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 !

Years ago, somewhere in the UK, we went to place where you could buy ready-dried helichrysum, but I've never seen PYO fresh flowers.

I am trying to have more flowers in the house. I love flowers arranged informally in jugs - I admire formal flower arranging but can't be bothered to do it in my own home. Years ago, I made a serious mistake in telling DH, who used quite regualrly to buy me flowers, not to waste his money. How stupid I was. I would also have more houseplants, if I could find more that will tolerate the low light levels in this house. The phalaenopsis still looks quite happy, but the limequat I was given on Christmas day has already shed a lot of its leaves and I suspect is sulking.

I have been outside to plant the last pot of tulips. It's my only 'lasagne' pot - tulip Synaeda Orange and Woodstock hyacinths, which are already budding - and is looking good, although I think the blue glass pebbles I bought as mulch yesterday were a mistake. The winter box and daphne odora are in bud, so there will be some gorgeous scent very soon.

Happy birthday for tomorrow Ppeatfruit. I think they take the flowers off out in the fields then bring the bulbs into the greenhouse and they get a longer supply of flowers. Could be wrong as I was when they showed it . That wasn't the PYO field but a commercial grower.

I am very much a flower in jug person Maud rather than any thing formal. Really enjoyed last summer picking things from the garden for the house, can't wait to be able to do that again. Tell DH you have had a rethink and want to withdraw your flower comment !

My phalaenopsis is currently throwing out a new flower stem which made me very happy to see. Must have a look at the Winter box. I was out in the greenhouse earlier fighting the passion flower that has grown in and starting a well overdue clear up. I found what I think is a hyacinth basket with some shoots coming through. Also I did manage to transplant some of the forget me not seedlings. Very handy as all from one self seeded plant last year which seemed to be much the only one left in the garden.

No sign of any snowdrops, they don't seem to like my garden much.

Oh, I did tell him, SugarPlumTree, but unfortunately our Saturday morning routine has changed with the arrival of DD and her many extra-curricular activities, so he doesn't walk past the florist as often as he did.

The snowdrops which have been left in their pots for far too long yet flowered every year seem not to be doing much this year, which is a shame. We went for a brief stroll around the local garden centre after lunch and the pots there of snowdrops, hellebores and rather gaudy polyanthus were very cheering.

Garsons PYO in Esher offers PYO sweet peas and sunflowers:

www.garsons.co.uk/pyo-farm/pyo-crops-a-z/

It is a fabulous PYO - enormous with an excellent range, and a good garden centre and food shop. People go from miles around. John Inverdale was once very rude to me there.

My snowdrops have poked their heads up but are a long way off flowering. Hellebores aren't close yet either. Jealous of everyone else's.

I don't think I've even got new shoots on my hellebores. I will have a look tomorrow, if the lawn isn't too sodden.

My crazy Melianthus major has sent up a flower spike. Bonkers plant.

That is totally bonkers, but it is such a gorgeous plant!

Its nice reading what everyone is doing.
I like cutting flowers from the garden and arranging them in a vase, I do it a lot for my parents so that dad can see the flowers from his bed. They always have stuff flowering but we never think of growing flowers just for cutting: we cut whats there, At present they have flowering heathers.
I did a bit of garden tidying today: clearing out debris from under the hellebores and so forth, and planted some stuff. Even though the soil is lovely and workable at the moment, its still quite hard work. But I'm pleased the garden is looking less and less like it suffers from blackplasticpot syndrome.
The plum stick from Lidl, bought 2 years ago , is putting out new branches so I made a DIY espalier frame for it, inspired by Chris Beardshaw and his comments about proper pruning of trees leading to better fruit. The frame is not quite finished but I'm pleased with it so far.
I must plant more snowdrops next year.

Incidentally I think the price of Hellebores in some garden centres is ridiculous. I must look up whether they can be divided.

You're right. The (admittedly lovely and quite substantial) hellebores I saw at yesterday's nursery were £10 each. I'm probably being unrealistic, but I'd expect a shrub for that!

A friend who used to work in a nursery told me they're expensive because they are slow growing, so the plant you buy is likely 7+ years old.

In my garden they self seed everywhere, but do take around 3 years to flower, and even then are small. So nowadays I'm a bit less horrified at the price!

