What's looking good in May 2011 ....

Strange, strongy, t'other half says he can't smell anything ... doh! Must take the clothespin off his nose as there must be about 80 clusters of flowers .. will count tomorrow in the daylight. To me, it's a light powdery honey smell if that makes sense?

I have given my Portuguese friend rootings of this and she is going to give me cuttings of her H carnosa which is a stronger plant than the H bella ... :yess:

 

Aquilegia -black barlow



Clematis jackmanii is still doing well.


Linaria purpurea

 

Do you find Hoyas like to be in the shade Victoria?

I put a carnosa outside a few weeks back and its shrivelled, I'm guessing it was not used to direct sunlight, but had the same problem with bella a few years ago.

I think the flowers have a scent, similar to balsam poplar.

 

I love Linaria purpurea. Can't understand people who weed it out. I used to have the pink form, 'Canon Went', as well. But unfortunately it lived up to its name and went.

 

Callistemon Salignus, hasn't flowered as well as Pallidus but it has one of the longest brushes.

 

Definitely Pete, they can only tolerate some sun here. My H bella is in constant shade barring the late afternoon/evening then filtered sunlight. My friend's H carnosa was apparently in sun and she has now moved it into the shadier area of her garden after we had a discussion about it some time ago and she says it is doing far better now. I actually have a Portuguese friend who adores gardening! They are also requiring copious amounts of water.

Yes, Balsam could be the sort of scent.

 

Pete - I love that Banana. Victoria, Strongy and others - I love your pictures. There are so many nice things, it seems the quality of GC just gets better and better.

 

Hello there!
You've been a bit quiet. I saw you 'battling' over cats a few weeks back and haven't seen much of you since then.

What are you growing?

 

I get fed up with the neighbourhood mogs and I can wield a water squirter with the best of them. I just don't understand people who sign up to forum simply to write evil stuff. Anyone who is seriously thinking of festooning their garden with ghastly prikka strips has a problem which goes way beyond cat nuisance and although cat poo is pretty vile, nothing will convince me that dogs**t smells of attar of roses. :WINK1:

This year my garden is a heap big mess as I have neglected it horribly. But I'm slowly doing battle with the ivy and the bindweed and I have high hopes for a lot of things in pots. I like scented things and I've just potted up passiflora 'Perfume Passion', which sounds quite racy. I hope it lives up to its name. I've got lots of heliotropes and I hope I can keep the damn snails off them long enough to get them to bloom because the smell is amazing. I've also got my regular order in with Downderry Lavender (downderry). They stock some wonderful tender lavenders which look amazing. I have difficulty keeping them through the winter as I don't have much space to keep them out of the frost and they seem to hate my conservatory, but they're cheap and fast growing enough to treat as annuals. My favourites are minutolii var. minutolii, which has the most gorgeous angular leaves and canariensis subsp. canariensis, which has beautiful fern-like leaves and smells, at least to me, exactly like lemon barley water.

If I ever get around to sticking batteries in my pocket camera and finding the damn lead thingy which connects it to the pootier, I'll post some pics.

 

Gorgeous shots, you all!
Callistemons are just lovely, but none would survive a winter here...

Here are the last ones from me, the evergreen rhododendrons:

Rhododendron ponticum 'Variegatum'

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No ID for the next two:

1.

2.

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Magnolia soulangeana 'Linnei'.
This is its first year after transplanting and I was told not to expect any blossom at all. :D

 

Beautiful blooms, Angelina. I guess your climate is quite suited to such plants whereas they couldn't survive a moment with me.

Thank you for sharing those.