What have you done in the garden today? Part 2

[ThreeRingCircus]

A continuation of the last thread.

I sell a lot of it and am never sure quite how pretentious academic to be. Normally I make a little pathetic whistling noise for the ps, I think!

Cercidiphyllum is a double whammy trap as there is disagreement about hard and soft Cees too. To save our marriage (DH is a tree person) we have agreed to differ.

I think 'pathetic little whistling noise' is probably right. I reckon plant-academia snobs are probably a generation or two behind Classics-academia snobs in terms of pronunciation, so I reckon we haven't got to a hard Greek k yet.

It's funny which things end up with well-known Latin names, isn't it? We're none of us worrying how to say Magnolia or Hydrangea and we so easily could have been.

How do we think liriope is meant to be pronounced? I assume Greekish, like Penelope, but my colleague thinks 'op' to rhyme with 'hop'. I’m with you @SarahAndQuack . I could understand Liriope to rhyme with “hope”, but not Liriopp to rhyme with “hop”

Syllable emphases make my head ache. I have a very pretentious colleague who insists it should be 'vee-BUR-num TEEnus'. How does he pronounce Pinus?

Cercidiphyllum is a double whammy trap as there is disagreement about hard and soft Cees too. “wainy weedy weaky” vs “vainy veedy veechy”

Zoologists allegedly pronounce an initial ct as “ch”, bryologists (moss fanciers) as “t”.

@Popetthetreehugger had you thought about Doronicum?

Immaturely, the same way we all do. You have to get your joys when you can.

Thanks one and all , I’m going to look up all your ideas , I think as I’m new to gardening, I’m too soft , I can’t get my head round digging up a healthy plant ! But it is bloody huge !

Absolutely@Popetthetreehugger. Harden your heart. As I always say (endlessly, and whether or not you want to hear it) Good Gardening's All About Editing. I reckon I'd fell an oak tree if it got in the way of my plans, though, given your user name, I imagine you wouldn't.

They were 4" tall and their tops pinched off, but not had an issue with them in previous years. Are some varieties more resilient than others? (This year, I've grown Zico, Xanthos and Apricotta). Also, had grown some for a friend in small modular cell trays (104 cells, and kept in their polytunnel) where they were well overdue to being planted out by at least 4-6 weeks. The stems were quite strong and they produced the most tallest plants I'd seen before (4 plus feet tall).

The ones I have now from about 20 plants, I have about 3 decent ones left, although they haven't grown a great deal at 6" tall.

Next year, I'll have to grow them in the greenhouse and leave them for May planting.

Yesterday, I went to the Garden Museum in London and was sorely disappointed by how small it was and felt it wasn't worth £14 entry fee. They didn't even have a garden as such only the grounds of the small churchyard. The only interesting garden was the courtyard that was designed by Dan Pearson which was lovely to see.

Afterwards, went to Regent's Park to see the summer flowers at St. John's Lodge. I think it's the best part of the whole park (I like the rose garden, but it's always got too many people in it for my liking).

@Bideshi c soft before e and i, otherwise hard. So Circus has a soft then a hard but Cercis has two soft. Is that what you do?

@Nachtvlinder There used to be half a dozen historical gardens at Harlow Carr, from 18C to 1950s, very interesting. But in their perennial quest for novelty they tore them out.

Thank you @Bideshi that is a timely reminder! I'm trying to remind myself that the garden will take years to get to where I want it to, with lots of trial and error (especially as conditions are so different to outer old place). And then it never really stops.

Some hardcore weeding of the drive today, although for complicated reasons I was doing it without gloves, and at one point pulling something up my hand flung out and into a large nettle. Very sore.

Planted up some more nastursiums as the original lot were looking a bit ropey . Second lot are doing well.........and I have 3 leaves with Cabbage White Butterfly eggs <hurrah>

Dead heading the forst lot of sweetpeas each time they start going to seed , they smell gorgeous .
Second lot of sweetpeas not flowering yet but growing nicely

Did some weeding (brambles) and deadheading roses yesterday and DH cut the lawn.

I think the PassionFlower id dead but the main stem is still green and not too crispy so I;ll keep a watch on it and hope for recovery .

Has anyone grown a Hop ? Mine is tall ( height of garage) and leafy but no flowers . Its a couple of years old now . I bought it as a climber but I'm not sure if it is meant to DO anything ?

@MereDintofPandiculation Yes double soft C's for me, but the lads (DH and his National Trust for Scotland tree buddies) all do a hard C to start with. I know. Doesn't make sense.

I've got a golden hop@70isaLimitNotaTarget. It flowers but not until mid to late August. Apart from that it just climbs being a nice buttery yellow - doesn't look chlorotic like many yellow-leaved plants. The flowers are pleasant but not spectacular - good for insomnia.
@NorthernChinchilla The process of garden making is pretty well the point though, isn't it? We plant teeny weeny trees, and in our minds eye they're already towering forest giants. It's a sort of suspension of disbelief.
Gardens are never finished or perfect - there are moments of perfection - but the ongoingness of gardening and the transitory nature of well, nature is what it's all about. For me anyway. Not a veg gardener by temperament; that must be different. It's the making of fantasy worlds for me.

