What have you done in the garden today? Part 3

[ThreeRingCircus]

The old thread was filling up so I've created a new one!

Link to old thread: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/gardening/4823202-what-have-you-done-in-the-garden-today-part-2?reply=128367673

Thank you @GertrudeJekyllAndHyde . I was lucky rain held off so he could get a lot in. Looking wet rest of the week here too.

I hope it’s ok to jump in with a question, it doesn’t need a whole thread really so if I could ask here

Does anyone have French lavender in pots?

I bought some garden fleece to cover but then had a thought about putting them in the conservatory

Does anyone have a preference for how they look after it over winter?

French lavender is not fully hardy (I lost mine to a north facing garden winter). It depends how harsh a winter we get, and how big the plant is.
You should be fine with fleece protection though, no need to bring it in unless there's loads of snow.

Thanks. Yes I’ve lost a couple, stupidly a couple of new ones in a March freeze, so don’t want a repeat

I put the fleece on each night, will keep going

I could do with a couple of pointers from you fabulously experienced gardeners!

I have some perennial wallflowers 'Bowles Mauve' (still in flower) which I think I'm supposed to trim.... is this true and how much do I need to trim? (Newly planted this year but already huge and bees and butterflies loved them!)

Also, I have a miniature standard rose (also still in flower even though it's lost most of its leaves!) Do I need to prune it and if so by how much or is there a good website I can look at?

Thank you 😁

I wouldn't prune anything while it's still flowering, wait until it's dormant even if that's early spring.

I wouldn't prune anything while it's flowering either, especially at this time of year. The extra growth provides a protective microclimate. Pruning now is like shearing sheep in November.

I'm assuming spring pruning but I'll google for a guide so I have an idea of what I'm supposed to do when the time comes - I like to be prepared!

Roses should be pruned in late winter - there’s a good guide on the RHS website - although I’ve just pruned a couple of mine, to prevent them being so blown about in bad weather.

There’s leeway with roses as you imply. They can be pruned now, but will likely put out new growth which will be killed off by late frosts. But if you leave them till late spring, they might get blown about, with the soil being compressed into a cavity around the roots which fills with water and causes rot. Most people feel the frost danger is greater than the windrock danger and prune in late winter, so published advice tends to reflect this.

I trimmed off the dead leaves of my Siberian iris, raked the remaining leaves off the lawn and swept ditto off the drive. I did collect them and put them in the green bin, before I am labelled the neighbour from hell.

A lovely crisp and sunny day today. Did yet more raking and there are now two vast bays of leaves to slowly mulch down. Then went back to cutting back the eleventy million crocosmia in readiness for thinning them. They are Crocosmia × crocosmiiflora, so a pain for spreading, and need regular digging out. Towards the end of the day, as the light was starting to go off, I thought the air around me seemed a bit foggy but then realised it was my breath. Car said 2C but it didn't feel cold and was a comfortable working temperature.

I also indulged in one of my favourite parts of the job which is staring at things and thinking about them. Roses, plant lay-out, trees. There is something pleasingly meditative about staring at wall roses, considering every stem and planning how I'll prune and train them. Thinking 'That one can come out, that one will replace it and I can train these bits in such a way' and so on.

I pruned back my hydrangea to allow replacement of a boiler. Then pruned the figs and a grapevine, and started putting up the bubble wrap in the greenhouse

I’ve left it too late to protect my cannas. Very frosty today.

Managed to plant all my tulip bulbs. I found a tray in the shed that I’d dug up and dried out last year in the hot spell and have bunged them all in one big pot in layers. It will be interesting to see if any make it.

I was going to plant my last bulbs today, but took fright at the cold and deferred it to Saturday morning …

I've moved our potted Christmas Tree from the back garden to the front, ready for its lights & baubles.
Hard frost last night.

Everything is frozen solid here so I've done nothing outside today except admire icy cobwebs and that's been mainly through the windows. They look rather lovely.

The frosted cobwebs are amazing today, I'm not sure if I've ever seen quite their like.

These were on our blueberries

That rose photo is gorgeous!

Thank you!

We have snow!!! Yes I know nearly everyone else has had it already, but this is our first

Lovely!

We haven't had any snow yet, it's just been frozen solid and now it's raining. I'd love some snow, just to make everything look different for a while.

No snow here either. Yesterday was beautiful with ice/hard frost, but it's rained overnight & now so it's just cold & wet nothing. DS & I don't really want to leave the house tbh.
If there was snow he'd be out there in a shot!

Also lacking in snow. It’s considerably warmer today, so psyching myself up for some bulb-planting.