When the hounds of spring are on winter's traces…...

[echt]

I realise it's later in the UK, but couldn't wait to start a new thread. If another title had been agreed, just tell me and I'll have this removed.

Other than that, seek out those deckchairs from the shed, check them for spiders and get nattering about the spring's promise.

As your roving reporter, I bring news of this werk's gardening goodies in Lidl. Huge rhododendrons for £6.99, named variety fruit trees for £3.99 and lots of spring bedding. The charming gent in the queue behind me tried very hard to convince me to buy some technicolor primroses for 50p each.

Hyper lovely greenhouse news.

Aldi have much the same maud but I was restrained and just bought 15 Gazinia plug plants for 99p. This years teacher and Brownie leader presents, far easier than the sunflowers of last year

It was 25 degrees in the greenhouse today! I've moved some of the seedlings out there.

My other purchases to report - I couldn't decide between hydrangea Annabelle and hydrangea arborescens so I bought them both! I'm going to put the Annabelle in the front and the arborescens in the back.

Love hearing everyone's jolly gardening exploits too

I had a chuckle at the old gent and his technicolour primroses Maudant

Countess I vote swap the agapanthus! My Morrisons had quite a busy little garden centre last year. Feel slightly guilty for not supporting an independent but it did have a lot of basics I was after, and they all performed well. The prices are good and it's a 5min walk

Your greenhouse sounds great Hyperhops I ought to think about sowing seeds soon.

Aldi have an avalanche of gardening bits from tomorrow:
Greenhouses and covers, staging, raised beds + pop up covers/ cloches, plants, propagators, compost, hand tools. I think I counted 25+ things

I have just counted the unplanted clematis and stopped at 12. Oh dear. All of last year's seem to be sprouting happily, so now I think it's a case of every shrub will have a clematis growing through it, whether it wants it or not!

Gazanias are great could your DDs join my Brownies, please? I might even try the zinnia seeds that came with GW magazine, although every zinnia I have ever planted has died the death of a thousand slugs.

I think it may be a French rogue `rhubarb

I've been spending money today . Well I haunted the half price area of Jardiland and got a pear tree, cherry tree, bare root quince, and a magnolia for the front garden because the bay is going not happy, dh will rue the day he had a garden cleared because, of course, there has to be something to put in it .

Now, I never said he was old, HaveYouSeenHerLately although he was older than me and I'm pretty ancient. Do please feel free to call me Maud I almost prefer it to my real name these days.

Zut alors, ppeatfruit!

I have just been updating my clematis pruning spreadsheet. I am officially a saddo.

That's a good idea Maud. I was thinking I need some kind of record of when everything has to be pruned and whether it's been done.

As well as my record of exactly what colour bulbs are planted where because I know I won't remember in the autumn when I want to plant some more.

Really, it's just a list of what's in which pruning group, so that I remember what to hack and what to leave alone. It came about when I read the eminently sensible advice to combine clematis only where they're in the same pruning group, so that you don't have to disentangle them before attempting to meet their different pruning needs. So I'm trying to work out where to bung all the new clematis, so they are happy with their companions!

Sorry about that.

Bergenias are useful because they tolerate dry shade under trees and provide foliage interest when not in flower. I don't grow them because I prefer more delicate flowers and foliage.
Ar the moment the shady bed seems to have been taken over by cyclamen foliage, I must go and find out if the hepatica survived the winter beneath dem cyclamen leaves.

I love that you have a clematis spreadsheet, Maud.

Thank you though, as I said, spreadsheet is a bit of poetic licence and it's more of a list (but with so many of the things I do need to keep track )!

I have taken some cuttings of house plants and put then in jars of water. They have really good rot systems now. Do I have to buy proper house plant compost. If not what else would be suitable please.

Funny The bed under the false acacia tree is taken over with cyclamen foliage too. I love it, it's pretty and I love the flowers too in the autumn (it reminds me of when we first viewed the house because I was enchanted with them all in bloom around the tree (so enchanted I didn't notice the size of the garden ) .

Yes I would buy the correct compost florentina1 I've got 2 pineapples indoors that are really happy in water and they need potting up too!

Can I ask a question about what to do with my forced hyacinths?

I'm planning to plant them out but can I do it now they've stopped flowering, or do I have to leave them in the pots and wait for ages for the foliage to die down? They're in pretty big pots so if I put the whole contents of the pot in the ground the roots shouldn't get too badly disturbed.

You can bung them in the ground now, countess. They'll be fine.

It's raining here. I'm debating whether it's too rainy to do some weeding as I have a free morning, or whether I should just don my waterproofs and get on with it. Maybe I'll have a cup of tea first.

Brilliant, thanks Rhubarb.
You need a potting shed in which to potter when it rains.

I would love a potting shed.

The weeds come up much more easily when it's been raining hard Rhubarb I have to put on my thick waterproof boots and get out there, which is much easier typed than done!!

Yes Countess you only wait for them to die down in the pot if you plan to store them over summer in bulb in paper bags! I did it for the first time and it's successful!

I went and bought some grit and mulched the newly planted trough instead.

liking the clematis spreadsheet and sensible tip on grouping pruning group types together

Yes, the pruning tip was the perfect kind of advice - something I might never have thought of, but really obvious and useful once I'd heard it!

Wow hyper you sound so ahead I have yet to think about sweet peas though I am saving toilet rolls, am glad the gardening is therapeutic

Alan Rickman is lovely but not sure I will make it to see at a cinema, wait till it comes on TV more likely.

Have discovered that due to taking the fence down at the front to let the digger in I have now started cutting the corner when reversing on to the drive. Guess where I planted my new tulips! Oh well maybe next year.

Am all caught up on the garden revival and show me your garden which is the closest I have got to the garden. DH was going to free me up for some gardening on Sunday but something has come up so will be trying to fit it in to nap time again,

Geoff, I am inspired to pop to Aldi on Saturday when I have been paid, this may be fatal

Maud, I am in awe I can't even remember which ones I have planted, including the one on the fire thorn, am hoping it's not going to need major pruning as that stuff is lethal