Roses

Six on Saturday 11th June

greengirlgardener6 Comments

I’m away this weekend on a girls mini break so I’m being organised and drafting this post in advance so I can just press send on Saturday when I’ll be mostly hot tubbing, afternoon teaing and Prosecco/Pimmsing! I decided I had to do a post this week because there’s a riot of colour and gorgeousness occurring outside our back door and it really needs sharing.

I’m amazed by how much pink there is, and I’ve even added to the existing pink. I really don’t like pink (especially baby pink) anywhere but in plant form, but four of my six points this week are resplendent in pink.

First is one of my new purchases. Have you ever seen more beautiful leaves anywhere in your life? I haven’t. This gorgeous coleus came from a garden centre in Liphook last weekend when I went to visit my mum. It was just impossible for it not to come home with me. It’s in a pot on our bistro which I can see from my home office, and it’s next to ….

…. my second point, and second pink purchase from Liphook. I have to have a dahlia every summer, and just look at this beauty. Shocking pink and shockingly gorgeous!

Taking a break from the pink with a more sedate yellow is this rose. It’s rose Sweet Memories and it’s in one of granny’s pots. No doubt I’ll share it again once it’s fully open, but there is something special about the anticipation of a closed rose so I wanted to share it now.

Another new purchase, but this one from closer to home when we took a trip over to Notcutts. I had a voucher for fifty percent off any plant over £30 which I used to buy a magnolia (still in its pot – not sure where to put it!) and I couldn’t resist this coprosma. Very autumnal colours and completely up my alley! Need to find somewhere for this too.

Back to the pink, and it’s a fuchsia. This is the oldest fuchsia that I have, and it’s the most reliable! I’ve got some fancy pants plant food from QVC and I think I’ll try it out on this fuchsia and see if she benefits. Fuchsias always make me think of my grandad and bring a smile to my face.

Finally, and sticking with the pink, our peonies are flowering. Baby pink, I know, but they’re so flouncy with it that I don’t mind the colour. They remind me of those ruffled over pants that people used to put over babies nappies in the 70s. They’d been threatening to burst into bloom for more than a week and then they chose the day before the heavens opened in biblical fashion, to show their wares, and then promptly collapsed under the weight of the rain! I’ve propped them up as best I can and reminded myself that I should listen to Monty Don when he tells us to support plants before they need it, not after!

Right then. I need to go and pack some clothes for this weekend and, importantly, check that I’ve got the Prosecco and Pimms ready. Hopefully I’ll have time in between hot tubbing and scoffing scones to have a peruse of other Sixes over at the Propagator’s blog. Have a great weekend all.

Six on Saturday 29th January

greengirlgardener4 Comments

Whoop! Last Six of January! I know February’s not much better than January in terms of gardening, but it’s next to March and that is definitely spring and therefore better all round!

I struggled to find six things worthy of posting today, hence my last two photos are more garden hardware than software, if that analogy works? My first two points though, are thanks to a trip to the garden centre this morning to buy the hardware in the final point. I couldn’t resist saving them from the sale table.

First is a buddleja. I now need to find somewhere big enough and sunny enough to plant it. The buddleja we already have was a sale table find and that’s done really well so I have no doubt that this one will thrive too, if I can find the right home for it. It will probably have to be at the end of the garden.

The second find was this hebe. Now, I know I already have loads of hebes (probably about six) but as far as I’m concerned there’s no such thing as too many hebes. I love them, and they do seem to do well in our garden. I may put this one in the border that you can see behind to the right of it.

On to a couple of established plants. I thought it was about time I gave my mystery plant that no one seems to be able to identify some airtime. It’s still lovely and is still doing well. Not bad for a 50p bargain find! It’s very forgiving – I literally do nothing to it other than smile at it!

Next is my rose ‘Hot Chocolate’. It needs pruning but as usual I haven’t got round to it and now it’s already produced new growth.

Now on to the hardware. We have a little black cat who visits us every day and, although I’m sure he has a home because he’s well groomed and very friendly, I think he wants to live with us. That can’t be because our furry girls aren’t keen on him, but he does insist on sitting in our garden even in the most inclement of weather so we got a little house for him so he can sit in it out of the snow and rain if he doesn’t want to go home.

Finally, the reason for our trip to the garden centre this morning. We’ve been talking about having a pond for years but have never got round it it. Now we’ve at least made the first step. Just got to dig a big hole now!

I’m off to see what delights the Propagator has posted today. Have a good weekend all.

Six on Saturday 23rd October

greengirlgardener13 Comments

Hi! I’m supposed to be doing my Tesco online shop, but the website’s been down all day, so here I am instead, having taken a sojourn in the garden to do some autumn tidying and found that, actually, there’s still plenty of botanical goings-on out there that are worthy of reporting.

It’s a mix of seasons out there so I’m going to start with a couple of reminders of summer that are still lingering on out there with hope in their hearts. The first is specifically for my aunt with whom I share a love of these gorgeous giant begonias in apricot shades. She sent me a picture of one of hers earlier this week and I reported back, with some envy, that mine were fading fast, but, look ……

….. this definitely isn’t fading!! How does nature know how to create something so beautiful?! I was intending to clear the wheelbarrow planter that the begonias lived in this summer, but I couldn’t resign this to the green bin.

The second point is cosmos. I grew these from seed and they’ve got huge!! I planted them in between my sweet peas (which were a bit of a flop this year) and my runner beans which were whatever the opposite of a flop is (flap?) I cleared the flop and flap and then had to prop the cosmos up once their bed fellows’ support had gone. Such a pretty colour and there are dozens of buds waiting to burst open. Fingers crossed that the weather stays mild enough to facilitate some late magenta blooming.

Moving on to more autumnal offerings and I decided to share some white frothiness.

On the left is my favourite eupatorium. I’ve a feeling I wrote a few weeks ago that the flowers of the eupatorium were somewhat of a let down after their beautiful purple and green foliage during the summer, but actually, this year the flowers are gorgeous and far more plentiful than in previous years. There’s something of a bubble bath about them.

Bubbling away next to the eupatorium is my fatsia japonica. The leaves are definitely the star of this mottled beauty, but the flowers and weird raspberry-esque fruits are worthy of a mention. They really are most unusual and eye-catching.

Next up, I’m forced to reluctantly admit that winter is on its way by the appearance of hellebore flowers in my birthday planter. Hopefully they’ll get a bit bigger because they’re currently hidden under the profusion of leaves and it would be nice to see them poke their little heads out to look around. I have another hellebore which bears velvet-like purple flowers, but there’s no sign of those appearing yet.

My granny is the link between these final two points, the first of which I think is appropriate to continue my winter theme from the previous point. I may be wrong because I’ve never grown these nerines before, but they look to me like they’re gearing up to do something! They came from granny’s garden after she passed away and I really wasn’t sure where they’d like to be, so I planted them here in the space left by a geranium that I removed, and kept my fingers crossed.

For the final point I’m thinking positive, and forward to next summer. I bought this rose after granny died because it shares her name, it’s Sheila’s perfume. I think I shared a photo of its flower in an earlier Six, it has stunning rhubarb and custard coloured petals and an amazing scent. I pulled out a tree rose that had some kind of infestation and put Sheila in its place. It had been in its pot for some time whilst I found space for it, so I was worried it might not thrive, but here you can see some promising new growth so I’m hopeful for success next year.

Right, I’m off to check Tesco’s website to see if I can update my order for tomorrow or if we’re going to get a bag of cat litter delivered!! Whilst I’m doing that, why don’t you pop over to visit the Propagator to see his Six this week?