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My new neighbour has put one in a container out the front to replace a tired old yucca :)
She has similar hopes for the birds. She has a couple more out the back and claims to have actually attracted some finches already.
 
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friedaweed I have seen these growing wild around this area - and Greater Mullein in other places.

apparently, Goldfinches are fond of teasel seed heads ...

gentlegreen - I've had some quite massive thistles in the "wildwood" patch.
[ I did have some pictures - one year, the tallest monster got well over 5ft in height ...]
 
I accidentally snapped a couple of branches off my yellow brugmansia a few weeks back so I stuck it in the bubbler with my watercress ...
A shame it's the yellow one. (I'm fairly sure - for some crazy reason I didn't label them :facepalm:
.
Such a shame they're all three a bit naff - I could have had a stunner by now, but I couldn't get the people on the brug forum to take an interest in discussing fragrance.
I'm going to plant at least one in the ground this year and I may drag the yellow one (at least I think it's the yellow one) back to the back garden to make room for the other things I'm raising from seed. Planted in the ground the other(s) should really take off ...

brugrooted.jpg
 
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So today I have to brave my short ladder - including reaching against my neighbour's porch to put in vine eyes.
Well not quite. I bought some (to my eye) attractive plaited nylon cord rather than wire - I had a tented ceiling once - and was planning to go full sailing in another room and hope in the near future to learn to sail ... so perhaps it's appropriate that I use "rigging" that will be visible for quite a while.

I am waiting to collect my screwfix order that includes stout 55mm eyes for the tension, and 75mm vine eyes to use under compression to keep the mesh away from the wall ...


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The vine eyes turned out to be fairly robust so I'm using those all over.
Not my favourite job teetering on a ladder. All of 5 feet off the ground ...
If I repeat this at a future house I will engineer it like proper ship's rigging and get someone else to do the initial installation.
I am clearly never going to do serious ocean sailing that would require me to climb a mast.
 
Feel for you on that gentlegreen ...

I absolutely hate being up ladders, even very short ones.
If I have the least bit of shake / wobble or a visible drop then I can be really uncomfortable ...
[yet, I can climb all over an engine / carriage at other times - almost "hanging on by my eyelashes" to quote a friend]
Perception of safety has a very variable affect !
 
Can anyone recommend a decent irrigation system, we're going away for 2 weeks in August and have nobody to come and water our plants. They're all in pots so we can place/position/bunch them quite flexibly.
 
Numbers said:
Can anyone recommend a decent irrigation system, we're going away for 2 weeks in August and have nobody to come and water our plants. They're all in pots so we can place/position/bunch them quite flexibly.
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This is the first time in decades I plan to make an effort ... I may drag out the Hoselock timer and plug in my black tubing and spaghetti drippers of various kinds.
 
Well it took me the whole damn day going up and down ladders repeatedly untangling the soft polyester netting from itself and from plants...

If I'd thought it through, I would have cut the 10 metres of netting into three equal drops, but though it looks a bit funky, I doubt I will actually be keeping the "fishing net " over the window ... but I was making it up as I went along. In actual fact there is just enough to cover the front room window convincingly - perhaps I could hang some I suspect at some point I will hang LED strings off it.

It's a shame the net isn't heavier gauge ... I will reserve that for a future home - along with my remembered notion of using rope and sail as false ceilings indoors and doubtless for shelter outdoors ...

longshotnettedhouse.jpg


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A question that has long concerned me: at what stage are seeds viable when they're on a plant? I've been stomping on spanish bluebells and strimming others this year, and they're in flower so I'm hoping the seeds won't survive but I have a sneaking suspicion they will.

Whereas the fritillaries that I've just accidentally strimmed today :mad: do have seed pods but they haven't gone brown yet, and I'm assuming from sod's law that these seeds won't be viable. Anybody know?
 
two sheds said:
A question that has long concerned me: at what stage are seeds viable when they're on a plant? I've been stomping on spanish bluebells and strimming others this year, and they're in flower so I'm hoping the seeds won't survive but I have a sneaking suspicion they will.

Whereas the fritillaries that I've just accidentally strimmed today :mad: do have seed pods but they haven't gone brown yet, and I'm assuming from sod's law that these seeds won't be viable. Anybody know?
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Funny you should post that because I've just been looking:

  • As a rough guide, seed is: ...
    • When flowers have been fertilised and are starting to form fruit or seeds.

    set about two months after flowering
  • Some seed is collected when well-developed but immature and green, such as Anemone nemorosa, calendula and Ranunculus
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and 'set' means "to cause (fruit or seed) to develop"

which would suggest neither will develop :( but mainly :)

Also I see for bluebells:
Wait until the flower heads of the bluebell have dried on the plant and are beginning to crack open. The seed inside should be shiny and black. If they are still green or greenish, they are under-ripe.
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which also suggests they won't propagate.

