It will not always be summer; build barns. The potting shed goes on...

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Please ignore my first, illiterate thread. I'll try again.

I hope this quotation from Hesiod captures the moment of movement from high summer to the splendours of harvest and the planing for the new year.

:o

I've had the most lovely day at Kingston Lacy catching up with old friends and looking at all the snowdrops and cyclamen.

That sounds lovely, SugarPlumTree.

When the garden is less soggy, I must go and see whether any more hellebores have come out - a few were in bud a week or so ago.

Last year I had a wide variety of hellebore colours. This year they are all the same colour, a not-very-nice pink, some palish; some darkish. The beautiful almost black one last year is darkish pink in 2016. I Am Officially Upset. Something (a bird?) ate the flowers on my Christmas Rose too. Boo.

That is a shame Searabbit I'm not good with hellebores or snowdrops for that matter.

I'd heard that they were very keen to cross pollinate, so the babies all end up the same colour, but this seems to be happening to the plants themselves!

Yes I thought it was supposed to be the babies rather than the plants, how strange !

We now have a dropped kerb and I have better idea of which plants need moving for the drive entrance. Unfortunately my Red Robin and Rosemary are for the chop. Can't really move them as they have become sort of tumbling shrubs over the wall.

My hellebores are coming up their original colour.
I'm pleased I left the leaves on though.
At Wisley where I went at the weekend, all the hellebores are stripped of their leaves and look rather sorry for themselves. Their hellebores have all sorts of colours mixed in and it all looks a bit tatty and straggly so maybe the effect you mention of colours all blending into one is common
What does work at Wisley is where hellebores are planted on a sloping bank so you can look up into the flowers, and the other thing which works is where snowdrops and the little dark iris George are planted in with the hellebores. Lovely. My Iris George havent reflowered this year so maybe in my garden I am going to have to treat them as annuals
My hellebores are either dark maroon or green or white. There isnt any 'muddiness' about their colours. The green ones and white ones are in the 'white' bed and the dark maroon ones 'anna pavord' under the oak. Stunning. And loads more flowers than last year! I noticed at Wisley the yellowy ones arent as successful in a flower bed though they look nice floating in bowl of water
Some of the snowdrops I brought back from Benington Lordship last year have flowered: so dainty with nodding heads in the breeze and little flecks of green on the petals. But it is going to be years before there are swathes!

Hepatica planted last spring dont appear to have come up yet and the winter flowering clematis still havent flowered. I must feed them.

Very jealous that you have any snowdrops at all FP ! My hellebores have their leaves, in fact most are just leaves at the moment.

I've just had a sad moment as I decimated my rosemary and Photonia that are tumbling over a wall at the front but they need to go. I've got a small bit of Photinia with a bit of root in a pot and hope it survives plus a new Rosemary in the back.

Bit strange as for years we've been behind a big hedge and we're now open to the road. Opposite was a bungalow which has bee pulled down and a new house being built. Neighbour said today it is the owners of a small chain of garden centres locally. Was looking at the plans as it is 2.5 storeys and higher than us anyway so trying to work out how it will be. They have just submitted a lovely looking planting plan to the council which includes a winter garden amongst other things to include cornus, hellebores etc. So hopefully it will be beautifully landscaped - they must be looking at ours in horror at the moment as we emerge from behind the hedge with our knackered driveway !

That sounds lovely!
I was looking at my dogwood out front today. It was a tangle of branches and I pruned it to cut away all the lower branches in the late autumn after the leaves fell. This had the benefit of opening up the light to the bed below which has spring bulbs in now and it gave the old plant bit of structure.

I am thinking of pruning it so that it has a raised canopy with horizontal layers which flower in tiers like a cornus I saw at Hughenden Manor last spring. Though I see that one is supposed to coppice a cornus to get the striking colour of new stem growth.

But I dont really like the hedgehog effect which is in fashion in winter gardens at the moment

Anyway talking of snowdrops, the Hardy Plant Society ( I finally joined our local branch!) is having its snowdrop section agm soon and an option on the day is to go round John Sales snow drop garden ( it turns out he was a snowdrop enthusiast) and East Lambrook ( Margery Fish's garden) is also having its snowdrop/early spring opening soon. Both places are quite far away so I may not get to go, but they sound nice.

