What have you done in the garden today? Part 2

[ThreeRingCircus]

A continuation of the last thread.

Since @Bideshi has brought up dahlias again - several years ago I bought seed of Bishop’s Children - offspring of Bishop of Llandaff. They’ve all produced deep purple leaves, with flowers ranging from orangey red to deep red. Single flowers, with red petals and a dark centre separated by a ring of golden stamens. The foliage means they still make a statement even if not in flower.

what i’m doing at the moment is chopping up the lilac tree that fell in the March snow to clear the ground under the mulberry ready for harvest. There’s a strange phenomenon whereby any tree multiplies its volume by 4 as it hits the ground.

one good bit of news is the clematis in it has survived, though it’s now climbing the hedge and will need to be disentangled and encouraged in a different direction.

I’ve always heard good things about the Bishop’s Children - they’re reputed to flower in their first year - but I’ve never tried them. I do prefer dahlias with dark stems and foliage.

Thank you,@@MereDintofPandiculation for reminding me about Bishop's Children. I've redone a cottage garden with one bed hot pinks and crimsons, the other, orange and apricots. That colour range with single flowers would be just the job there. Interesting on your new law of physics re fallen trees. I wonder how Einstein would have explained it. But you are right.
No gardening for me today, thank goodness, now that the open day is over. Having spend the last ten days trying to catch up and get things looking half-decent, a day off would be nice.

I don't think more than one of mine flowered in its first year (but that's more down to my lack of care with seedlings) but they certainly all flowered in the second year.

There’s a strange phenomenon whereby any tree multiplies its volume by 4 as it hits the ground.

This applies when pruning dogwoods and buddleia. But the perhaps stranger phenomenon is that it's then generally possible to feed a huge pile, base end first, into an apparently full brown bin. (Unless DH has gone and filled it with grass first.)

I've returned from a weekend away to find a waterlily bud, which is gradually opening. Small, but perfectly formed. I'm glad it waited till I was home!

Swoon at the waterlily! And that is the Immutable Law of almost all prunings!

@ErrolTheDragon That is such a pretty pond and a gorgeous water lily. Weather is pants again today, warmish but pouring down. I was supposed to be weeding some of the veg plot but have abandoned that plan!

We had a productive day yesterday and my husband pruned the wisteria. Yes, it's not the right time but it had grown like a crazy triffid despite several hard prunings in early and late winter. We have windows which don't fit especially well (listed building so would cost a fortune to replace like for like) and the wisteria managed to find little gaps in the frames and was coming in the bathroom and one of the bedrooms 😂. It will get an even more severe prune later this year!

Looks loads better and my challenge was to collect up all the clippings from the flower beds and lawn and take it in the wheelbarrow to the compost heap before puppy could grab it from the wheel barrow and tear around the garden with it. I think the puppy had the upper hand 🙈

I think I'd heard that Adam's wife was ill which was the reason for the move and downsize but perhaps I got that wrong! I do like his new(ish) garden and his style of presenting and I also love Carol, Monty and Toby.

Ha!@ErrolTheDragon . We suffer in exactly the same way. 23 windows- some regular sash (but 10feet tall) and the rest 8-pane or 12-pane sash. We have replaced 5 of them and that cost alarm and a leg. The rest will have to survive with wood hardener and extra putty. We're also listed- it's a pain (no solar panels for a start). By the way, it's the perfect time to prune the long tendrilly bits of wisteria. Love your account of gardening with puppy.

I sometimes have to untangle what Adam Frost is trying to say @ThreeRingCircus but I like his style. I'm fond of Carol because she's a real example of an older woman who is assertive and positive but I wish she'd take it down a peg or two. Not everything can be quite so deliriously wonderful. Good plantswoman though.
Monty's my man. I would love it if he'd come here but when we did GW it was Matthew Wilson, and then we did a Chelsea special during a break in lockdown but the designer Jonathan Snow presented that himself. Also had Roy Lancaster (back in the day) and Ann Swithinbank. But that was 20 years ago.

I think you meant that for @catwithflowers , I've got unproblematic pvc and no wisteria.

