The first rule of potting shed is YOU ALWAYS talk about potting shed. The thread continues.

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Here goes, and feeling bit cheeky as I didn't post much on the last one.

A fine autumn day here, with much seasonal clearing done. Now I come to think of it, is there ever a non-clearing season? :o

I have lovely peonies from the previous owner. I have had to move quite a few to make my raised beds and fear I might have damaged some, but it only just occurred to me this year I could simply get some more.
I quite like delayed gratification gardening because I love the fact things pop up and surprise you when you have forgotten about them.

Gardening surprises are wonderful, as long as they're good ones!
I'm gradually planting up the pots of plants transferred from my previous garden. I'm awful at labelling so I'm excited at a pot of big red buds showing just above the soil. I haven't a clue what they are!

well I think i've just seen something that looks a bit like an aphid in my fritillary....not a surprise I wanted....maybe it's not an aphid, it might be a bit bigger actually.

Never mind - where there are aphids there will be ladybirds (or should be). You could buy some ladybirds later in the season to release into the garden if the aphids are hanging around in big crowds by then.

(Can you tell I have been reading my Natural Gardening books and now I am all about the wildlife).

Jane was your creature a deep coral colour? If so it's a Lily beetle, and they don't just love lilies, they love fritillaries. You have to wear gloves, and put something sticky on your finger tip to catch the bs. Then either squish or put on ground and stamp. If you try to catch in your hand, they flip over and as they have dark undersides, you can't see them.

I had lily beetle on my fritillaries 2 years ago, and the flowers didn't appear last year - but they are back in 2017, so DH, the lily beetle king, has his orders.

Also making a surprise reappearance this year is Anthriscus 'Ravenswing'. I thought it had been slugged soon after I planted it last year, but its foliage has appeared - so pretty.

Does anyone have any experience of growing acidanthera the following year? There are lot of bulbils (sp?) around the old bulbs. RHS says the old bulbs won't flower again, but googling suggests otherwise. Apparently the secret for lots of flowers is to water really well- something I don't do last year so I didn't get as many flowers as I might have but those I did get were lovely.

Traviata, thanks for teaching me that. We do get ladybirds round here.

SeaRabbit, The creature was dark brown so maybe not an aphid or a lily beetle. Aphids cling to plants I think? This one looked at me then ran off into the soil. (I was crouched down looking for signs of buds).

I had a nice suprise too. a Dicentra, which I thought I had disposed of accidentally, has just emerged in a pot of bulbs,

I've just had to google Dicentra - what a lovely plant!

I've been and foraged a load of snowdrops today and stuck them in the ground. I've had a bit of a surprise with bluebells this year too. We had one bluebell in a weird bed full of leylandii right outside the back door . We got rid of the leylandii and I removed all the soil from the useless beds to make it level with the patio, and found absolutely tons of bluebell bulbs - oops! I used that soil for all sorts of pots last year, and they are just popping up all over the place! I've no idea if they'll flower, but I can't believe how many there are. I don't really want them in pots, so I may move them all to a spot under a tree which could look quite nice maybe. It'll take forever though, I can't believe how many there are!

how nice to have surprise bluebells!

how do I know if a pot rose has died? I pruned it before winter and admittedly I haven't been looking at it, but now I have, it just looks exactly the same. It seems pretty sturdy so I'm not sure. I've moved it so it will get as much sun as possible, anything else I can do?

sorry, I had another question and forgot to post it.

Is it my ignorance or is not much flowering in April - after the traditional spring stuff, I feel like there's a gap that is sort of April/May. Will I find much ready in flower in the garden centre in those months or is it a case of waiting till June? I can't plant pansies or petunias because for some reason they attract so many pests, I find them completely unmanageable. tbh I'm not really thrilled with how they look either.

but begonias, geraniums etc won't flower till June will they? Sorry, I'm still in my first year of this! Thanks.

The April/ May flowers tend to be blossoms, but things like Aquilegia and wall flowers are in bloom.
Flowering times tend to depend where in the country you live. Things are usually earlier in the South and can be a couple of weeks later further North.

I think forgetmenots come up quite early. There is always something in the garden centre though. It's a good time to go, when you have gaps.

Grape hyacinths are getting going now.

Primroses are going nuts

I am south so hopefully things will flower early. I don't have forget me nots this year but will have for next.

The North/South thing seems to go quite far south - a friend in Bedfordshire had her daffodils flower ages after mine. Although maybe that's about soil etc, I dunno.

Also I don't really like grape hyacinths - they do seem to be very popular though. No offence to fans of grape hyacinth! I love regular hyacinths.

You get microclimate stuff too. We're always later than my Dad who is only 5 miles away, on account of being quite a bit higher.

I'm going to bump the 'what's flowering in your garden' thread as I have some gaps too

We tend to benefit from the urban microclimate here.

For anyone looking for things that flower in April (more or less) I'd suggest pulmonaria - excellent for bees - and erysimum Bowles Mauve, which flowers all year round. My geraniums are about to flower, too - macrorrhizum is already flowering and phaeum is usually next - and the buds on clematis Nelly Moser are almost open.

I too dislike the wishy washy blue grape hyacinths, but there are some darker ones which are lovely.

Tulips are often flowering in April too aren't they, & Camassia, and late daffodils.

I love the very pale blue grape hyacinths.

My tulips don't look great. They look vague, like they're kind of thinking about blooming....
Went to Homebase after work. They have good size Convovulus cneroreum, apols for spelling. I really like those but was wondering what they're like for pests. Googling doesn't say much apart from attracting bees which is fine. But I don't want to spend on yet another thing that attracts bugs. The plants are big and about £15 so will brighten up the place when nothing else is in flower. Anyone have it - does it attract many pests? Pests are often after eating seeds I think?

If it wasn't that I had to walk home with the heavy pot I might have bought it immediately but that and the worry of pests and pigeons made me pause!

PS this would be in a pot, I only have a balcony. I need to plan better so it's not overcrowded....

Goldfish I have one of those convolvulous. I love it - it's almost always got some flowers between March and November, sometimes loads. Mine is in a border that faces SW, and is very happy. The instructions say it grows about 1m wide, usually, but mine thinks it's also a climber and some bits are almost at the height of the ceilings inside the house! It is growing up inside a trellis, with bits poking out.

I wouldn't pay £15 though - I bet you can get a slightly smaller one for about £5 & it'll grow a lot this year, and catch up.

Depending on the variety of your tulips they could flower in a month's time, so have faith.

My wallflowers are about to bloom: I've never planted them out at the right time before - amazing what a difference it makes to the size of plant...

Thanks, I can buy a very small Convovulus for about £5 so maybe I'll do that instead if they grow so fast. Save me carrying it too!

I like wallflowers. Perhaps a visit to Kew is in order but I probably should have thought of that before school holidays!!

I went to a lovely garden today with spectacular hellebore. The rose garden looks like it will be great, too- all the roses were trained out onto frames rather than just as bushes. I'm looking forward to peony season, there were loads, including tree peonies.

Then I had a delicious slice of cake in the tea room. Lovely.

That sounds like a glorious day pickle!

I'm a bit sad about my roses at the moment. I've got four planted up in circles, and only one is looking good at the moment. I mentioned it to DP, and he said he sprayed the circles with Round Up to get rid of the weeds around them, and thinks he got the rose leaves too I had a proper look at them today and yes, there are leaves that have shrivelled and gone brown. Not sure if this is the end for them, or if they may be able to struggle through. (I don't really understand how Round Up works)