"in the midst of winter, I found there was within me, an invincible summer" Potting shed chat continues here

[funnyperson]

So as agreed (by 2 other people!) I have started this thread for spring gardeners follwing on from the previous thread : Welcome one and all. experts and novices alike and draw up your chairs and join in discussion on all things garden related (and even not garden related)

What a gorgeous brugmannsia - are they as hard to grow as they look?

Sorry to miss you on Sunday Maud - did you buy anything?! I don't usually find Wisley too busy - we live fairly close so can get there about 11.00 on a Sunday usually and it's generally easy to park. I've never been to Hyde Hall - it does look lovely, so I must plan a trip.

My brugmansia is pretty easy to look after - it seems immune from pests, for example - but they need to be warm and, as I only have a pop-up greenhouse for the winter it's slow to get going every year. Now the temperature has dropped, I'm worried that its magnificent flowerbuds won't open.

And did I buy anything at Wisley? You surely know me better than that! I bought a salvia Amistad, verbena rigida and two gauras from the stand selling four perennials for a tenner and got a huge bunch of cut dahlias as a freebie when they were dismantling the show. How about you? (Our problem with Wisley is that, by the time we have got aged rellies into the car, we don't get there until lunchtime, but at least that meant we could stay until it closed).

Yes I am still here. The plan at the moment is to pave over the whole garde, which is what OH wants. I am a bit unsure from an environmental aspect. I have found a company that makes wooden planters to order. This means I won't have to bend down as I can have them as tall as I want.

I have free-cycled lots of plants and now trying to decide what to keep from those remaining. I had hoped to put some trees in large tubs, to give us some shade. However have been advised against this.

My shopping list includes Acer Sangu Kanu and one very bright green Acer, the name of which escapes me. I have bought Beth Chatto book on Forest Gardening which is my inspiration.

It is hard to let go of my Climbing and rambling Roses, so the jury is still out on that. I have a 3 year old Banksii Lutea which has made amazing growth and hopefully will flower for the first time this year. Hoping I can put it In a planter. I wonder if uprooting it will delay the flowering.

I am still looking for thoughts.

This is my list of what I am left with after getting rid of half the plants. Inspiration for what you would let go will help. Just to remind you the garden is 15. Feet wide and 26 feet long.

3 very tall Pyracantha. Bush clematis
5 Acers. Dicentra
Robinia. Sorbus
Winter Jasmine. Cornus midwinter fire and Alba
5 Clematis. Hibiscus

Aqueliga. Houtynia
Thyme. Small low growing conifers
Bluebells. Forget me nots
Boston Ivy. Virginia cheaper

8 Roses

Maud that sounds like a good haul, especially the 4 for £10! If I'd been on my own I might have spent some money, but I was with DH, so we just went for a walk.

Mind I have noIw fallen for orchids, having rescued one from work and got it to flower. Therefore I have bought 2, plus feed, plus pots in the last fortnight and would feel guilty about spending any more money on the garden...

Afternoon!
I cannot imagine having to thin out plants Sosidges , but in the circumstances, I would try to keep all the things that can cover the fences, climbers etc. I love my hibiscus, but maybe that could be a casualty? I am saying that from the perspective of it only flowering for a shortish time , and you need everything to work doubly hard in a small space. But it would be hard...
I came on to ask for a bit of advice. I am about to plant up spring bulbs in containers for my 2 daughters and myself. We went to a nice market, and I just asked them to choose whatever they liked the look of, write on the bag ( as they were loose bulbs) and I would do all the planting up etc. Its an interesting bunch , and mostly all hangs together. But just one jumps out - Tulip Monte Carlo , which looks to me like a quite vibrant yellow. Everything else is fairly soft yellow/ white/purple /blue/pink .... So you get the gist. I do have to go and get some more daffodils , some violets , and some other bits and pieces. So - what should I put them with, or am I best just doing the one pot as a bit of a colour fest, by themselves. Or do as DH says - it really doesn't matter..... just bung 'em in!

It has been hard taking things out. I agree I need to concentrate on year round interest. The very large shrubs, tubs, garden supports and pots went to a lady who ran a church community garden so I felt OK about that.

I am try think of it as if I was moving and decide what would I pack In The moving lorry. I am thinking that the ramblers will have to go and just keep the climbers that are easy to manage. The hibiscus and the lilac too I think.

Sosidges - I agree about year round interest. Another thing that works well in small spaces is the 2-for-1 approach; growing climbers through big shrubs. One of my most successful combinations is clematis Nelly Moser climbing up rosa glauca. Oh, and wall pots. Lots of wall pots.

Bookbook - I'm a bit anal colour-aware, so I do generally restrict the colours in pots. Tulip Monte Carlo looks lovely - I like bright tulips - and I think I would pair them with dark blue/purple iris, violas or muscari (or all three).

I went out into the garden tonight to do various jobs, including planting two pots of daffodils, and was surprised and disappointed at how early it got dark. Autumn is approaching, I suppose. I have replanted the auriculas which were looking congested and potted up the offsets and done some slightly imperfect tree surgery on the fig that is creating too much shade. I also pressganged DH into digging out the dead minaret apple tree, an overgrown grass and some annoying hemerocallis that never flower. The rest I'll have to finish tomorrow.

I think I agree Maud - I have in my haul Anemone Mr Fokker and 2 shades of Iris. I also have scilla forbesii, which I thought I may just plant with some really pretty double snowdrops, as a simple early spring pot...

