"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)

[shovetheholly]

I really loved Frances Tophill on GW too! I thought she was really clear about seed sowing - anyone could have followed those instructions. And she was shown actually wielding a fork, as opposed to merely doing delicate pruning, smelling things or wafting around with a trug, which is so often how female gardeners are portrayed. I want more MUD on that show!

Maud - I chopped through my hedge trimmer wire last time I was cutting, so you're not the only one!!

My sylvestris tulips are just coming out. I love them so much more than the later, more ornamental ones - the curving stems are wonderful.

[QuerkyJo]

Yes it almost laughs at you when you pull it out doesn't it? Yank me out will you, well I have a thousand little roots which will rise up and take over. I have a tiny garden and I find it quite good for ground cover in odd parches where not much grows. I look on it as a bending exercise in the summer to keep pulling it out.

[SugarPlumTree]

Pink hardy geranium is my main invasive thing here at the moment I think.

Maud sympathy on the plant. Little consolation but sort of thing I'd do. Last time I got a hoe out spurred on by talk back up the thread it resulted in the death of a tulip. I pruned the TV Ariel cable once thinking what a stubborn piece of honeysuckle it was at the time.

Agree about Frances Tophill, she is very good.

Just noticed a bit of geranium phaeum is flowering, a plant sale purchase having read about it on here. It then got hacked into several pieces and they do seem OK.

Planted about 4 or 5 astrantia seeds from my solitary plant last year. Left pit out over winter and I do have some tiny seedlings but I'm not sure they look like astrantia leaves though. Might at some point post pictures to see what you all think, the're a bit small yet though.

[SeaRabbit]

I pruned the TV Ariel cable once thinking what a stubborn piece of honeysuckle it was at the time.

Haha!

My pink dead nettle has mind-bogglingly tough roots - I do comedy sudden-releases - flying backwards - but in its favour it loves dry shade. And it is pretty with variegated leaves, and does stay 'out' when pulled out unlike its yellow cousin by the sound of things.

I liked Frances too.

[bookbook]

Hardy pink geranium is one of my favourites. And Pulmonaria is out now too.
I liked Francis Tophill as well, nice and straight forward. But is it me - was she really digging in a pale flappy long cardigan? I would have stood on it, wiped my hands on it. bent down and speared my fork through it.....

[shovetheholly]

Hahahahaha! I wonder if the presenters have a special clothes budget for nice things that will be wrecked within minutes? Some of the things they wear look expensive. Am I the only one who gardens in old holey jeans/Aldi workwear/DH's used up jumpers instead of Ghost and Barbour?!

[SugarPlumTree]

I look a wreck in the garden but that is my default look ! Do like the pink geraniums but they are turning up everywhere.

Beautiful moment earlier, I have tadpoles which makes me very happy. Going to take a picture later as I think there's a self sown geum in my path but am not sure.

[bookbook]

I have a 'uniform' for the garden and allotment , made up of old workwear ( i had my own business, and was outside in all weathers , all year round) so walking trousers and micro fleece half zip tops here . they wash and dry quickly , which is a bonus.
I have just had someone at the door, and they remarked on my Pieris. It was a present from my DF many years ago. As I garden on chalk, it is in a pot. I had to stop and really look at it.It is just there . It has more flowers on this spring than I can ever remember. Its about 25 years old, and we repotted it about 3 years ago. It looked sad and straggly, so DH took the secateurs to it. I assumed it wouldn't like it . I was obviously and happily wrong .All the rain has been good for it!

[bookbook]

and all the self seed foxgloves :)

[SugarPlumTree]

That looks really loverly Bookbook.

Is that a geum in the picture, it's close to a Mrs Bradshaw I think. Other picture my shady bit of garden whic is benefitting from recycling cut down tree etc from front.

[bookbook]

Doesn't geum have a more roundy leaf? It looks a bit more like my poppy seedlings. Will see if I can take a pic

[bookbook]

showing up my rather relaxed weeding style - poppy seedlings and mother plants SugarPlum

[shovetheholly]

I know what you mean, book! Papaver types are like that but possibly more pointy/hairy? It looks like something dandelion-ish to me (sorry): cats ear?

