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The gardening thread

First auricula from my seedlings. True, it is one lone flower but a lovely clear red. Germination too - after anxious weeks (months, years) things are waking up. Lewisia, various St John's worts and a new (to me) pink poppy - p.dubium albiflora lecoquii, aka Beth's Poppy. All my dye plants are up too so I have to get as many in the ground, as soon as I decently can (weeds, weather).
 
Yuck - woke up to heavy rain on top of the rain from yesterday, parts of my garden now have puddles on the puddles.
And too little new spring growth to suck the wet up ... Will have to keep off large part of the area for several days, which is potentially a problem as I still need to do some tree and shrub pruning.
Missing the greenhouse ...
 
gentlegreen said:
I've ordered reseda odorata to go with my night-scented stocks - are there any other smelly stocks I could also try ?
Click to expand...

Yep, matthioli incana, aka Brompton stocks are usually grown as annuals but, with good drainage, will be reliably perennial. Supposedly up in 10 weeks from sowing (I would take that to mean germination), Chilterns sell seeds, along with a great many other seed merchants. Can often be had in trays with wallflowers, bellis and such for pennies.
 
Just started harvesting the first of the broad beans , can't stop nibbling them raw. I have a surplus of turnips but I'm letting them go to seed a little as the shoots are delicious steamed with butted and pepper. Got some lettuce on the go now will plant the tomato plants out under plastic bottles in a week or ten days time. It's about 18-20c here during the day but about 10c at night. It's been a long slow Spring, this time last year it was about 25c and sunny .
 
This year's "sub-tropical" seeds have been ordered.

I'm starting late, but I have the technology indoors to speed things up :)

I thought I would have another attempt at growing pot marigolds - in spite of my garden being a festering petri dish of fungal spores.
I've had a 3 or 4 year gap since I last grew nicotiana affinis, so I'm feeling lucky.
I may try spraying prophylactically with citrus disinfectant or neem :hmm:

ebayseeds.png

I'm really going to town with the Ricinus - three varieties I haven't grown before.

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I have a dahlia dilemma.

I can probably use two plants this year, but I have the potential to raise half a dozen just by separating the tubers - even before I start taking the new shoots as cuttings ...

Will I get bigger plants by leaving more tubers in place, or is there nothing to be gained.
This plant started off as quite a small tuber last year...

It did well for being in a 14 litre bucket with a resident ant colony :)

dahliatuber.jpg
 
Hey, GG, I am also growing persicaria (apart from the dye plants). I have persicaria orientalis, or 'kiss me over the garden gate' - a 5 footer which I am going to grow with heliopsis 'Summer Nights' and molinia 'Skyracer. I stratified them in the fridge (Deno method) after a germination fail last year - the first 3 are up so very excited.
Commercially, the best dahlias are raised from cuttings taken from tubers forced into early growth.
 
Wow thanks for the tip :)
That persicaria will fit right in with my pink garden and I like the opportunity to show the good side of the knotweed family :)
And I reckon I need an umbellifer ... :hmm:

In a similar vein, perhaps I could fill the initial gaps with giant red amaranth - so I may have to order more seeds.

(Who would have guessed I'm supposed to be living in a different country in 3 years' time ? )

My giant pink wallflowers aren't getting very giant. :hmm:
The time I grew them before, they were more stretched and straggly than tall...

The eyes on those dahlia tubers are so difficult to see, I only made one split before chickening out, so I will plant the whole things and wait for the shoots ...
 
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:cool:

The plant itself raises spikiness to a whole different level. It's not just the usual spikes at the end of the leaves but barbed spikes on the edges of the leaves too. Stick your hand and forearm into a mature one of these and get used to being firmly attached to a Puya alpestris for the foreseeable future or until being detached by a team of skilled surgeons. The closely related and much bigger and more terrifying species known as Puya raimondii is often fed by the rotting remains of woolly beasts that accidently brushed past them and never escaped their ghastly clutches.
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From Puya alpestris
 
A couple of auriculas looking definitely dodge...heartsink time when pots tipped out. There they are, the maggoty little shitters - vine weevil larvae, gearing up for the feast. I am normally tender-hearted when it comes to dealing with pests - snails are carefully relocated (on the other side of a busy road)...but vine weevils went down the toilet. Stumped up for nematodes as I have a whole bunch of new auriculas (from hand-pollinated Barnhaven seed, sown almost 3 years ago), hopefully with new colour breaks.
My eldest is very keen on tropicals, gentlegreen, especially UK hardy ones (and yep, he also does the ricinus thing along with various fast growing climbers (mina lobata, ipomea coccinea, thunbergia alata and cobaens scandens (rampant)...and alstroemerias and salvias for perennial planting (plus the usual cannas and dahlias). I am more of a 'flowery meadow' type and never go in for winter protection faffing. Idle.
 
This is the time of year when the emergence of cockchafers reminds me to rootle around in my brugmansias for the massive grubs - bloody annoying that the birds won't touch them - perhaps they taste bad ... touch wood the brugs can take a bit of chomping.
My main plague is lily beetles and the buggers are turning up already even before there's much for them to chew on.

The front garden compost bin will shortly be offered to anyone passing who wants it.
From now on I will be chucking waste food down the end of the back garden instead.

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Teenager's just given the lawn the first mow of the year. I held the cable and a cup of tea. Going to see if any of the wood is dry enough to burn and if so the chiminea will get fired up later. Lovely day today and next week looks really promising at last.
 
i did the slugs - too late or no. i was envying my mum's bay tree today. it's about 25 now i gave it to her for a birthday (presumably 50) and it's glorious. mine is a poor sad twisted wreck but i feel i owe it some love this year, maybe a repotting :) anyone have any bay tree tips and tricks?
 
Finally got round to a couple of dump runs to clear away the usually accumalation of winter junk!! Then spent a couple of hours weeding and tidying to get things looking nice.

I want to get some new aqautics for the nature part of the pond, some herbs, probably some foxgloves. lamb1979 will be in charge of pots and flowers.


PSX_20180415_184837.jpg PSX_20180415_184751.jpg
 
Got some saffron crocuses from a project in town that's closed after growing them for a ?couple of years.

Only a dozen so not expecting a huge crop...I'll probably be lucky if they take tbh but nice to re-home some plants.

Garden looks a mess and I'm not 100% at the moment so will have to leave for a while before getting out there properly. Really want to get out there though!
 
gentlegreen said:
I have a dahlia dilemma.
Click to expand...
Have they sprouted yet? I planted mine in pots in the conservatory in the first week in April. Was away for a week so they got put outside on April 7th. Still no sign of any growth. Can't remember how long they take.
 
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