My DH was also busy today - we have been doing a slight redesign/ majorish cutback on some shrubs - taken out a holly ( hah! that will go well....) and cut out the lower branches of another. Chopped down a lot of straggly stuff, and done a hard chop on Viburnum Tinus, which is still really struggling with Viburnum beetle this year - they have re-attacked all the lovely new growth form the last prune earlier in the year :( . But it has really opened up a very shady, overgrown bit of border that hasn't been working well.

I have the same problem with viburnum beetle, except it's not taken much interest in the tinus but had reduced the foliage of opulus to lace for the second time. Grr. My tinus is a very peculiar shape; I think I will appraise it tomorrow, to see whether there are any branches I could lop off to make more space underneath. The massive hack we did a fortnight ago has made that side of the garden so much lighter and airier.

sorry to flag this up but I don't know if anyone's seen my query here
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/gardening/2735522-Layering-bulbs-in-pots

retired colleague just came in to visit and told me how much time he is spending in his actual potting shed. well jel!

Have PMd you Maud.

On the brugmansia front, I cut mine back to bare forks about six weeks ago, and it's sprouting again.

Hello, Echt. Will reply once I've got my brain in gear.

Your brugmansia is obviously growing in near-ideal conditions, while mine is muddling through in somewhere pretty unsuitable! Although it does have new shoots coming through at ground level; will I be able to plant them up as offshoots?

Does Anyone know if I will be able to dig up store my climbing roses over winter in my garage. I was thinking of getting rubble bags of soil and putting them in there and then loosely tying them? I won't be able to plant the, again until February/March.

The only rose I have dug up was quite a newbie Sosidges .My eldest daughter was moving house, it was about 5' high and still a bit spindly. But I dug it up in early spring and potted it up for 4 months. I did a heavy prune when it was replanted, and its thrown out new growth . Not sure if that helps or not. It was left outdoors.

Thanks for that Bookbook. I have 5 climbing and rambling roses that I am fond of and I want to store them somewhere during the build. I was thinking that supermarket roses are stored in a warehouse so the will possibly be OK.

Sosidges, roses have long roots, so you'd need to be careful digging them up, and give them plenty of room when heeled in, but in theory it should work.

When the garden is finished the roses will go into big planters which I am having made. As the new garden project is for health reasons, I want to be able to garden without bending. Anyone know how deep they should be to accommodate the roses. Also I have been told to shorten the long tap root before putting them in containers. Has anyone done this?

I've got some roses in big pots. They're about 12 or 14" tall, I think (without going into the rain to measure them). I don't remember cutting the tap root but I did trim all the roots a little, to get a good fit in the pot without bending and potentially snapping them. In your situation, I think I'd go for very tall planters so that I could easily work in them when sitting and, if necessary, fill the bottoms with rubble (which would help drainage anyway).

In other news: during the week I had the privilege of meeting the funny and feisty Echt. It was a lovely evening, although I'm desperately sorry at the circumstances that brought her here, and I'm sure we all send her a slightly grubby, compost under the fingernails hug.

We certainly do Maud. How lovely to meet her despite the circumstances.

I got a new book yesterday - Rhapsody in Green by Charlotte Mendelson - I'll post a link to an article as my iPad is misbehaving but what inspired the purchase was a fabulous interview on Woman's Hour on Wednesday I recommend it thoroughly- she is such an anthusiastic gardener, well obsessed really, and so engaging.

Article about Charlotte Mendelson & her garden, and her book:

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/sep/17/charlotte-mendelson-edible-garden

I was listening to her on Woman's Hour today - interviewed by Jennie Murray sometime this week, I presume sounded fun!
And yes to sending echt a hug .

Maud how nice for you to meet Echt although a shame it was in sad circumstances. Hugs to you Echt.

Hello all Hugs to echt

We ate the apples off the espaliered tree this week, all three of them! Still, as DD pointed out, they were larger and juicier than in previous years and therefore next year could be even better! I have to tie in the new horizontal growth and prune back the vertical growth as I discovered it is a spur bearer.

I did weed round the irises, and hoed so that their corms stand well exposed to the Autumn sun, and cut back the foliage to a fan shape so that they didn't suffer from wind rock.

There has been lots of new foliage here due to the sun and the rain, so my plan is to tie back the new Mme Carriere rose growth and support the hydrangeas which have grown, to train them vertically.

The purple salvias and hardy blue geraniums and ceratostigma and fuschias and pinks have all continued flowering their socks off in a happy colourful but dainty riot together. The little 4 in pot fuschias bought from Hampton Court flower show have grown and spread beautifully.

But the roses and sweet peas are pretty much over due to a lack of feeding on my part and much remains to be done in terms of feeding and mulching and planting generally, and the front garden, though tidied up, remains lacking, with compacted clay soil. The expansion of garden programmes filled me with a very odd combination of anxiety and envy for the first time, and rather than inspiring me, I found I developed a kind of 'gardeners block'.
Even watching Carol didn't help me take cuttings and this is such a brilliant year for cuttings what with the warmth and the foliage growth.

I know, for example, I will never have a house and garden such as Adam Frost, and the sheer inequality of that compared with the tiny Lewisham front garden made the gardening me clam up. Weird. Anyway I think I am recovering after the wonderful Helen Dillon proclaimed she had 'finished painting her picture' of a garden, because it made me realise my garden picture is still being painted.

Mother's garden is stunning with minimal input. The purple asters and yellow Rudbeckia are everywhere in swathes and the way the Rudbeckia flowers dance gracefully in the wind on their tall stems is a delight.