Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.

[SugarPlumTree]

Potting shed thread for those who enjoy talking about gardens and plants. Plenty of garden chairs and the wood burner lit now there is a chill in the air, please join us !

It's only a day or two since my RHS magazine arrived, as far as I can remember, and GW magazine a few days before that. In a very good month, they arrive on the same day.

I don't think I've ever been to the HC show on a Friday. Weekday evening, Saturday or (most recently) Sunday afternoon for a mooch round and lovely chat with funnyperson.

I think GW came recently, better check the mail box. Saturday would be the easiest but we did Chelsea on Saturday last year and found it much full on than the Wednesday the year before plus some if the plants looked the worse for wear.

Will ponder.

I have accidentally ordered some lily of the valley, snowdrops and bluebells. Do you think that the snowdrops and bluebells will work on the edge of a wildflower meadow?

I was thinking of planting the lily of the valley on the shady side of a herb and vegetable garden but they are super poisonous so am now thinking I might put them elsewhere.

I might pretend to be a lady of leisure next year and go to the garden shows on weekdays by taking the day off. Probably Fridays so as to be able to recover the following day. Though it was fun with maud at Hampton at the sell-off and it was brilliant seeing rhubarb by chance in her yellow mac and admiring her really pretty little cornus plant buys at the Chelsea sell-off which I personally thought were a touch of genius.
Chris Beardshaw and Monty are very different people.
Probably Beardshaw may be the better designer if he keeps away from hedges which I found underwhelming in his garden design statement at Chelsea 2 years ago. (Isnt that a poncy sentence?) ie I think he needs more flowers in his gardens.
I suspect Monty is the better gardener.
sugarplum I sow my sweet peas in the spring.
maud I do hope that plant survives the winter : those flowers were stupendous, I still have that photo on my mobile!
crucru yes
newbies; welcome! [beverage] tell us about your gardens!

Yes, I was very pleased with my brugmansia from the HC sell-off. It was a real thrill when it produced a second flush of flowers recently, but they didn't last long as the molluscs got them. Of course, having to buy a plastic greenhouse to keep it warm over the winter has added to the overheads.

It's not really his gardening prowress that I enjoy watching Chris Beardshaw for if I am totally honest !

I' made the decision that the gardening shows are worth a day's holiday (though wasn't working last year). We have a fair bit of travelling to do so need recovery time.

I had to google brugmansia, and found a story about a lady in Devon who managed to get it's sap in her eye when pruning, she ended up with a dilated pupil for 3 days. The same lady tripped in the green house and ended up with a Face full of it's foliage, this gave her funny hallucinogenic dreams! Be careful maud

It could even be worse than that, Geoff. The Wikipedia page for brugmansia tells the gruesome story ::warning: look away now if you are squeamish:: who, after drinking brugmansia tea, amputated what Jeremy Clarkson would call his gentleman's sausage. When I was carrying the plant around HC, someone told me that she had a huge plant in her conservatory and her cats would behave oddly after sleeping under it. She also said it was very easy to propagate, so I might have little plants to give away next year to anyone brave enough!

Gruesome story of a man who ...

Lol. The flowers on that plant were magnificent though!

Oh...ok....also known as Datura.......Wasn't there an Agatha Christie novel where a person was killed by a dart tip poisoned with Datura?

Ah Datura, I grew one once. It was quite tender and had white trumpet like flowers I think.

Penny dropped, now I know why you were talking about hallucinating snails. Slow emoticon!

I must get me a Datura. Sounds fun, and they are stunning to look at. Slightly surprised it's legal - but then foxgloves and monkshoods are so it's consistent. We were at a NT garden in the summer where they had cannabis growing in the vegetable garden. Now that did surprise me.

I think I'm going to pass if there are any of those plants on offer - Dyspraxia features heavily in our household so don't think this is the plant for us

How do the NT get to grow cannabis then ? RHS magazine arrived, I see there is a lovely picture of that Camellia Rhubarbgarden posted.

Hello everyone

Real Life keeps getting in the way of gardening at the moment, as DH has been very busy and BabyCobbler is pretty full on and has given up sleeping. I know this is a phase...The plan is still to get a childminder for some time every week so that I can have some uninterrupted gardening time. It is either do that or pay a gardener and I want to do it myself!

Walking around the garden today I was really pleased with the dogwood beds next to the downy birch. I think we will extend this into what was the wildflower bed and put in a lot of autumn and spring cyclamen underneath. We walk this way twice a day even in winter as it is our route to feed the pigs, so we will really get to see it.

Hello, Humphrey. Lovely to see you here.

The RHS magazine had an interesting piece about brugmansias a couple of months ago but it's not online (I do wish they would put more of the magazine online, but I can understand why they don't). They do, though, have this article, which explains the difference between brugmansias and daturas (and has also made me less confident of getting mine through the winter. Hey ho.)

Oh I do hope you get it through the winter maud as I gather the plants are extinct in the wild. At least if you are aware of ...erm....scopolamine type effects....you can be careful; and your plant did have a lovely scent.
I don't grow poisonous plants because I'm worried local children wildlife might ingest by chance.

I'm thinking of getting a hedgehog house actually.

hello humphrey! cyclamen will be lovely underplanted in your dogwood. Crocuses too!

Well, I certainly hope I will but I'm far from certain that my little, unheated plastic greenhouse will achieve the sorts of temperatures mentioned in the article.

Wonderful programme on the telly now, with Andrew Graham Dixon waxing lyrical about William Morris and Gothic.

yes, crocus would be lovely.

Just how toxic are foxgloves? Have loads of those and a plant eating baby.

Hi all

But random but I have a wildflower patch (sowed seeds this autumn but they haven't come up yet). Will it spoil it if I plant snowdrop and bluebell bulbs in the space?

Please ignore my earlier post. I'd already asked that question. Tired brain.

I think snowdrops and bluebells will be lovely crucru especially as the wildflowers will only come up later in the year. Your lily of the valley will be good near trees.

Humphrey this is the first year I've dared to grow foxgloves but I am uber cautious. I think its the leaves and seeds which are toxic. Lupin seeds are said to be edible, especially lupinus albus: I know they're not the same but could be a substitute

Laburnum is the main one to avoid as children think the pods are like peas and commonly eat them and they are poisonous. Aconite are poisonous. I think in a previous thread there was a list of poisonous plants to avoid. Otherwise this site based on the Alnwick poison garden may or may not be informative.
http:
//www.thepoisongarden.co.uk/atoz.html

I Have Children - Should I Clear my Garden Out?

As we become increasingly risk averse, people are more inclined to think that they should try and remove all the poisonous plants from their gardens. This ignores the fact that many poisonous plants are found in the wild or on public land, like parks and street plant displays, and that almost any plant can be harmful if you have enough of it.

Sadly, this idea of clearing everything out is, often, put forward in books on poison plants and, increasingly, on websites written by people who don't think through the advice being given.

For a realistic view of the situation regarding plants and children, I recommend 'Poisonous Plants: a guide for parents and childcare providers' by Elizabeth Dauncey.

I did, in a flash of PFB madness, consider removing all dangerous plants from the garden when I first had children. Never got round to it and eventually decided that if I couldn't persuade them to eat perfectly good broccoli or whatever, the chances of them putting random leaves and berries into their mouths were slim.
I do recall catching DS2 aged about 2 crunching on a snail once.......