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 !

Oooooooh, I want a tulip meadow!

Toby Buckland was a bit yawn, but I enjoyed those tulips this evening. How sad was that warehouse full of disused tulip festival stuff? I have resolved to buy from Spalding Bulbs next time I buy tulips.

I missed tonight's so will catch up on iplayer. The DDs were watching a film and it finished just in time to see the final tulip shots. Annoying.

I best get some gloves ordered before they sell out by the sounds of it

Spalding bulbs do good tulips.
It was a lovely day earlier- the first snowdrops and hellebores are out in my garden!
It is very windy now though.
I agree with bending the rose branches and pegging them down, rather than pruning them to short stems.

Anyone watch Show Me Your Garden? The third garden, the retired teachers' one, is near here. They used to open it under the NGS in February to show off their hellebore collectiom; I went last year and it was beautiful.

Collection not collectiom

Oh dear I think the greenhouse has had it Two panels gone and the rest bucking around madly. It is so windy inside our house that the loft hatch is bouncing up and down and the wind whistles through the bathroom in so many different places it plays a chord

for Castle, these last days go so slowly! Hope the pineapple works.

Oh dear, Humph. Our house is like that. When I put dd to bed her blinds were flapping around crazily. I need to check the loft hatch which is held on with elastic bands

I hope your greenhouse is salvageable.

Must look up GBGR, and very tempted to get some forget me nots.

Re orchids I cut the stalk off mine a couple of years ago and it has finally grown a new one so really happy. Will cut back to a third this time.

Daren't think about my greenhouse and guessing the arbour is over again.

On a happier note my snowdrops are through and apparently in the language of flowers they represent hope in adversity which is now the motto for my garden this year.

Eagerly awaiting baby castle!

Hope in adversity - the theme around which my garden is constructed!

I loved the pick your own tulip farm on GBGR and thought anyone in the potting shed who has enough land should start one. I'd come, as like the customer on the film I'm reluctant to cut my own tulips for the house.

We also watched the allotment thing for the first time and, actually, I quite liked it. But why have the contestants been so badly prepared? Why did they not know the difference between a syrup and a coulis? And why did they think it was ok to bind a bouquet with duct tape? It looked as if they had been set up to fail.

I watched it for the first time too tonight. I wouldn't know the difference between a syrup and a coulis either.

The pick your own tulippery was indeed inspired.

We should have hope in adversity as our next thread title. It's very appropriate.

I wouldn't know the difference between a coulis or a syrup.
The snowdrops and wind and rain reminded me of this

[in Just-]
By E. E. Cummings
in Just-
spring when the world is mud-
luscious the little
lame balloonman

whistles far and wee

and eddieandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it's
spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful

the queer
old balloonman whistles
far and wee
and bettyandisbel come dancing

from hop-scotch and jump-rope and

it's
spring
and

     the

              goat-footed

balloonMan whistles
far
and
wee

Great poem. I love e e Cummings (although my phone refuses not to capitalise it!)

That's my point, really. In most of our hort soc competitions, we provide the recipes and I thought it was a bit mean of the organisers not to have explained the difference between a syrup and a coulis (or what is and isn't an appropriate material for binding a bouquet) because clearly they couldn't take it for granted that everyone knew.

Yes it was a bit mean and, I'm sorry to say, came across to me as an excuse to mark that person down and the other person up. I haven't been watching that programme all the way through, but now I have seen a bit of it, I'm not sure I like it, because gardening is a slow, time consuming, unpredictable process: plants evolve differently due to factors such as sun and soil; and I suspect there is a great temptation to cheat just to complete the tasks. Furthermore, I always think it a bit mean not to reward all those who take part.
So what recipes have your hort soc tried, maud?

Too many to mention, funnyperson, but my favourites were ANZAC biscuits (had never tried them before) and a loaf baked in a (brand new) flowerpot.

I like the word 'puddle-wonderful' in that poem Maud.

I didn't watch allotment challenge last night but did flick it on for the last 5 minutes. Quite why they felt the need to do close ups of the ice lolly tasting I don't know. Even DH was quite disturbed by it!

It's a brilliant word but I can't take the credit for introducing it to the thread. That was funnyperson.

I suspect the lolly chomping was meant to be mildly erotic, like Nigella licking her fingers while looking doe-eyed into the camera. Gawd help us.

Ref. The GAC I get the feeling they're trying , and failing, to do a Great British Bake Off for allotments, ridiculous IMO. We should tell them what a load of old manure it is .

Sorry to hear about your greenhouse humph

My gloves came today, no time for the garden unfortunately just a round of runs - swim, party and dog in that order. They did prove useful for rummaging around in the chest freezer though!

Is the greenhouse really a goner, Humph? I'm amazed that mine are still standing.

We had an outing this afternoon to the nicest local(ish) garden centre to spend my Christmas gift cards. I could have bought my gloves there, but as I'd already bought them online I came away with yet another pot to accommodate my overenthusiastic tulip bulb buying, some pot feet, fancy pebbles for mulching (I usually just use gravel) and some jolly little violas.

Nice day today, so I planted out a hellebore and a few bulbs still hanging around from before Christmas, and cut back some valerian, which is a thug, out front.
On the window sill I sowed some microgreens and sweet peas in pots and nurtured the orchids. They love it when the central heating goes on.
The Osteospermum and primroses are still flowering in the front garden. There is an article in the BBC today which says more flowers were in flower this new year's day than ever before due to global warming.
I'm sorry about the greenhouse. Does house insurance cover greenhouses? Ours doesn't unless it has a wall in common with the house.

They had some lovely hellebores in flower at the nursery I was strong for once.

I still have lobelia in flower and I noticed that the new community micro-garden has geranium Johnson's Blue in flower.

There are five panels gone on the greenhouse and one of the doors ripped out of the frame. Haven't really thought about it properly yet. We may be able to buy all the replacement bits, if so it will possibly be fixable. But I worry this will only happen again, so we may think again about the position and maybe investing in a more durable one. The children can't ride bikes around it now that we have put gravel down so could do glass perhaps.

On the bright side I have primroses, snowdrops, hellebores and pulmonaria in flower in the spring borders. I managed to tidy up the other side this morning, it is just me and ToddlerCobbler today as the others have all gone to a suzuki play together day. Very peaceful!

Oh no Hump, sorry to hear about the greenhouse Glad there are some spring flowers out ro cheer you up a bit.

Working my way through the GBGR. I love the Malmaison carnations and have a few on order that I found a few weeks ago. It's about scent for me and I did enjoy the section on scented flowers.

I was going to do PYO flower field at the nursery I tried to buy, have v seen one on Germany. The lack of planning to open to the public put an end to that sadly. Sat there with my mouth open watching as they chopped all the flowers off the tulip crop. I'm taking delivery of the first lot of British Grown tulips later this week, along with narcissus and anemones so looking forward to them all arriving.

The plan is to try and produce some flowers myself this year, rather than buying them all in. Very happy to buy in and it supports British Flower Growers but it would be lovely to have a few myself I could stroll out and cut. I'm thinking of approaching my local allotment to see if they might grow some I could buy. They have a lot of community groups so thought it might be a good project for someone.

IKWYM about 'buying in' cut flowers sugarplum I usually treat myself to them (esp. as it's my birthday tomorrow) I bought pale pink and white hyacinths and white phlox (obviously forced but I love them| with pale colour tulips. I enjoy arranging them informally. Dh would do it but he never buys EXACTLY what I like bless him!

I've never seen a PYO flower field, a good idea, why were they beheading the tulips?