With very little flowering in my garden recently, I took a two week break over the festive period.
January 7th
So what plants are waving hello today?
Starting with this lovely vibrant pink Hyacinth, just one from a bowl given to me as a festive gift. The others are slowly emerging.
Pink Hyacinth
Second photo goes to this white variety of Jasmine. This was given to my husband two years ago for his April birthday when it was in full bloom. I have taken a successful cutting of it. Neither flowered last year, but now both are budding up this January.
Jasmine
Third photo is of some ‘mystery’ bulbs shooting up. My best guess is that they are bluebells, but as that is quite early, they may be Hyacinths. I can’t remember where I planted everything, so they will be a surprise when they flower.
Bulbs
Not far away from the mystery bulbs, the flowering currant is forming buds.
Flowering Currant Buds
Fifth photo goes to the yellow winter Jasmine which is brightening up a wooden fence.
Winter Jasmine
Lastly is a wonderfully ‘out of focus’😏Polyanthus in my favourite purple colour.
Polyanthus
Thank you for joining me for this #SixOnSaturday post. I hope that you enjoyed it. Jim is now our host for this gardening meme and you can find his blog here where you will be able to catch up with links from all the other folks who take part.
Well that’s another month almost finished. The year seems to be racing to the end. This week I’m bringing you photos from my indoor flowers and just a couple from the garden.
November 26th
First picture is of this Begonia flower. This is an offshoot of a rescue plant from last year. Neither plant has really impressed me, the stems and leaves break off easily and they are often miffy about my watering. However, this one is now producing some lovely flowers.
Begonia
Photo two is of one of the purple African Violets (I have pink ones too) The thick leaves got some sunburn during the drought, but they are recovering now.
African Violet
The third photo is of something slow growing and fun. Lithops or Living Stone plants grown from seed. I had six seeds in the pack. Five germinated, I lost two, but these three now look a little more lively. I have included a photo of the seed packet for you to get a better idea of what they might grow into.
Lithops – Living Stone
Fourth photo is of the changing colours of the garden Beech hedge.
Beech Hedge
Fifth photo is of the buds on the Camelia which are forming.
Camelia
Lastly some of my baby Poinsettia are now ready to produce their red flowers. The leaves have turned red quicker than previous years. I’m hoping to get a Poinsettia with different coloured leaves to experiment with next.
Poinsettia Flower
Thank you for joining me for this #SixOnSaturday post. I hope that you enjoyed it. Jim is now our host for this gardening meme and you can find his blog here where you will be able to catch up with links from all the other folks who take part.
Happy gardening
Rosie
November 26th
Here’s the link to Jim’s post for this week where you can see others who is taking part.
🎶Chain saws to the right of me, house renovations to the left – stuck in the middle with you!🎶
It’s been a noisy week. One neighbour has been having trees cut down and the stumps removed. The other neighbour has recently moved in and is fully renovating the house and garden. The upside is that we will get more light in the garden and less leaf fall onto our plot in the autumn.
Six on Saturday 28th May
Starting this week with the view of the front rose which I have trailing along the porch. Nestled in the decorative watering can above the hanging basket, a robin has made its nest. I’m hoping that the rose will protect the nest from the marauding magpies.
Yellow roses
Second photo is of a pot of mixed coloured dwarf dahlias. I’ve planted the whole packet and have more seedlings coming through in stages. They were great germinators on the conservatory windowsill. The dwarf size appeals to me as hopefully they won’t need staking.
Mixed colour Dwarf Dahlias
The next photo is of the delicious scented Honeysuckle. It always makes me think of my Gran who liked Honeysuckle but always claimed that it gave her hay-fever.
Honeysuckle
Fourth photo is of the everlasting Geraniums which are just coming into flower. I have planted cuttings of these elsewhere around the garden as they seem happy growing in these soils.
Pink everlasting Geraniums
The next photo is of the super strength Harebells that are elbowing their way out of the swamp of the Kolkwitzia which is threatening their existence. I have taken a cutting of the Harebells and planted it elsewhere in the garden and the Kolkwitzia (thank you Harriet for naming this plant) will be getting a haircut after it finishes flowering.
