What are we doing in the garden 2024

Thank you Nigel. I have never heard of Trecanna Nursery, I will explore. I am in Central Cornwall so nowhere is that far away, except Lands End where you fall off the end!

 

Thank you NigelJ. I have had a look, brilliant! I am passing the nursery name on to my daughter. They are not far from us, we are in central Cornwall so not far from anywhere except Lands End where you fall off.
Sounds as if the bulbs need a good bake to ripen but they also need some moisture.My Lucifer is spectacular this year, haven't got any others. Did you buy your Hellfire in flower? I am no expert in them, wonder if your bulbs haven't reached flowering size or if the planting depth has an effect on flowering, also of course location. Looking at the wild ones growing everywhere down here I would have thought they would flourish anywhere but maybe the newer hybrids are more fussy.
I have come to the conclusion Lucifer needs to be lifted and divided every 3/4 years to keep it going, although I have some self sown seedlings in flower with no help from me.

 

@Goldenlily26 Emily McKenzie is quite well behaved in my experience. Lovely orange/deep red flowers and very attractive buds

 

Cloudy day, I seized the opportunity to clean the greenhouse and rearranged it a little bit.
I also took cuttings from Salvia April Night, the good one that has grown marvellously, and Salvia East Friesland. I experimented a bit with the cuttings, one batch is in a glass by the kitchen window and the other in wet soil in the greenhouse

 

I’ve been catching up today as I was too hot or in work this week. I’ve just pulled out a clump of (orange) Day Lilies which haven’t flowered since I moved them two years ago, so out they go. I have actually saved the bulk of the plant so it can go in a pot to die back and it has one more chance next year… or shall I plant in ground… or just sack it??

Now I have a little space to fill - goody goody. The bed is themed around a lovely ‘red’ Acer (starts burgundy red then goes more green centred, before the orange Autumn colour) - so the border planting is burgundy, lime and pink in Spring (Heucheras, Azalea, Spirea, Astilbes) then as the Heleniums come out it’s more orange hues.

I’ve also swapped some pots round as the Kew Red Lavender was very early and gone over now so I’ve put lemon thyme in it’s place on the patio.

 

@Goldenlily26 I love Emily McKenzie too, but I can't grow crocosmia in SW France, too hot.

I've done more weeding, tied up climbing roses and planted up pots of parsley, mint and tarragon. Picked some rnner beans, tomatoes and a round courgette.

 

@Goldenlily26

No I bought it without seeing the flowers, it's probably still settling in, it's not too late for this year yet.

 

Digging up pups

 

Hi all, it's been a lot cooler here so much nicer to potter round the garden. Did more deadheading, tied a long piece of string from the back of the shed across the top of the raspberries and tied the other end to a branch of the NDN's lilac bush. Then I hung some old CD's to the string. I'm hoping to deter the pigeons/magpies/squirrels/seagulls from pinching my raspberries.

I also spent an hour pruning our apple trees and the pear with the long handled pruner but it's quite a hard job and makes my shoulders ache. Haven't quite finished so will have another go tomorrow. I'm pondering whether to have them all cut down as the maintenance is getting a bit too much for me. The pear doesn't fruit well so that's no loss and we have lots of other trees around us.

 

So many of you have been so busy.
We had a magnolia seed over 20 years ago that we collected from somewhere! It took a long time to germinate but it did and then we had a tree. In all those years we have had few flowers but a brilliant white colour. However it continues to grow and grow so today we had to cut it back ...not easy. Wrong time but then it was growing so big we had to curtail it now. Probably wont get any flowers next year.
I didn't do much as suffering maybe from hayfever but not sure. A real nuisance as I need to do more in the garden.

 

Hi. Interested to see you've been pruning apples and pear trees. I was under the impression that apples and pears should only be pruned in winter and plums only in summer (June). Have I been misinformed?

 

There's quite a few yellow Crocosmias, but that nursery certainly has some nice smaller ones @NigelJ . I've only ever seen the standard sized yellows. The common Montbretia is a thug in most areas, including here, but the cultivated ones are much better behaved.
It's to be a bit iffy weather wise here today, so I may not get a lot done outside. I managed a good bit of the raised area beside the shed [more concreting!] rather than planting anything, and may get the front of that finished as the concrete should be dry for the timber to sit on. The damp ground would be good for planting today though.
Other than that, I just did some potting on of a few things, cut back the ivy on the boundary, twirled some blanketweed from the pond, attended to various other small jobs, and yes - I managed to sit on the bench for a few short spells, with a cuppa or three, and watched the birds, fed Bob [pigeon] and generally enjoyed the pleasant sun while planning the next job. I'm a glutton for punishment!
The little willow warbler was in again too. That was particularly nice.

 

@fairygirl I have a yellow crocosmia called "Paul's Best Yellow" it spreads quite quickly, but it is a yellow yellow.
Finished strimming down the nettles and cleared the weeds around the compost bin, weeded in the fruitcage, watered the tomatoes and cucumbers, topped up the insectiverous plants containers.

 

I saw that one when I was having a look round @NigelJ, but I've never seen it being sold here. I don't go to GCs very often though, and yesterday I couldn't access the website of the nursery I normally use, so I couldn't see what they had.
Many people don't like really yellow plants. I like many, and I like yellow generally, but I don't like the brash yellow of Hypericum for example. It also depends on what those plants are being grown with etc. I love the yellow flowers on rocket when it goes to seed, and also many daffs/narcissus as they're a welcome brightness after winter.