Colour on Dull Days

I show a lot of my large leaved plants on my blog and I think my garden can appear to be very green, Over the years I have gradually introduced more colour.
I chuckle to myself when I think back to helping mum and dad in their garden. Dad being a seafarer really enjoyed working in the garden, he had a veg patch and grew lots of dahlias. In those days I hated dahlias they always seemed to be full of earwigs, so here we are at least 50 years further on and what am I growing.....

Lots of dahlias lol!

This group of dahlias is from Thompson and Morgan 'Harlequin Mix' they come as tiny plug plants which you bring on and then plant out.

I love the different colours and shapes,

not an earwig in sight..

some just simple and plain

others pretty and blowsy

 including pastel colours too

I have more in the rest of the garden that have not yet flowered, so I can show you those another time.

These have all been planted in the large trough down by the pond. I know it still seems pretty green, to be honest my camera doesn't do it justice, plus there are still loads of buds to bloom.

What it does do is disguise the fence and makes the seating area very 'cosy'.

I think the best is still to come.

At the very bottom of the garden I have a large trellis which I have sent a couple of clematis up. This helps hide the greenhouse.

These clematis have gone mad this year, absolutely smothering the trellis with masses of flowers.

I keep having to cut it back as it stretches to take over anything in its reach, whilst also trying to stop my neighbours Clematis Montana, planted on a small trellis from trespassing and taking over my trellis and my garden!

She 'my neighbour' also has a very vigorous Euphorbia which I am forever having to dig out of my beds as it tries to invade. Ironically it can hardly be seen her side, preferring mine!!! Not that I don't like Euphorbia just not in the beds it invades!!

Now Begonias!!! My mums favourite. I have never really liked them, its the flowers I don't like, but since I have planted them, they have flowered and flowered and flowered. So I now get why they are so popular, doesn't mean I like them.

The hanging basket is amazing, Begonia Apricot Shades  also from Thompson and Morgan. Stunning colours, simple to look after, I water daily, feed once a week and don't even really dead head. The window box is behind, as I ordered extra plants which failed to turn up due to unprecedented demand.

So would I order them again, unfortunately yes. You may laugh even though I don't like the flowers their colour right from day one has been amazing. 

There is an elderly lady in the village who has huge begonia displays year in, year out, they always look so good, no matter what the weather does.

Hubby went to buy a fish the other day and came back from the garden centre with this..

A hardy Hibiscus, the colour is stunning and it looks gorgeous on our patio. Now whether it is hardy or not in my garden we will see!

Now the tomatoes, in the Vivigrow,  well what can I say , they are growing... lots

The roots have gone mad and I have to top it up very regularly as the guzzle water. I think my only worry is how close the all are.

I have missed a few of the side shoots, so I have a couple which are huge and have tomatoes on, I never know at this stage whether to take them off or not, so currently the are still on!

See you next time x

#thompson&morgan  #harleqindahlias  #begoniaapricotshades #greenhousesensation #vivigrow 

I Love my Greenhouse

I can spend ages in it, I only wish it was bigger. That is what all greenhouse owners say no matter what size of greenhouse they have. I love the earthy damp smell in there.
I have surprised myself this year by only having a minimum temp of  5C, the thermostat was set at 7C which has given a very steady 5C continuously and so far everything has come through fine.

My Hiniba pups after a bad month, they all looked like they were going to die, but hopefully seem to be improving. It has been difficult trying to second guess what they needed, as too much water would just rot away the roots so a light liquid seaweed feed, seems to have helped.

 and there is rather a lot of them.

I have potted all my dahlia tubers up into damp soil, quite scary just how many I have.

There are also some Elephants ears (Colocasia) in amongst them.

This year I overwintered my Ensetes in two different ways, after listening to some 'tropical' friends. Usually I dry store mine, digging them up, trimming and washing the roots then storing them upside down so no water gathers inside and rots them. This has been successful for me over the past 10+ years, but latterly (The past two winters) when I have planted them in the spring to restart them they have either failed to get going or have rotted at the base.
This year bearing in mind I had some very newly grown Hiniba which only had a small trunk, (they say if you get your finger a thumb from both hands to form a circle around the trunk, then it is too small to over winter dry). So whether I wanted to or not I had to store some in their pots.

As you can see they have not done too badly. It has been relatively mild so they have had a small amount of water but not a lot.

I have just potted up the dry stored Ensete the two on the right

the one in the middle was stored in its pot and as you can see with just a small amount of water is already romping away. The one on the left of this is a dry stored one.

It will be interesting to log the difference in them getting going but already it looks like the pot stored ones will be the easiest. I have found in past years when I start the dry store ones off, in very slightly damp compost, they seem to have to think about getting going and it can take quite a few weeks. The problem here is you feel you 'have' to water them and this can be when they start to rot.

When I was digging out in the autumn my Fuschia arborescens was still flowering and it was such a pretty shrub, but sadly not hardy for me. This was the first year I have tried it, so as I had some room in my greenhouse, I cut it back severely  took cuttings and hoped.

