🌼Flowers Are Popping Open In My #Hampshire Garden For This Week’s #SixOnSaturday Post. #GardeningTwitter #GardeningAddict

Posted on May 20, 2023 by Rosie Amber

This week we have seen high winds, cool nights and sunny spells. I am at that stage when I am eager to get everything out into the garden, but it’s all a bit of a risk. Is anyone else feeling … Continue reading →

Popping With Spring Blooms #SixOnSaturday #GardenTwitter

Posted on April 9, 2022 by Rosie Amber

The first full week in April has thrown all sorts of weather at us here in Hampshire. At times it has felt like a gauntlet run just to get down to the bottom of the garden.

Now a quick public service message: Yesterday I found out that WordPress are making lots of price changes to their blog plans. I currently use the free WordPress, but I am conscious of how much media space I use weekly in posts, which they want to cap. It’s not the only thing to be aware of. It’s worth reading BookerTalk’s post about it all here.

Back to the Six. Last week I was very pleased when I discovered the name of one of my plants, that we inherited with the garden, after seeing it featured on Graeme’s post. Viburnum carlesii, Korean Spice or Arrowwood. Mine is just coming into bloom. It has a lovely fragrance.

Second photo goes to the Heart’s Tongue Fern which is beginning its new growth. This one is in a shady patch otherwise I don’t think it would like my sandy heath land soil.

Third photo goes to my Tulips, yellow with some orange stripes. Not sure of the variety.

My fourth photo is of a plant rescued from a skip this week. It looks like an Elephant Foot Yucca. My husband arrived home with it on Monday. I gave it a hair cut to removed the dead leaves. Next job is to investigate repotting it.

Photo five is of a cheeky Kerria Japonica Plentiflora, which is trying to invade from next door’s garden. We had the same invasion tactics from this plant at our last house.

Last photo goes to the white bluebells. I always thought that they were domestic flowers rather than wild ones like their blue cousins. However, I defer to the experts for the answer to this.

Thank you for joining me for this #SixOnSaturday post. I hope that you enjoyed it. If you would like to know more about this hashtag, read founder Mr Propagator’s post here also find him on Twitter here.

Happy gardening

Rosie

I shall scatter a few links to other gardening posts below:

Mr P’s post for the week
It’s autumn in Sarah’s Australian garden.
Pádraig’s got a bit of a sing-song going on.
Graeme’s got Tulips out.
Check out Fred’s Abies Pinsapo
More news form My Secret Garden’s internship.
Autumn is drawing in in New Zealand gardens.
Doc’s creeping Jenny and the Heucherella look great.
Granny’s wild garlic is going wild!

Oh To Be In England Now That April Has Arrived. #SixOnSaturday #GardenTwitter

Posted on April 2, 2022 by Rosie Amber

In true English weather style, we have plummeted from the dizzy double digit heights and sunny days to single numbers, cold easterly (Siberian maybe?) winds and sleety showers. Brrr! 🥶

In between the extreme weather conditions I darted outside for a few photos. Although I seem to have a brown theme going on with the photos this week. Very un-spring like.

Photo one – meet Phil doing his version of a yoga reverse down dog pose. This cheeky chappy thinks he (or she, I don’t know if it is a dog or vixen, but I think it is one of last year’s cubs) is our pet dog. Phil trots into our garden from next door’s unoccupied (soon to be occupied) plot; most days he has a snooze in the sun and a good mooch around the garden. If we are out there, he follows us around, sits close by and is inquisitive about what we are doing. He stole my gardening glove recently when I wasn’t looking and enjoyed my game of chase to get it back. He’s rarely afraid of us and is often half a pace behind me. We don’t feed him, we’re from farming families. The only time I gave him something was a dead rat that I’d recently caught. All he did was play with it for hours, throwing it about and playing a game of cat-and-rat with the magpies over who got the body.

It’s been an odd week, not just with the weather (although that’s been typically English.) I spotted these toadstools on the front lawn. Toadstools in March? 🤔 I’m not sure what these are, at first I thought of Woodland Blewit, but having poured over an old mushroom identity book I’m more inclined to think that they are Mycena Pura or Lilac Bonnet a radish smelling poisonous species. Although I’ve not been back for a sniff.

Third photo goes to the Blue bells that are budding up. These ones run along the bordering fence in a shady but sheltered spot. (A few weeks ago I mistook some budding Hyacinths for Bluebells – oops!)

The Lilac is almost out too. Lots of buds on last year’s growth. I am getting the hang of when to prune this now.

After pruning back the variegated laurel a few weeks ago, it is now flowering. Is this odd when it also has red berries?