[SugarPlumTree]

I think it's one of those yellow things I don't know the name of then, I just had a moment of hope ax close to the Mrs Bradshaw or whatever it's called. I now want some poppies and also have a relaxed weeding style, I like that name for it !

[shovetheholly]

I feel bad that it's not a geum!

They did have the Mrs Bradshaw for cheaps a short while back on Secret Gardening Club if you did want more!

[SugarPlumTree]

Don't feel bad, twas a long shot ! I bought 3 orange geums from the secret gardening club recently that are still in the greenhouse so I do have some, was just being greedy.

[MyNightWithMaud]

I'm still not sure that it isn't a geum! I'll take a closer look at mine tomorrow (Mrs Bradshaw, X Lady Stratheden and a red one) and post pics.

[shovetheholly]

I always think geum leaves look like a poodle's head at the end of them!

OK, OK, it's a bit of a stretch.

[SugarPlumTree]

Hmm, my new geum in the pot looks like those leaves Shove but the supposed Mrs Bradshaw's in other picture have different leaves. Don't know what it then but it was supposed to be a geum, cheap perennial offer.

[MyNightWithMaud]

I think we established a year or two ago that that yellow weed that pops up everywhere is, botanically, a geum too. ::goes off to google::

[funnyperson]

Yes that is so, Carol Klein did a geum special as I recall and the wild geum featured in it

I don't know whether it is too soon to say whether plants have given up the ghost but the alchemella mollis isn't showing, only one of three acanthis rue ledan appears to have survived the winter, and the clematis viticella minuet looks dead though all the other clematis have shoots. The veronicastrum looks dead, so does the salvia and the Gaura. Where the astrantias were is still a gap in the soil. None of the alliums seem to have survived either.

Also mulching doesnt appear to have one the irises much good. Though I was careful to leave the corms exposed, one has just rotted nicely. Woe is me.

That said, for some reason the Munstead Wood rose has buds already! And the geranium phaeum has flowers, and a yellow butterfly has made an appearance!

I am joining the hardy plant society. No delicate plants are going to survive in my shaded north facing frost pocket. . ferns and foxgloves will have to rule the day.

[shovetheholly]

Oooh, if you can remember what it's called, I'd love to know Maud. I keep trying sporadically with the plant identification but I think it requires a more concerted effort than I am putting in!

funny- my alchemilla is only just starting to come through, ditto for persicarias and salvias. It's still early days - I'm keeping my fingers crossed for your other perennials. My alliums ARE through, though, so I'm worried about yours.

I need to renew my Hardy Plant Society membership. I joined last year and then was too ill over the critical period to do the damn seed exchange!

[shovetheholly]

Hang on a second - lightbulb moment - wild geums - that's wood avens, right?

Pretty sure that's not what sugarplum has. Because a couple of years ago I was convinced that my geum had done really well and set seed all over the end of my garden, only to find that it was actually wood avens. I then had to fight a Mighty Battle to eradicate it, which involved pulling out plant after plant of the stuff, so I feel more familiar than I would like with the wretched thing . It does have much more divided leaves than the long ones in the pictures above.

[funnyperson]

geum urbanum or herba benedicta

[LeaLeander]

What an interesting thread!

I am in the midwest of the US and it was very cold last night - around 20 degrees F - so I went around and draped light cloths and towels around emerging tender foliage of peonies, foxglove and the like. It seems to have helped. Picked my first hyacinth as well and covered the remaining buds.

Am excited this year as last fall i had completed a new greenhouse - it is entirely constructed of cast-off wooden-framed windows, cast-off shutters and other materials I either had given to me or rescued from others' trash heaps. It's adorable - the only new materials are some pressed sheet metal (like an antique ceiling tile) on the north side of the interior. I even took my late neighbor's old metal trash can and had the workers flatten it and use the metal to fill in gaps at the gable where the square windows left little triangular openings. It makes me happy part of "her" is in the greenhouse as she was an avid gardener till her death at 92.


The floor was dug out to a depth of about 4" and filled with pea pebbles so I need not worry about splashing water when watering the plants, and I have repurposed odds and ends to make racks to hold seedling trays. It's quite thrilling and makes me happy to have a greenhouse made of "trash." Even found an old door in the rafters of my garage that was cut down to fit.