Oh thank you @ErrolTheDragon. I am such an airhead. You do have a pretty pond with a lovely waterlily though.

I do agree about Carol Klein dialling down. She's an engaging woman, with great knowledge but she's exhausting to watch, and all the hyperbole gets too much. It's like grade inflation- you don't know which are the really good plants, and which just good

Oh, my lord, yes! She's terrible. It's a shame because it's only her delivery, but it grates so much.

I like Frances Tophill very much, and I like that her own garden is small. I know Longmeadow is a sort of fantasy - it's not a domestic garden and we can still learn from it - but I enjoy seeing smaller gardens done with real interest and thought, not just as a boring 'oh, must have a small garden section for the plebs' kind of piece. I love Rekha Mistry. So down-to-earth and knowledgeable!

I do love Monty (and I'm a horrible misandrist who almost never likes men). I feel really disappointed when it's not him presenting. That said, I read one of his books recently and goodness, he needed a rap over the knuckles when he was younger! TBF the book is all about him realising that, but he really wasn't very fair to his wife.

I love Carol, but I do agree, she is exhausting. I adore Francis. But I would like Nick Bailey as main presenter. I did nothing in my garden today, except dead head the front door pots, with the kitchen scissors, thus annoying my Dh.

And I adore Monty, but I do sense he may be a bit of a diva.

I’ve done nothing today apart from water the seedlings.

I met Rekha at a couple of parties. She was genuinely lovely and she remembered me. <<preens>> I’m interested to see how things go in her new garden.

@Zebracat, your DH needs to talk to my DP. We are both horrific vandals with no sense of decency, I understand.

Ooh, how exciting!

Yes, it was! It’s one of my (very tenuous) claims to fame, along with buying a plant from Carol Klein back in the days when she had stalls at RHS shows and Monty replying to one of my tweets.

Both excellent claims to fame!

Carol’s plant died and Monty was grumpy. Such is life.

What about Joe Swift? Margaret Drabble's son, no less.
Monty does have the reputation of being a diva but the GW director that came here really liked him: professional, charming and funny. I think he's pretty much mobbed by ladies of a certain age everywhere he goes and sometimes gets a bit short with them.
I like Nick Bailey too, but the so-obvious successor was Adam Frost, and he was obviously being shoehorned into the position. Such a pity; I think he would have grown into it and been really good.
Frances Tophill has a nice manner but her sort of gardening isn't mine. Monty's absolutely is, but I do concede it might not resonate with everyone🤔
He does, of course, have several staff to keep Longmeadow telly-fresh.

Monty’s style of gardening is very much mine, too. As I’ve said before, my only difficulty sometimes is working out how to change the scale, to make it work in my small garden; much as with a Piet Oudolf style of planting, it doesn’t necessarily work at a tenth of its size. My good friend knew Monty back in his jewellery days and says he’s lovely and did a lot to help young people get started in that world.

I was a huge fan of Margaret Drabble and read most of her books. I still remember an interview with her decades ago in which she said her son Joe wasn’t academic but might pursue a career as a gardener. And so he did! I like his presenting and his double act with Monty at Chelsea is funny.

@SarahAndQuack And do you also garden in new clothes? Particularly light colours and expensive fabrics? I get told off for that, but like the thread says, I do something in the garden everyday, if I dressed for that, it would be very dull.
Im feeling the need to defend Carol, wish I hadn’t said exhausting now. I love her enthusiasm. I love Rekha too, it’s very exciting to watch her garden develop. I’m not so keen on Arit, I’m not sure she knows enough. Toby is ok, I think I could learn to love him. Joe is irreverent and maybe a bit lazy, which is no bad thing because sometimes GW loses sight of how much work a garden can be. Easier designs and less temperamental plants can help the audience connect, as Adams new garden shows. But I do agree if I see 1 more demonstration of seed sowing, I will scream, show the greenhouse a few weeks later, when slugs have had them , or you forgot to water. Keep it real.

Zebracat - Do you have a gardening apron? Mine has saved numerous garments from that never-quite-comes-out grubbiness that only soil can impart!