Last photo goes to a pretty little Saxifraga which I bought when we were in B&Q getting some paint. I do enjoy rummaging around the plant section there, it’s usually reasonably priced. It’s in a pot with some of my solar lights. I don’t have a garden path for these lights to adorn, which is probably a good thing as they are rather bright and flashy, I wouldn’t want them to confuse the aircraft coming into land at the nearby airport.

The weekend’s job is the put together the new wheelbarrow that I got after a very heavy hint – for Mother’s day. What more could a happy gardener ask for?

Happy gardening

Rosie

Once more I shall add some links to fellow gardening posts. Starting with:

Notes from the Under Gardener (Not an SOSer, but still a post that I enjoy each week)
Pádraig had a mid-week snippet about the weather from Irish folklore: The Riabhach Days.
Cathy has an end of month update on her garden. I love all the nooks and crannies for plants and seating.
Lots going on in Pádraig’s garden.
My P’s going to have a great Tulip display with all his pots.
Fred has some pretty Wallflowers
Really pleased to see Viburnum carlesii on Graeme’s blog, it gave me a name for a plant in my own garden.
Men’s garden projects for TopDoc.
Frosty pictures from Granny’s graden.
Ronnie has lots of Wallflowers.
Garden jobs and a new Pergola on N20’s plot.
The Quilted gardener show us the fern wall.
Pauline’s Fritillaria stole the show.
Jim has news of a Spring garden show.
Harebells and Maples has some hanging basket ideas.
Off The Hedge has a mini sink to think about for a new project.
Flower arch from Mom In the Garden.

It’s Gonna Be A Bright Sunshiny… #SixOnSaturday @cavershamjj

Posted on February 19, 2022 by Rosie Amber

As I begin writing this post on Thursday, here in the UK we have a lull between storm Dudley and storm Eunice. So I’m crossing my fingers that everyone’s gardens in the UK and northern Europe survived without too much damage.

If you do need cheering up, I start with a photo which might appeal to some of you. I saw a picture of this on Instagram and while surfing the net, with it in mind, I discovered that I could own my very own T-shirt with just a simple click. (It comes in 7 colours if pink isn’t your thing!)

Back to the garden photos, with number two. I was very pleased to see the ornamental cherry that we share with the neighbour is just beginning to blossom.

Photo three is of various Polyanthus, I do like the multitude of colours that these plants come in.

Photo four is of the flowering current, which is just starting to form its buds.

I spotted the the fifth photo during storm Dudley, but it wasn’t until the following morning that I could see if the flowers had survived. Two flowers with a little storm damage. I’m hoping that some of you can tell me the variety?

Lastly, ‘Just what are you doing now?’ Ask my family. These are some of my version of Cob bricks which have been drying for a few weeks. I shall keep them drying until March when they will be added to my bee wall. They are made from natural clay, grass and dry bracken found in the woodland. Hairy-footed bumblebees like to use clay when building their nests, so I am hoping to attract more insect life to my garden with these.

Happy gardening

Rosie

Buff-Tailed Bumblebee Enjoys The Mahonia #SixOnSaturday @cavershamjj

Posted on January 22, 2022 by Rosie Amber

This week in Hampshire we’ve had lots of frosty mornings and some sunny afternoons. I was very excited to spot a Buff-tailed bumblebee enjoying the Mahonia. I had only recently discovered that this species is now staying active all year. British bees are one of my new addictions after reading Dancing With Bees by Brigit Strawbridge Howard. If this interests you, my review of her book can be read here. Brigit is also on Twitter and has a fantastic feed for nature enthusiasts. @B_Strawbridge

So first photo goes to this lovely Buff-tailed bumblebee which I chased all around my Mahonia to get the photo! With more bees likely to acclimatise to global warming and staying active all year a Mahonia is a good choice of winter flowering plant for them.

My second photo is Japonica (I think?) or spotted laurel also called Japanese laurel, Japanese aucuba or gold dust plant. This one’s berries are just starting to turn red.

Third spot this week goes to a favourite of mine this ‘old fashioned’ Marigold. I bought these seeds years ago after a day at Weald And Downland Living Museum. I’m not sure what variety they are but they keep growing each year. Last year I took a couple of cuttings; they are slow to take but I was very pleased to be able to plant them out. There’s even a new bud showing in January!

My fourth photo is of the first new bud on this cyclamen. I learnt something new when I was researching details about this plant. It is also called sow bread because the corms can look like small loaves and were thought to have been favoured by pigs in the wild.

Fifth place goes to what I hope is Viburnum Tinus also known as laurustinus, laurustine or laurestine. It comes from the Mediterranean area of Europe and North Africa and later it has tiny blue/black berries. This one’s only a small shrub, when we moved to this house it was struggling to thrive when surrounded by ground elder.

Lastly, another yellow flowered plant, I didn’t realise how many yellows were in my garden! I think it is a Primrose rather than a Polyanthus, but I have both, so I’m hedging my bets that this one is a Primrose.