus cucumbers and peppers.

Dh finished digging the bottom border with poor drainage and have planted up with a mixture of annuals and a couple of Lupins- although I don't think they'll like it there. The bloody slugs scoffed my Bells of Ireland, the remaining two plants have gone out in pots. Finally planted some climbers for the pergola.-3 different types of passion flower not every ones taste but I really like them. I'd like roses too but will get them in the Autumn.

Thanks, pogglebonk. I have started a separate thread here in gardening and have been told that it's illegal to allow JK to spread to another property. If that is accurate, it will give me some leverage for getting the neighbour to take action. I'm hoping the local authority may also take an interest, if only to check that the neighbour does actually do something and doesn't just ignore it. It's the fact that the garden is so overgrown that worries me - if they're not bothered by that, will they be bothered by JK?

::sobs a bit::

Oh no Maud, I think you need . I have always been under the impression it is notifiable and that you have to take action. Fingers crossed the Council take enforcement action so you don't need to do anything.

I have been looking at the advice on the GOV.UK website and it's not notifiable but it is clear that you are supposed to act. I have just emailed the council, hoping that they might need/want to get involved - I am hoping they will lean on my neighbour, to ensure they don't ignore the JK in the way they ignore the general state of the garden.

Grr. This happens just as I am feeling more confident about the state of the garden (lawn apart) and was thinking of making contact with the NGS London organiser again.

::gratefully knocks back the ::

We have blue tits who suck off the greenfly. I know because I saw them do it today

Oh Maud, that is grim BUT the plants are large enough not to miss,
you can get to them and repeatedly weedkiller
we have a property that has knotweed infiltrating it under the wall, the council has largely eliminated it from the adjoining graveyard by repeated weedkiller application, and it has been kept under control in our garden by keeping an eye. My friend has a patch in her borders that she has successfully contained and weakened.

don't panic! you have noticed in time. Hopefully action will be taken by the owner.

We met someone who made jam out of it, apparently it was quite nice.

You WILL be able to keep it out of your garden as long as you don't let it gain a foothold - don't let it quash your NGS plans!

Hmm. Frequent dousing in high strength glyphosate over several years seems to be the prescription. I am feeling quite glum about it, but thank you for those crumbs of comfort, Humph.

Don't mix them up

::quaffs wine, gratefully::

maud I'm sorry about the weed. Please take photos so we can all see what it looks like.
Its probably best to eat it before the glycophosphate gets applied rather than after.
The most important thing is you realised it was there. It will go. It hasn't a choice when grim war is declared, esp with council allies

I can't take photos as I pulled out the one piece that was poking through the fence (and only later did I have the horrible thought that it might be JK and identify it). But it looks identical to the pictures here on the RHS website. Look and beware!

I edged the lawn today, and weeded (driven to it by maud's tale of woe) and cut back stuff and am seriously thinking of digging up and dividing stuff and moving stuff.
With the first flush of spring over, the garden is looking rampant and the neat designs of the Chelsea flower show are worlds away. Faded tulip foliage and seeding forgetmenots are everywhere amidst the overgrown geraniums and a serious tidy is in order.

There was a little article about JHW in The Garden for June & I thought of you Maud. I suspect the advice will be on RHS website, but the answer seems to be to stockpile glyphosphate as you'll need quite a lot.

Maud, I'm so sorry to hear about the knotweed, what a nightmare

It's a great day for gardening here, the ground's soft but no rain yet and I've just started weeding the big flower beds, OMG the amount of weeds that have sprung up in the last month or so.

I've just pulled out 5 trugs of bluebells too, probably should have left them longer but as they're so rampant in my garden I don't think it will matter too much.

Here's a pic of the pond too, it's almost fully planted but obviously the plants are minute at the moment. Hopefully it will look a bit better by the end of the summer. I'm going to grow the grass long all around it