Ah, is that so? I recognise that nurseries have to make a decent living (a relative used to own one) but baulked at parting with a tenner. For me, sadly, hellebores have turned out to be another if those things that self-seed willy-nilly for other people but not for me. Friends in the hort soc regularly turn
up for our sales with trays full of seedlings, so that's how I get most of mine.

Thanks Sugar I forgot to say that one thing dh bought has been a roaring success, my 'christmas rose' hellebore is doing really well under the pines at the front of the house, do they do well when separated? I've never grown them before.

Also I'm happy because I finally planted the hedge to the east of the house , though I literally had to saw through the roots of the old leylandii that we had removed from there!

That sounds like hard work ppeatfruit!

I love cutting flowers from my garden for the house, it is one of the great pleasures of my life. I always mean to have a cutting garden row or two, you have all inspired me to annex a bit of the veg garden this year.

Making another (after previous abortive) attempt to join in the gardening chat. Gardening is something I wish I had more time for, but between work, running around after the DC, and trying to decorate the house, it often falls by the wayside.

However, had a lovely day in the garden yesterday cutting back lots of summer flowering stuff and shrubs. Shrub border at the front looks much neater (choisia and buddleia whipped into shape), and front flower borders trimmed to expose snowdrop tips. I have a VERY thuggish sage plant near the patio which I have been rather brutal with. Will have to see what happens. Got far less done than I hoped though - there is so much still to cut back! Massive pile of cuttings on the old veg patch awaiting a bonfire (I say old veg patch because one of my plans for this year is to get rid of it and replace with a large raised bed - always so many plans and not much time!).

How do you all carve out time for gardening?? A little every day, or a big blitz at the weekend?

Hello again, Bramshott!

The awful truth is that I carve out gardening time by spending less time than perhaps I should on indoor stuff. For the last couple of years, I have been trying to plant the garden in a way that is lower maintenance and this year I am trying to push on with some house renovations. It helps that my DD is older and past the stage where she needs to be 'watched'.

Hello Bramshott. I never have enough time for gardening, but that is mainly my fault for having another baby. It sounds like you got a lot done yesterday anyway! I am trying to do a little bit every day when I take the toddler outside, this plan has been in place for a week or so and I have managed three days of about half an hour each

There is never enough time to get everything done though, that is the nature of gardening isn't it? But I would like to get enough done so that it doesn't NAG away at me.

DH is much better than I am at ignoring the state of the house in order to go outside, I always feel I have to do the basics inside first!

Hello bramshot it sounds like you've made good progress.

I only work part time and my dds are older so I do have loads of time however I'm quite lazy so my garden is far from finished and so is the house

I'm at those of you with flourishing hellebores, mine bought as plugs must be years away from flowering.

I'm planning more flowers this year, just watched allotment challenge and am going to try Zinnias in with the Dahlias and Larkspur in the sunny front. I also watched the sky show me your garden, great program I loved the medlar screen.

Oh and my Rhubarb is up! I'm actually going to eat it this year ;)

Yes Humphrey It was harder than I expected but good for me!

Geoff Oh I was going to mention the 'Show me Your Garden' Show it's very good but shame about the sponsor . If we killed every 'weed' with their product what would the butterflies and beneficial insects do?

Sorry about the rant but as you know I'm a bit of a militant organic gardener .

Thanks for the welcome everyone! I will try to post here more and use it as a motivational tool to get me out there and doing stuff. The DDs are 7 and 11 so they don't require attention as such but do need quite a lot of ferrying around.

Welcome, Bramshott, just in time to wrap up the old thread (or is it ravel up)?

Anyway, when I get my camera sorted out I'll be able to put up a pic of my stanhopea orchid, AKA the upside down orchid, and not just because I'm in Australia. It blooms once year and the blooms last two/three days so a weekend away could see a very disappointed grower. :o

I never have enough time to spend in the garden. It is in dire need of tidying and cutting back and mulching. I am still convincing myself that the lack of cutting back is deliberate to provide sustenance for passing birds and cosy hideyholes for insects. I'm not sure how long my convinced state will last.

We need a new thread title pretty quickly; did we decide on one in the end?

I can't remember if we decided, but if stuck, Swinburne's

"When the hounds of spring are on winter's traces"… would do nicely.