Whats Looking good May 2024

Some of our Hostas - early in the month

A few have been getting chewed - which is unusual in our garden


These four large pots are our 'stock pots' for producing some of the Hostas for sale for our charity


Other pots are dotted around the patio area





Some produced for an order

And some ready to go to a plant sale

A four year old Ceanothus





The first honeysuckle to bloom

Phytolacca just starting to flower

 

We have a lot of Weigela around the garden that are from dark red to almost white. They propagate from cuttings extremely easily and are one of our best sellers.

So far this year we have raised over £2,000 for the charity . When we used to open our garden, pre-covid, we raised over double that in a day

Early in the month



One we raised as a standard - just starting to flower


A couple of weeks later

Some dotted around the garden







Some of our 10 Heucheras that Mrs Shiney won at a big flower show for having been the only one to identify all the 20 plants in a display quiz. She's the boss in the garden and I'm just the 'boy'.

They're getting swallowed up in the surrounding growth

 

Some of our Irises but they are not doing as well as usual and went over much quicker than usual

 

I've just realised that I haven't taken many photos in our back garden.

This is one of the beds in the front garden







We have lots of orange and yellow Welsh poppies growing wild around the garden. We love them.



London Pride



Early in the month and the Broze Fennel is just starting to get going.It usually reaches about 7ft

We thought that the very harsh winter in 2022 had killed off our Euphorbia mellifera but it has come back this year

It makes a nice background to these hardy Geraniums.

 

Not quite sure how big the garden is but the front garden is about 90' x 100' plus the bed on the other side of the front hedge that is about 8' deep (had a big argument with the local authority over who that belonged to - but that's another story ).

The back garden is about two and a half times that size .

We only used to open the garden for one and a half days at the end of May Bank holiday and used to get about 500 people coming. Non-stop entertainment, tea and cakes (used to get through about 100 cakes ), craft stalls, bookstall and even had head massage and reflexology available.

When we first came here the place was a jungle and it took thee years to find the bottom of the garden - and discovered dilapidated chicken sheds down there. Fifty two years later we're finding it a bit of a struggle but enjoy it.

 

We have seven lilac trees which also haven't done as well as usual this year






This is our only remaining Laburnum as one came down in the high winds early this year - right across our driveway

We have a lot of Clematis

 

Aruncus sylvestris should be in bloom next month

My favourite tree that we planted 48 years ago - and I can't remember the name.





Meet Rosemary



Our Aquilegia are just coming back. We lost all of them (over 4,000) when Aquilegia downy mildew hit the country on 2014 - it also killed off the National Collection.

We're not allowed to sell any, even if we managed to propagate them, and they used to be a best seller.

 

Apart from our woodpeckers eating lots of peanuts from our feeder they also have their own live food feeder

 

@Michael Hewett

Thanks but it's not that. I'll have to show you a close up of the 'leaves'.

 

It probably won't grow that height in its first year. Ours are well established. It may grow to four or five feet. Keep an eye on things as it can become invasive if you don't watch it - but it's easy to dig out if it spreads.

We use both the leaves and seeds so don't grow it for its root.