Apart from Galanthus Nivalis, the common snowdrop, the two best seem to be G Arnott for its scent and G Magnet because it dances in the slightest breeze. I wonder if this is the variety I saw in swathes at Benington Lordship last year, which I could happily watch for hours.

I keep meaning to join our local one but never get round to it. That does sounds like a lovely idea with the
dogwood canopy it can't entirely visualise it - any pictures available? My hacking at mine has given some newer red stems which I've appreciated this year.

Quote for drive is in and I'm realising it is a bigger construction job than I'd realised. Guy today suggested retaining wall alongside the slope stepped down in blocks so no one can fall over edge and then top filled with soil as raised bed. My at price was tempered slightly by the mention of raised bed and planting. Might need to pick your brains for planting scheme at some point.

Not strictly gardening but I'm considering visiting the Royal Academy exhibition 'Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse' before it ends on 20 April

I'm sure it will inspire!

Bonjour tout le monde! Now January (when I work really long hours) is over, I am turning my thoughts to this year's gardening helped by the arrival of plant & seed catalogues and this article in a blog I like. And the snowdrops and crocus are flowering! I will be out this morning, planting some pansies and a Winter Orchid wallflower I bought yesterday.

Oh yes. I'm planning to go more than once to the exhibition at the Royal Academy - I don't make enough use of my membership and this show has had excellent reviews.

After a very dank day yesterday, the sun is shining here. I'll be venturing out just long enough to repot the hippeastrum which has keeled over, under the weight of its rather magnificent flowerhead. It was a Christmas present and I'm thrilled with it.

Planted the last of the tulip bulbs finally (they were sprouting so still alive) and then more or less sprinted back indoors out of the cold and damp

Daffodils are out here, and scilla and almond blossom on trees. Hellebores and snowdrops are in full swing. Sarcococca and Daphne have flowered in pots.

I don't understand why the plants think it mild enough to be flowering as to me it seems chilly and dank.

I got a bit cross with mums gardener today as he claimed it took 2 men 2 hours to paint the gate. I am minded to get someone more hardworking. I have done that gate myself when younger, in half an hour.

Defo chilly and damp here in Scotland . Snowdrops still green but a few Crocus snow bunting coming out . I don't expect any daffodils to flower for another month, probably the N. February Gold ( N. March Gold here )

How will your almond blossom get fertilised - do you have bees this early too?

I'm very of those of you in milder climates

There are never almonds so perhaps they don't get fertilised

No need to be jealous of down South- my lawn is horrendously full of moss and bare patches what with it being north facing and under a tree.

Though mum's lawn is like a springy green sward carpet and doesn't seem to have stopped growing. So I shall have to keep her gardener on.

Not many crocuses out here though they were out at Wisley a fortnight ago

Searabbit what is the blog you like?

maud do let us know what the RA exhibition is like.

This year I will get the patio washed and if very together, a rectangular water feature with water lilies.

Mmmm waterlilies. My school is being re-built in part, and very sadly they're taking out a small lily pond. I'm going for dibs on digging out a specimen to take home.

I already have papyrus in a pot of water when it got too big for the container fish pond.

Free plants always good . As long as they are not too invasive . Or you can easily get them out the pond if they go crazy .

I scattered some grass seed over the bare patches on the lawn today,having raked the moss off last weekend.
The rationale is that if it snows next week as predicted, the seeds will not be eaten by the birds as they will be covered by snow.
Last year every single seed had disappeared by mid morning after sowing.

Must be great to get free lilies, cant imagine what it is like for them to be invasive (except in Kashmir on holiday as a child when the lakes were full of lotuses)

I noticed that at Wisley they bring the water lilies in for the winter so they arent hardy

I've heard that N. Alba can be quite invasive in small ponds. But The only gardener I know who has them keeps them in a big basket at the bottom on the pond so they can't escape easily . He pulls it out in the autumn and splits them up .

I have N. Black Princess which I've only had for a year so they are tiny. I live in a cold place and pond is in semi shade so I don't think they will go crazy

I live water lilies, would very much like one. Could I ask you fir some opinions! We have an ugly raised deck which had to go in as we're on a slope and couldn't afford another option. I'm thinking of painting it and found this picture which I quite like . Do you think it would just end up looking permantly grubby?

That should be 'ask for some opinions?'