Tickle the earth with a hoe, and she will laugh with a harvest

[Rhubarbgarden]

Potting shed chat for all those interested in wittering on about gardens and sharing the love of plants. Plenty of dusty old deck chairs to sit on and sloe gin to warm the cockles; join us!

I hope the injections help your back, bertha

On the tulip front I'm dithering over what to order. Last year 'american dream' ' which is a bright yellow with red flashes looked very cheery out the front
Of the white tulips out back, 'spring green' was a disappointment but 'purissima' looked wonderful. We get lots of forgetmenots, I might stick with those out the back but was thinking wall flowers out the front for the scent.'vulcan' perhaps- I like the old fashioned wall flowers.

I saw the tulips at chenies manor; they do a planting of Bloms tulips every year, but wasnt that impressed by anything much.

So this year I'm thinking some red kauffmania types to go out front, perhaps some pastel shades in the sunny border out the back, and orange ballerina perhaps under the oak with a dark purple. Perhaps some more white tulips- not sure whether to plant more purissima or what.

What have you all ordered?

I've not ordered tulips yet too many to choose from. I finally got round to planting out my black pansies which are all in flower, I hope they continue through the winter. I've potted on 6 Hellebore and probably should pot on the 20 odd Geraniums, I was quite lazy in my labelling and have just called them the numbers and letters they came with but now can't find the accompanying chart!

Ever since stone lions were mentioned I keep seeing them!

I bought this collection from van Meuwen when I had a discount code. I like me tulips to be either white or strong colours, so I will be giving the pink ones away in a planter as a Christmas gift. I want to buy some more purple/black and orange/bronze.

I had Ballerina in a window box one year and they were lovely. I am also fond of Abu Hassan. If you want something that looks like ice cream Carnaval de Nice are also good.

yes I've never planted pink tulips before: but Sara Raven has a nice pastel collection in the catalogue which made me wonder

I might go for 'ballerina' and 'black beauty' under the oak with lots of scilla siberica. Last year I underestimated how much would flower before the tree came into leaf.

In the sunny border will be a flowering cherry and apple, and strong colours wont combine so well I'm thinking, so I'm not sure which tulips will be best there: or I could go for white narcissi I suppose. Any thoughts from you more imaginative gardeners?

So far I have resisted any sprung bulbs, but if Lidl have queen of the night tulips again I expect my resolve will fall apart.

Despite all the rain while we were away, lots of my pots and baskets look tired and dried out. I have done lovely pelargoniums still going strong, not sure what to do with these over the winter?

I was hoping to order lots of lovely slate paving as soon as I got back, and get on with replacing the back terrace and putting the shed back up. However, my poor builder has hurt his knee and will be off work for at least a month.

I have one dark pink cyclamen in flower and a few dahlia flowers. The verbena b is doing brilliantly, by far the most impressive plant in my garden.

I have made new life! The 3 euphorbia cuttings I took in spring are finally putting on lots of new growth and 7 dark pink penstemon cuttings have also taken.

White narcissi sound lovely, Funnyperson.

Does anyone have any experience of taking cuttings? I'm attempting it with some box and some pelargoniums. How hard is it to get them to root?

Well Tunip pels will take\root even if you put a cutting in water on a sunny windowsill. I'm not so sure about box but I think it's easy too.

Funny I reckon that wall flowers are my favourite flowers I adore the scent because it takes me straight back to being 5 years old They took 2 years after I planted some but they grew well eventually and are now self seeding beautifully!

I got very excited yesterday afternoon I saw what looked like a piece of white paper flyng across our 'wild wood' field. Then I looked out at the front garden (which is our garden) of the house with binoculars and saw a huge white butterfly on the valerian and buddleia, then there were 2!!

They were a bit more than double the size of normal cabbage whites with one black spot and a grey edging to the top of their wings . Lovely! They're still here and they were mating so may be here next year if it's warm again!

Let's hope they root as easily for me as they do for everyone else, then!

Your butterflies sound lovely. I think it's been a good year for butterflies (though might just be that we get extra in the new garden - they gardened organically and it is incredibly rich in life compared with every other garden I've known).

