General Chat

We have a couple of the climbing fuschia too, new this year, and they are growing fast, about two ft six at the moment. We were given a stone donkey with two pannier baskets and have that in our main garden and are very fond of him. One of our cats used to spend hours sitting between his ears!

hi jean love and enjoy your garden. x

Hi all, I was re reading this thread, and it occured to me that gardeners are very much like the people on here who are so very generous with their time when we are stuck.
If you take note of what thrives in other gardens in your area, then they will probably do well in your spot. Also I find that if you ask for advice from other gardeners, or just admire their gardens, often they will inindate you with offers of cuttings ect.
My other hobby is patchwork and quilting, and like-minded ladies are much the same. (we are all a bit batty as well)
Enjoy your hobbies folks, and when it goes pear-shaped, it makes other folk feel good about their succeses.

hi Anina, yur post gave me inspiration, nite . x

Julia, and all, I am sure you would have loved some of the gardens we visited today, in a tiny village called Lammas a few miles from here. As always we were late cos whilst I was ready to go, o.h. was doing his usual faffing about so we only had an hour but wow, we went first to Lammas Hall, the gardens were beautiful, not perfect and the owner directed me to go across the grass, we don't call it a lawn cos it's not, it's a mess!, well it had clover and barish patches but the beech garden was worth the walk, a square garden surrounded by beech hedges, with four flower beds, lots of lavender and roses and many other plants in shades of purple, of course lol, and pink mainly, the centrepiece was a completely circular bed of lavender about 10' across with dozens of bees, butterflies etc and a big Ali Baba pot in the middle, old and weathered, from which some bright spark said When you rub that pot the genie comes out to do the garden lol
It really was magical and I watched other people walk in there as I had, you stop short and a smile just appears, you can't help it because of the beauty of it all. Yes some of the roses needed deadheading and it wasn't manicured and perfect but the beauty was there for all to share. There were other parts of the grounds to see too and all lovely. Then we went to the Coach House garden, the woman who lives there was on the plant stall where I got three pots of pinks for 60p, as mine are getting a bit past it, and a houseleek for 20p as I collect these and have three or four different ones now. The garden border of the Coach house was lovely round three sides of a nice lawn with a huge tree in the centre for a bit of shade, there was a small wall behind the flowerborder and behind that a meadow that went down to the River Bure, it was lovely. We walked back round the village church to one of the other houses we had been recommended to fit in viewing before the 5pm closing time, and what a joy that was. The garden was very small but so well laid out and so much packed in, I fell in love with a clematis that that had huge pale lilacypink flowers edged with purple, it was spectacular and dozens of sideplate size flowers on it. Through a little archway was another small garden next to a path and a small wall, on the other side was the river and a little set of steps down to a rowing boat. The chap who lived there was feeding by hand two swans with their two remaining cygnets, there had been 10 to start with but foxes, local cats and many other hunter and foe had taken 8 of them. They were such a friendly couple and told us how they found the cottage and bought it, doing it up slowly, while they stayed in their house several miles away. It has taken four years but during that time they got the chance to buy the cottage next door as the 80 yr old lady there was persuaded by her daughter to move nearer her, she was worried about her mother apparently driving straight out onto the road with out looking, at rather a fast pace, everytime she wanted to visit the shops or the doctor etc lol The couple therefore had to sell their original house and move into the old lady's house while they finished the restoration of the first house, and now they plan to do up the old lady's cottage and rent it out as a holiday let. What a tranquil wonderful place it will be to holiday, with a river at the end of the garden, which is shallow enough at that point to paddle or swim in, or row a boat on,
I saw a little miracle while I was there too, a neighbour called round with his baby girl, one of twins whose mother had a heart attack as she was giving birth, I vaguely remember reading about it in the paper. The little girl was small for her age but so sweet and her mummy and her twin are well now, so a happy ending for all. And what a place to bring up children, the chap said the first thing they will do is teach the children to swim and respect the water etc. but the whole scene was idyllic and I am green with envy now at such a beautiful place to live.


Daff, I am sure you will find some lovely places to visit and more cheap plants to buy too, don't forget at some point to go to Aberglesny if you haven't been as the building is as lovely as the gardens!

Lizx

I bet those gardens look a bit sorry today if it has rained as hard as it did here, almost like hailstones coming down, so they were lucky the rain held off for the open days, Saturday and Sunday.
I did get my new plants in last evening as soon as I got home so hope they are ok, better go and check now the rain has stopped.

Lizx

the gardens sound lovely Liz. at least you wont need to water your new plants today then!

Hi Sunny
The flower stem has just kept on growing upwards its now about 4 feet above the leaves and has 5 flower side shoots. not opened up yet to see the colour but stll amazed how it sprung up from the middle virtually overnight.
I suppose the flower stem could have been at the leaves level & not seen as its a very big shrub, must be 2 feet in circumference, but its still amaxzng how it just grew!!

Phormiums can go up to twelve feet when the flower is out, but arent the leaves sharp!

Just looked it up... and I've got one, a red one, lol... but it isn't in the ground yet, it's still in it's pot....... and it doesn't have a flower. :¬((

My hosta does, though, two... I only have one, wasn't that keen to be honest, but now I have it, I have grown to love the leaves, and go wild if the slugs go near it!!

Love

Daff xxxx

Unfortunately my hostas suffered when we were away for a week, you can't take your eyes off them for a minute, they are now very lacy. I have a whole bed of them and love them before the snails get them, they are all different. I do like phormiums as well but they are not frost hardy so we have lost a few in our time.

My climbing fuschia is growing inches every day, wish my hostas would. my neighbours are in flower and mine show no sign.