Harebells
Final photo this week goes to this Sweet William grown from a cutting. I shall take more cuttings as this was a success.
Sweet Williams
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.
Wednesday gave us a small drop of rain to quench the thirsty plants and ground. I had buckets and bowls out to save as much as I could. I have also stopped using the dishwasher for a while and am saving all the grey water for the garden. Now, on to this week’s gardening six.
First photo goes to a stunning new-to-me Dahlia with the wonderful name of ‘Sunshine’. I planted up my dahlia’s a bit too soon and they enjoyed the warmth in my conservatory, hence some early flowering. Now to keep the slugs and snails away from them.
Second photo is of the Rock roses, the pink ones are now blooming, the earlier white ones can be seen in the background.
Third photo is of the Spiraea. Not a plant I knew the name of before this week. I saw it in a background shot on Granny’s blog post last week and remembered that I had one. When I checked, it was flowering.
Fourth photo goes to the Ox-eye daisy which is just coming into bloom. This is new to my garden this year.
Another new ‘wild plant’ is this Jacob’s Ladder. Both this and the Ox-eye are part of my wild plant project.
Last photo goes to another dahlia, one I can’t find the name of. I bought it last year in a collection from Sarah Raven, but I threw away all the details and can’t quite find a match on her website.
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.
Cool dry days, a sprinkle of rain and the promise of a warm weekend. That sums up my week.
Photo one is a plea for plant identity. This plant we inherited with the garden. It grows profusely in long branches with single leaves along each branch. The small flowers are pink with a fluffy texture, but I don’t know it’s name. Below are two photos of this plant, one has some recent frost damage to the leaves. Any thoughts on a name would be welcome
Photo two is of the tiny flowers on my variegated Tradiscantia.
The third photo goes to my swarm box. My dad keeps bees and if we get a swarm I shall have my own bee hive. The swarm box has some frames with wax in and I have instructions that if I spot a swarm in a nearby tree, I have to get the open box perched as close to the swarm, offering them a fully furnished empty residence which is immediately available for them to move into. No paperwork needed!🤔 My preferred method would be that a passing scout bee spots my empty box and gives the rest of the swarm the heads up and I don’t have to do anything.🐝
Next photo is of the variegated Weigela which is coming into flower.
Fifth photo is the Aquilegia or Columbines which are just starting to flower. Most of mine have naturalised to the purple variety.
Final photo is for the first flowers on my Marigold seedlings which I saved from last summer.
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
Links:
Mr P’s post for you to add you links to if you are joining in with this.
In Ireland Pádraig’s got some chemical free tips on weeds for you.(Just mind your toes!)
The Undergardener has a tip for growing Lily-of-the-Valley.
The Rogue gardener has been having rain that some of us are craving for our gardens.
Brrr! It’s freezing once more. Think of me sat watching my son play cricket this afternoon. I’ll be the one in gloves, coat and a blanket.
First photo goes to a plant that Fred (I think it was Fred) inspired me to try; Butch, my ginger plant. Back on February 8th I planted a ginger root and waited and waited and waited (while keeping it moist under a plastic bag). Then quite recently a green shoot appeared and now it’s growing at a speedy rate. When will I know when to harvest it?
Photo two is some Alium, they are a funny plant, they throw out lots of foliage for a long time ahead of the flowers. Most of the under-gardeners here don’t like them, but when they do flower, they are quite pretty.
Third photo goes to the first flowers on this Weigela. Last year it flowered profusely. It also grows well and it is tempting to prune it hard each year, but I have found that it needs a year of free growth for it to flower the following Spring.
Next is a pot of Lobularia. These were five plug plants bought from Sarah Raven last year, they survived the winter and look to be growing once more. They kept some of the flowers all through the winter. I love the honey fragrance that they give off.