Hi Bertha hope everything went well this am

I had hyacinths in a border and they did quite well despite not being buried too deeply but DH got a bit carried away mowing so they didn't do so well this year

I will be looking at tulips when at harrogate flower show which is on my birthday so will probably get carried away as I 'treat ' myself

Maud I only got carried away on a plain bit of stone the really detailed ones plus the wooden roof bosses removed after the fire went for a couple of thousand each, one man bought enough I think he was planning on rebuilding it in his garden! They do a table top sale at the start where you can buy small bits for £20-30 quid but I was fifth from the front when they ran out hence the back breaker I ended up with

ppeat any ideas what butterflies they were? I recently had an elephant hawk moth caterpillar in the garden they thrive on willow herb apparently unfortunately I have a mild fear of moths and am not sure about three inch ones in garden, even if they are pink

I'd google them but my google has been hi jacked by ebay FGS and I can't remove it. I'll try switching off and on to see if that works.

Hope you are ok Bertha. I can't choose tulips. The Sarah Raven and Parkers catalogues arrived today and are sitting there tainting me with a vast selection of post.

Something strange is happening to my SR Alstromeria . It has had one flowering stem but now thrown up a big spike with different foliage, very bizarre.

Still recovering from the shock of the neighbour cutting down the hedge and having a 24 foot hole on my boundary. The hedge was dying but it was on my side and we would happily have had a discussion about it if he had asked. Instead he just took it out . At least he is putting a fence in but it will change the feel of that corner where our little pond is. Seems the other neighbours weren't impressed that they were suddenly staring at our compost bins.

SugarPlum does that boundary belong to the neighbour - or to you, if it was on 'your' side? There was a MN thread a month or so ago about someone's hedge being cut down by someone tidying his allotment, with lots of useful comments about the legalities. (Or otherwise)

(in fact I wonder what has happened recently to that OP)

I keep adding tulips to my basket on various nursery websites and then failing to complete the order. One day I'll press 'buy'

To be honest I don't know to whose it is. But now it's down the concrete posts marking the boundary line are clearly visible and he has clearly cut down plants on our side as the stumps are there on our side of the posts.

I don't have the energy to fight. I think he started something without thinking it through, it got put of hand and got yo the point of no return. He has apologised, DH and I made our point very clearly. I don't want to fall out so we'll see what it is like with the fence and decide how to reorganise that bit. It was a shock to see if though.

boundary wars are tedious time consuming and stressful

does anyone know a good source of advice on succession planting?

Gosh sorry to hear about your hedge, Sugar. Good opportunity to do some exciting new planting though?!

Bertha I hope the injections worked.

I haven't ordered any tulips. I may get some for pots if I have a moment of weakness. I'm with Maud in preferring strong colours - I find that after months of dreary winter, pastels just look wishy washy against leafless branches. I get more out of a bold splash of orange or rich red.

The Wisley Flower Show was lovely. I could have gone nuts at the plant stalls; there were some wonderful and unusual plants on display, especially on the Edulis stand. But trying to keep two bouncy small children under control kept me from having long enough in any one place to actually buy anything.

The Piet Oudolph borders by the Great Glasshouse were looking fabulous. The dcs loved running around along the little paths through all the swishy grasses.

Lots of lovely hydrangeas everywhere. The best by far though was Vanilla Fraise; it was stopping people in their tracks. I'm definitely putting some in my north facing woodland border.

That settles it: I'm off to wisley tomorrow!

Wisley's Vanilla Fraise

I love it Rhubarb!

Thank you for the good wishes everyone. Currently injections have aggravated everything but that can happen before they start working so I'm remaining hopeful. Unfortunately they won't do anything for the muscle weakness in my leg so I shall be doing the comedy falling over thing and walking with a stick over longer distances for while yet.

I always have great plans for ordering tulips but then just end up grabbing some bulbs as I see them in the garden centre or Lidl. I try to go for striking colours for the pew planters as they get planted in a uniform row so look better if they are really eye catching. Planning to plant some in the fairy ring too this year so have more choices to make.

That fraise hydrangea bush is a huge plant! wonderful picture!

I've decided on strong colours for tulips: ballerina, national velvet and scilla siberica

I've found a nice purple tulip with whte borders and may plant that near the cherry along with paler narcissi

This year I will go for indoor narcisssi for Christmas

The white border will get more purissima

Wow! That hydrangea is huge. I was planning to put mine in a pot, but suspect it will soon outgrow it.

I am loving all the tulip talk.

I'm sorry things are still difficult for you, Bertha. Let's hope for a speedy improvement.

Lovely, lovely hydrangea!

Here's a question. At Nunnington Hall, they've got a separate compost bin for perennial weeds, so we've decided to do this too. The idea is that they break down eventually, it just takes three years or so. Has anyone else done this?