Here it is today and the cuttings have done well too.

I also over winter Lobelia Tupa and took cuttings and you can just see them to the right in the photo above looking good.

I bought a beautiful Salvia Amistad from Sarah Raven, I really love her plants, always very healthy and although I am sure she does mass produce them they are of a far better quality than any of the other companies I have bought from, but they do come at a price. So thinking ahead (very rare) and trying to save a few pennies, (also rare) now hubby has retired, I took a load of cuttings, which have been doing really well until this month!

They are watered and I have given a very small liquid seaweed feed, mmmmm?? We can but hope.

Just to show just how mild the winter has been.... my Musa Basjoo are still upright! I never wrap them, I could and maybe should but bringing a bale of hay through my house (I have no rear access) does not inspire me to do so. If they die back they are root hardy and will soon romp away again.

The first frogspawn, a bit late, but we have some!

I am off to look at plant catalogues as I need to find something that will out do the bush sunflowers I had in the front last year,they were magnificent, continual flowering, the bees, loved them...

but they required more support than I had allowed for and so collapsed quite early (Sept), But they where spectacular and lots of people stopped and asked me about them. So we will see.........

Autumn Colour

In a tropical garden in October.

The Agave has been phenomenal this year, I cannot believe how much it has grown

the colours are stunning too.

This red is a really, red, red. The photo does not do it justice sadly.

Ricinus flowers and seed heads. Since my old camera died I have had to manage with a little 2nd hand one I picked up and sadly it does not do the colours justice.

These are a stunning pinky red. I have never managed to get seed from them in previous years, heres hoping I will this year.

Echeveria 'Pinky' beautiful

Dahlias coming to and end now. I was never a big fan of dahlias, I can always remember Dad growing them and relating them to 'earwigs'. But now, well as you can see I am a bit of a fan!

Can't for the life of me remember the name of this next plant, it will probably come to me in the middle of the night sometime. Not quite sure where it came from, so I am assuming it self seeded.I have a couple around the garden but this is the best.

Canna, not my favourite but its bright. I know a lot of my 'Tropicals' friends leave these in the garden to over winter and the clump gets bigger and bigger. Not sure if I'm brave enough to chance it.

This Salvia is stunning, I bought 3 from Sarah Raven this year. Althogh all identical they have grown totally differently, 2 have hit 5ft easily and the 3rd about 3ft. The colour is a stunning purply blue. I am thrilled with them, I hope they survive the winter.

Apologies for the lack of posts, it has been a manic September, with nearly 1000 miles of driving to get us and my mum to my nieces wedding, then get mum home again in just 5 days. Prior to this my car died, so we had to hire one for the wedding, then hubby ended up in hospital. Then a car hunt to buy a new (to us) one.
I am hoping for a calmer October! I shall leave you with some pics from my nieces wedding.

Dirty Hands & Scratches

One of the reasons I was banned from the garden in the run up to the wedding. Today was my first 'full' day in the garden and you can tell.......

Lots done, well I thought lots had been done, till I looked back at the photos and actually it doesn't look much, but my back tells me it was!!

Today the overwintered bananas (Ensete, Maurelli and Hiniba) have all be potted up. This should have been done a few weeks ago, but I expect they will catch up.

It always amazes me, how dead they look. Although when you pick them up they have a lot of weight in them. The Hiniba above weighs a ton. I think if it grows anything like it did last year, I won't be able to dig it out. If that is the case I will cut it up for propagation. A post for later in the year!

I store them all identically, turning them upside down for 3 - 4 weeks to aid drainage. Then turning them the right way round, after that. I don't have a frost free garage, which is where most people store theirs for the rest of the winter. Mine get stored in a heated greenhouse, probably not ideal due to the damp conditions, but its what I have done for years.

I usually lose a couple each year, and I thought this next one was a 'goner' with the mould on it

Trim off all the dead stuff and its fine.

This next one is a 'Red Tiger' it has stripy coloured leaves and always has a slim trunk. This is one of the ones, I never expect to come through the winter. The trunk is solid and actually quite heavy.

This is one of my Maurelli's,

Having stripped back all the dead leaves, and chopped off the top, it still amazes me how moist they are. This one is not looking good, as you can see the brown bit just off centre usually means its rotten. The fact it is 'off' centre is why I have held on to it, the growth tip 'may' be fine. The again it may not, but only time will tell!

I then went on and potted up my Cannas, Dahlias, Xanthasoma and Elephants ears.

Still room for a few more.

I have all my seeds to sow yet! May start that tomorrow.

Then to finish off I did something I had tried to employ a gardener to do, dig out the TRex. This was growing at a far faster rate than expected and after some research I found this 'could' hit heights of 40ft!!!!

A little bit too big for the patio, so out it came and in went the Chamaerops Humilis, this is definately slow growing, probably a bit, too, slow growing, but at least I won't need to dig it out again (I hope)

I just need to find something to grow that will cover the water butt.
Just writing this I already don't like it. I am a very visual person, I have to see it in place, before I can say if I like it..... I don't like this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Any suggestions????