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 !

Happy Birthday Geoff

Successes - the new border, particularly Cerinthe, Calendula and Penstemon.

Failure - Mme Alfred Carriere, carrots

Happy Birthday to anyone to whom it applies, our PLB is 27 today and it makes me and where does the time go? he was the most gorgeous baby (still is of course).

My failures were the poor dahlias (i won't bother with them again !) The sad apricot tree that is now something else instead. The cherries that got eaten before they could be picked.

The semi clearing of the front rockery was a success but not finished yet. Also finding a self seeded old style peach tree from one that died a few years ago.
The dark blue salvias which have spread beautifully.

Ref. Allotment challenge; I slept through it, not much cop. I MISS OUR MONTY!!!

Happy Birthday to all those to whom it applies!

2014 Failures:
Courgettes (not sure what happened there)
Cosmos (slugs)

2014 Successes:
The DD's edible igloo & their fairy ring
Autumn raspberries
Successional cropping of beans (unplanned but to be copied in future years)
Self-seeded VB
Cut flowers

Happy birthday geoff and to sugarplum's fb and ppeatfruit's plb !
rhubarb it sounds like the north border is going to be brilliant this year! Congrats for Monday!
I always think it must be very easy to buy presents for garden lovers and never fail to be amazed at how little relevant Christmas presents often turn out to be. This year, for various reasons, I asked the DC and close family not to bother with presents (it just seemed easier) and got reasonable ones from wider family and friends so am happy.
Liking the quotes!

2014 garden
successes
roses (sort of, though could do better), honeysuckle
Gaura
humphrey's penstemon
geraniums phaeum, johnsons blue, astrantias, tulips, forgetmenots.
clematis Countess of Wessex (which probably wont survive this winter)
fuschias
the lawn
gloriosa rothschildiniana

failures
clematis Polish Spirit didn't flower
canna lilies didnt flower
sweet peas were a bit meh. ok but not prolific.
lilium regale didnt flower
irises and day lilies didn't flower this year either
no apples on the apple tree at all
the previous years' dahlias didn't do their thing again.

Yes I've been wondering what Monty is doing in his January garden. In his garden diaries he always seems to be flooded out in Jan.

My new years gardening resolutions are
to plant the plants and bulbs I buy promptly

My resolution is to beat the nettles. And the snowberries. I shall be out there with the glyphosate in the spring waging war.

Interesting that our successes aren't consistent! Mine were my potatoes (due to Montys method of planting in manure plus lots of rain I think) the wild strawberries, and cosmos and dahlias (due to fabulous extended summer?). Roses were only so-so.

My resolution is to have the apple trees cut back, so it's back to being a sunny garden again.

Yes I think my dahlias failed because I used the previous seasons tubers and clearly hadn't stored them/protected them properly. Leaving them in the pots and beds didn't work. So this year I have lifted mine from pots as one is supposed to, and I will buy fresh tubers.

rhubarb beautifully trained mature fruit trees are a joy and one of my gardening aspirations.
Off to Wisley today as it isn't raining: last of the Christmas outings!

Thanks funny Do you know none of my lilies flowered last year! Maybe it was the weather here and in England

Enjoy Wisley.

Wisley was nice. Lots of preschoolers were there to catch the last of the Narnia tales. On that front I failed epically to find Mrs Beavers house or the White Witch's haunt. The little ones were having a lovely time rushing about chasing ducks.
Though the website says Wisley has a winter garden, I also failed to find this and came to the conclusion that not much flowers in winter. The grasses round the glasshouse are very interesting- some are better in winter than others. And phlomis russelliana seed heads are very good in winter, but really apart from a pleasant walk and a very good scarlet flowering old camellia, and lots of buds on trees, all was bare, as you would expect in January.

Some Hellebores fell into the basket on my way home. I hid them from DS when getting out of the car, and pretended they had been there on the front patio all along. You can't have too many Hellebores.

MyNew Year's gardening resolution is to refresh the plants in the pots which have got too big/leggy/woody etc. This is mainly my herbs but also the two pots on my front door step which contain lavender. I'm looking for inspiration instead of the lavender if anyone has any ideas. I like the scent by the door and the evergreen-ness of it but fancy a change.

We went to the winter trail at Kew last night and that was very lovely, too. I offered DD the chance to see the Narnia trail at Wisley but (despite being a big fan of the booksand films) she wasn't keen.

I think I will refresh the window boxes this year. Perennial planting hasn't really worked. The plants don't generally like the shallow root run and the alpine strawberries are beginning to swamp everything else. It's a faff, but I think I'll go back to bulbs and regular replanting.

Thanks for identifying that beautifully trained tree at Anglesey rhubarb. It's so beautifully done, it's interesting even in winter.