So just fucking check before taking up other peoples' time with questions :mad:
 
campanula is definitely your go-to for seeds of all sorts ... she has the patience to make things sprout that most of us would give up on.
Touch wood, this year the several dozen kinds of seed I'm sowing have been coming up like cress - even the ones I had to sandpaper and soak.
The ones I'm worried about at the moment are the Mirabilis jalapa, / marvel of Peru / four o'clock flower.
I soaked and sanded them like mad and I eventually had to sow them still rock hard.
 
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Yes campanula's advice please.

I should also remember next year to test seeds before sowing by seeing whether they float.

Re bluebells: I did just also read that if you crush leaves they die back because they can't produce food. Which sort of agrees with the advice I saw about stomping on spanish bluebells to kill them. I presume it's going to be best doing this as soon as the flowers appear though, so they'll have taken energy out of the bulb and haven't had time to feed back into it?
 
Spanish bluebells are amazing the way you can hack them down and chuck loads of bulbs, but they still come back - a bit like bindweed for resilience.
Of course English bluebells are famous for getting all the sunlight they need during a very narrow window before the trees make leaves ...
They're also very dependent on mycorrhizal fungi ...
 
Re seeds: if you don't want them to germinate they will, despite being underripe and in the wrong place in the most unfavourable conditions. If you do want them to germinate and have properly ripe seed and sow them at the right time, under the right conditions and look after them really carefully, they might germinate if they feel like it. (Or they'll all germinate because you have a knack for propagation, and then your gardening customers will inexplicably manage to kill them all :mad:)
 
I grow teasel (and various umbellifers) for the goldfinch, friedaweed.
Ah, I am totally sceptical that stomping on spanish bluebells will have any effect whatsoever., two sheds Whilst they may not be able to photosynthesise, rest assured, there are a fuckton of those blobby, immortal and elusive white bulbs, awaiting the following year, when each clump will gradually achieve monstrous proportions. I have a whole bed of lavender, which has been invaded by spanish bluebell. The owner claimed to 'like them' when I expressed horror (2 years ago) but this year, has seen the light and given the go ahead for the great destruction scheduled over the coming months. If you have just a couple of clumps, you can pull everything above ground and be prepared to dig out the rest in autumn. There is no other way of dealing with them, I am afraid - even liquid death has limited application (this is why you stomp on them, so the glyphosate can penetrate the tough and waxy leaf cuticle) and will have zero effect on the bulbs. I fucking hate them, HATE THEM! My son and I are going to have to spend a whole day, digging out every lavender bush (and all the tulip bulbs) and going through the entire bed by hand and trowel. And when we replant the lavender, we are going to have to sink them in bottomless pots as there will be a seed resevoir too...so will have to ensure each lavender plant gets a start in clean soil...or we will be back where we started (although bluebell seeds take years to reach flowering size).
 
Sunday looks like it may be planting day - and sowing beans and peas and runner beans- if I don't get some done today in preparation for the rain.
This morning I was stapling string supports on the back garden fence prior to sending nasturtiums and other things up it.
In the first instance traditional bright red and yellow nasturtiums from seed I rescued from the slugs in the community veggie garden in the park.
Hopefully to follow will be various other climbers - including thunbergia and canary creeper for the shadier fence - the former are sprouting, the second not yet ... oh and sweet peas ...



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Can anyone suggest some non-ivy climbing plants to cover ugly fences that can cope with full sun and periods of drought, but also strong cold winds and frosts, evergreen a bonus. Tried some clematis before but they all expired in the heat.
 
Saunders said:
I’ve had both Clematis and Passion flower in pretty sunny spots and they’ve both been fine. Jasmine? Or potato vine?
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One of the ground floor people along our street have a lovely passion flower all over the trellis at the front of their little garden - south facing, does well in a lot of sun and produces loads of gorgeous flowers.
 
Epona said:
One of the ground floor people along our street have a lovely passion flower all over the trellis at the front of their little garden - south facing, does well in a lot of sun and produces loads of gorgeous flowers.
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I love them. Particularly their curious, non symmetrical configuration of reproductive parts.
 
platinumsage said:
Can anyone suggest some non-ivy climbing plants to cover ugly fences that can cope with full sun and periods of drought, but also strong cold winds and frosts, evergreen a bonus. Tried some clematis before but they all expired in the heat.
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Akebia quinata ("chocolate vine") is semi-evergreen. I planted one a year or two ago along the fence of a side passage that acts as a wind tunnel, in a windy garden on top of the South Downs, and it's flourishing despite only being in a fairly shallow bed of poor soil. It copes with sporadic watering (the rest of the garden is covered by an irrigation system so that area gets forgotten) although it isn't in full sun.
 
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