A bit of fun with my sunflower kids. A couple of weeks ago I mentioned the #SunflowerChallenge2022. Last week I planted some of my tallest sunflowers out as they were looking peaky. It was a gamble with the forecast and I have them wrapped at night with a fleece, but they have greened up. The fence that they will grow up was boring, so I got out some paints to give the plants some growing inspiration.
Final photo is of the flourishing rock roses, only the white ones are out at the moment, I have pink ones ready to burst into bloom soon. Perhaps like me they are waiting for the sun to return.
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
Links:
Yesterday Pádraig wrote a poem to celebrate his garden for National Poetry Day.
Happy Easter! We have a few warm days this weekend to get us all outside.
First photo shows my sunflower seedlings. This was taken after I read (on twitter) about the #SunflowerChallenge2022 It is being run from April 1st to September 30th. There are 30 categories and lots of prizes, but more importantly it is about having fun. I have several varieties all under way. 🌻
Second photo goes to this lovely Iris. I was given these two years ago. Last year they didn’t flower, so I dried them out and re-potted them. It looks like I will get another flower from the group soon. I don’t know the variety, but they seem to be very late flowering.
Third photo goes to the first flower from my Red Campion which is part of my wild flowers for pollinators scheme. 🐝
Next photo is of the dark pink Tulips which are coming into flower. Such a lovely shade of colour.
Fifth photo is this blue Hydrangea, which I secretly bought this week. It’s my husband’s birthday 🎁 this weekend and guess what he’s getting? Just what he always wanted! 👇
Last photo goes to my onion sets which I planted out this week. I actually remembered to log on for #GardensHour (Twitter: Mondays 9-10pm GMT) where this was first posted. I met another great bunch of gardeners via the hashtag.
Club cricket season starts here this weekend, with a friendly match for my son’s home team, so Saturday’s will now be a little busier for a few months.
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
Links:
Pádraig has very important information for those about to plant their cucumbers.
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:
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?
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
Once more I shall add some links to fellow gardening posts. Starting with:
We have had some gloriously sunny days this week. The birds are nesting, the bees are buzzing and the flowers are blooming. All I want to do is spend time outside enjoying it all. Every time I hear a bee I’m chasing it to get a photo. I did manage to sit and watch a miner bee digging in the soil to make a nest, but it was up in the woods rather than in my garden. I posted a video of it on my Instagram page here.
First photo is of the Pulmonaria which has finally flowered. It is enjoying the warmer days.
Second photo is of the flowering currant. I did show it last week, but now the blossoms have opened.
Third photo is of the first Forget-Me-Nots just peeping out. A cheeky plant which will self seed everywhere if left to itself.
Next photo is of the tiny Quince bush, since we moved here it has taken me almost three years to discover what it was. An over enthusiastic pair of secateurs were much to blame, but it valiantly survived and produced fruit last autumn. I’m glad that it showed me what it was.
Fifth photo is of the Grape Hyacinths. A pretty little flower which does its own thing year after year.
Last photo goes to the first of this year’s Rock Roses (Montpellier cistus). I only just spotted this one. I grew them from seed; the first year they didn’t flower, but last year I had a wonderful display in various pastel colours. Great for pollinators.
I am now off to repaint the back porch while we have some sunny dry days.
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
Last week I chose to add a few links to others who take part in this meme. I enjoy reading the posts and learning all about plants and I thought you might like to see some of them too. I shall add a few more of last week’s posts here.
Book reviewer and garden enthusiast. Updates from my Hampshire garden. Usually talking about books and plants. People do not forget books or flowers that touch them or excite them—they recommend them.
Book reviewer and garden enthusiast. Updates from my Hampshire garden. Usually talking about books and plants. People do not forget books or flowers that touch them or excite them—they recommend them.
Book reviewer and garden enthusiast. Updates from my Hampshire garden. Usually talking about books and plants. People do not forget books or flowers that touch them or excite them—they recommend them.
Book reviewer and garden enthusiast. Updates from my Hampshire garden. Usually talking about books and plants. People do not forget books or flowers that touch them or excite them—they recommend them.
Rosie Amber 