Funny, I think the Wisley winter garden has a few flowering/scented shrubs, and plants and lots of coloured stems. It's by the big lake, and has only just been planted so isn't as stunning (yet) as Anglesey's

The White Witch's lair was high up in the cactus part of the glass house, and was, basically, a white throne. I do love the decorations they put in the glasshouses at Christmas.

Rosemary's lovely Blackpudding Mine gets bigger and bushier than the lavender and the leaves smell stronger esp. in full sun. Though they are both planted in the earth. Maybe a mix of variegated thyme\marjoram (I get those mixed up!) with a small rosemary?

Oh yes, and rosemary is pretty tough, too. A rosemary that I bought a couple of years ago from the shelf of doom, and has sat in the front garden ever since because DH forgets to take it to the allotment to plant, is flowering beautifully now.

Rosemary varieties vary - some spread wide, some creep. I have an upright one by the garage door, bought by chance [thank goodness]. It is about 5' tall but takes well to pruning/hacking.

I love the creeping varieties. I saw a steep bank in Italy planted with it once, and it flowed all over it in a beautiful way. I'd like to plant some to flow over the wall in the 'lost' corner of the orchard, together with a Rosa Raubritta, but first I have to slash and burn my way through a jungle of snowberries and feral laurels, and dig out a load of ivy. Not a small project.

Rosemary refused to grow in my old garden, and my nextdoor neighbour who was a landscape gardener and therefore competent, had the same problem. I'm looking forward to better luck in the new place!

I have a question - what is alchemilla meant to do in the winter? The leaves on mine (I put two in in the autumn) have only just started to go brown and look unhappy. Does it normally die back in the cold weather or should I be worried?

Yes it dies back and returns in the spring. Sometimes it will keep going if the weather is mild, but mine's all died back this year.

Great, thank you! I think I was fooled by the fact that it's lasted so long - most of the stuff that was going to die back did it weeks ago.

I find it very hard to keep alchemilla mollis going in this garden, although it self-seeds all over my parents' sunnier, better-draining garden. I do love it, especially when the leaves are new and pleated and hold the raindrops.

I had confirmation of how hopeless our soil is today, when I went out to inspect the hole the water company has dug, to fix a leaking main. From about a foot downwards, the soil is very solid and from about two feet down it is such pure clay that one could make pots with it.

I had fun spending one of my gardening gift cards today and now own a beautiful phalaenopsis (sale bargain too - 70% off). I dare say I'll kill it, as I do all orchids, but it'll be lovely while it lasts. I know echt grows fabulous orchids outdoors, but does anyone here grow them successfully indoors in the UK? I vaguely remember that Rhubarb might.

Congratulations on your bargain! I used to have a brilliant orchid collection - I think I had about 40 at its height. Mostly Phalaenopsis but several other species too. It was in London where I had several long, deep north facing windowsills, which they loved. Most were rescue plants, due to be thrown out by my employers (I was an office plant waterer for a while) which I smuggled home and nursed back to flowering.

Then while I was doing an internship at Kew, they held an orchid extravaganza in one of the glasshouses, and at the end of it sold off all the orchids to staff at crazy prices. I bought about half a dozen. Sadly, they were infected with supercharged mealy bugs which spread to my entire collection, and proved to be resistant to every chemical available. I should have known - the glasshouses at Kew are infested with all sorts of pests, which have built up resistance to such an extent that they'd probably survive a nuclear holocaust. The cockroaches in there are gigantic.

Pretty much my entire collection was wiped out. I left London with just two survivors - a pearl orchid (currently flowering ) and a special yellow Phal. I've since been bought a couple more as gifts, so I have a few dotted around here, but I've lost my appetite for orchids a bit after that experience.

They key to happy orchids is plenty of light but not direct sun (north facing windowsills ideal), clear pots so the roots can get light, water regularly but allow it to drain - the roots must never sit in water. After flowering, cut back the flowering stem about a third to a half way down, just above a node. Don't repot - they like to be pot bound with roots flowing out messily.

Re heavy clay - poo, poo and more poo is the answer. Every year. Eventually you will have wonderful soil, but it takes time. Befriend someone with a horse!

Oh dear. I have just done the wrong thing by cutting off the flowering stem of my Ikea orchid - cambria, with lovely spidery flowers - at the base. Ah well. The phalaenopsis would probably be happiest in the spare bedroom, but then I'd seldom see it. I might put it in my bedroom instead, as part of my campaign to declutter the house and introduce some elegance.

As for the clay ... my tactic has been heaps of composted bark as added organic matter every year, and there has been a very visible improvement, but do you think poo would be better than composted bark? We are not far from stables, so it would be an option (and famously our allotments receive royal poo).