I've had a good day in the garden - out all day apart from ducking inside for a couple of showers. DH has a very good hoe which he is very costive about sharing. He went to the dentist in Edinburgh and after an hour searching I located said hoe hidden under the rasps. Result🙂. So I hoed the rose garden and a sort of overflow rose border on top of a bank and did loads of tidying and deadheading. We grow rubbish roses, but you've got to try: can't not have roses. Started clipping a bit of topiary but couldn't be arsed to fiddle with a ladder. There's a party of 24 in tomorrow for a guided tour so it's been a tidying sort of day. My big borders are looking quite good I must say. Lilies - tigers and Casablanca - are on the cusp, so ought to be looking good for the Garden Scheme open day on Sunday week. Feeling pleased on the whole. I do love my garden.

@NorthernChinchilla your post made me wince in sympathy! I don't know why but it's always when I am casually unprepared that I manage to grab a fistful of nettle.

Today I hacked back the vigorous boston creeper on the fence between me and my neighbour. I'm really struggling with it - it's been established for years, and the fences are extremely flimsy, so it's pretty much all that's holding them up. But it's only attractive in full summer and early autumn, and it takes up so much space - it grows 2/3 feet over my side and sends runners out like triffids. Last winter I planted some very late (cheap!) bare root yew in the hope of establishing a hedge in front of it that'd allow me to put up with the ugly falling-down fences behind, but it's actually swamping the yew!

I've grown a hop, but it was there when I got the garden so I don't know how how long it took to get going. Easy-to-miss flowers - they're mostly bracts, and at least on mine a very similar colour to the leaves.

Approach the plants with caution (and good gauntlets) - they always brought me up in agonisng welts.

Apparently you can eat the spring shoots like asparagus, but given what they did to my arms I wasn't going to risk my mouth.

the transitory nature of well, nature is what it's all about For me, too. Not so much designing a future, but watching how plants change. Love growing from seed, seeing the transition from tiny seedling to plant (That's why I have a garden full of random maples and a dozen assorted species roses looking for a home). House renovations meant we spent 4 months from spring to summer living in our front room, and watched the unfolding of the front garden, something I'd not done before - I loved waking up in the morning and seeing the view from the window was not the same as it had been only a few days before.

@SarahAndQuack I had a Boston Ivy up the back of the house, it looked wonderful in autumn. But even cutting almost to ground level each winter, it still managed to climb 2.5 storeys each summer and I realised I wouldn't be able to keep it off the roof, so I had to get rid of it.

The Garden Museum used to be a delightful place to while away an hour, it was a bit amateur, with handwritten labels and rather a haphazard collection of artefacts, but I always felt it was like having a nosy around someone’s garden shed, a bit quirky but with a sense of it being honest about its origins. The remodelling of the building was great, but it now seems as though it is trying to live up to the expectations of the building rather than being a gentle reminder and record of what gardening and the history of gardening means to most people.

We went to RHS Bridgewater today, we were surprised by how good it looked for somewhere so new. Of course it has 'bones' from the estate that used to be there - trees, the walls and greenhouses - but definitely exceeded our expectations.

I’m another who preferred the Garden Museum when it was less grand. I worked nearby and the cafe offered lovely lunches.

It’s good to see your positive review of RHS Bridgewater, Errol. I still haven’t been, although we went to Harlow Carr earlier this week and I now have Bridgewater and The Laskett in my sights.

I've been to Bridgewater a couple of times, trying to see how it develops across the season. Early spring it's a bit meh but it really comes into its own late spring and summer. The Japanese garden is lovely now and should be really colourful by autumn.

@MereDintofPandiculation - wow, 2.5 stories in a summer! That makes me feel almost lucky. I've got some of the roots on my side of the fence and they're huge, gnarled things, so I'd assumed I couldn't possibly cut it to the ground without killing it. I might try that next, so at leas my side is clear at the root.

Interesting what everyone is saying about the Garden Museum. I had it on my list of places to go and feel a bit put off now!

We've been away for a few days so nothing done in the garden. I have just ordered some spring bulbs from Farmer Gracy as they have an earlybird discount of 10%. Of course I ended up ordering more than I intended 🙄. Internet shopping is a dangerous thing!!!

The tulips look lovely though. They are called Ballerina and are a beautiful burnt orange colour. I've also ordered some Thalia daffs and a few other bits and bobs 🙈

Had a wander round a few garden centres yesterday (@bideshi your prediction that I am doomed to wander round garden centres and nurseries forever seems to be coming true). Resisted all the lovely dahlias (see picture of dahlia that has been doing well on top of a plinth in my garden until I moved it two days ago when tidying and forgot to put it back) - there’s just no point. I did come away with a hanging basket full of strawberry plants reduced to £1.99. It looks in really good health to me.

Poor dahlia. There must be some fat and happy gastropods in your garden!

I'm a bit surprised I don't seem to have too much of a problem at the moment - I've certainly got slugs and snails in my garden but some bedding plant dahlias in containers (not my usual choice, the combination of weather and holidays resulted in very little left at the local nursery) are unchomped.