WHAT ARE WE DOING IN THE GARDEN TODAY - 2021

Been out and fed the birds, checked my lotty (one of the mini poly tunnels had blown out of place in the wind so i took the cover off and popped it in the shed), planted two £2 reduced virginia creeper plants on the outside boundary fence (hopefully they will do ok and provide a bit of privacy from nosey so-n-so's who try neb through the gaps).

 

@Sian in Belgium I am sorry to hear of your loss but very happy to know that you are going to be able to preserve a paw print.

I had put off potting up seedlings that were in soil blocks so I kicked myself in the rear and stopped the procrastination. I potted up hot peppers. Scorpion 7 pot yellow, carolina reaper, devil's tongue and bhut jolokia. Altogether about 25 pots. I then potted the onions that had sprouted and were about 4 inches tall. About 30 of those.

Like @hydrogardener I have a grow tent (2 actually) in the cellar as there as it is too expensive to heat a greenhouse at this time of year. The tents each have 14 square feet of growing surface covered in a thick felt to accommodate capillary watering. One tent is now chocker and the other has about 1/4 of the surface used. The felt is sitting on large heat mats and under the blue/pinkypurple LED lighting and a fan running to circulate the air.

Was glad to get all that potting done but it felt like cheating a bit as the pots were all cleaned and filled in the fall and sitting in trays in the greenhouse waiting to be brought in to thaw and use

 

@Sian in Belgium Very sad to hear of your loss Sian, but try to find comfort in the fact that you gave her an incredibly loving home and a great life, which I certainly know you did.

Nick

 

You need to know the group of clematis you are pruning or when abouts its flowers @Michael Hewett so no hard pruning of montona - alpina - any winter flowering varieties - Armandii - koreana and probably some other species in autumn Winter / spring (before it flowers ) otherwise the flowers are gone, prune after flowering which is more of a tidy up cutting overlong stems off , renovating a very large plant is a different matter for these groups .

The very large flowering hybrid clematis known as group 2 can be cut right back to the lowest buds , I only tend to does this to group 2 clematis when they're are a tangle mess it more a renovating the plant but it will soon get growing and flower in the same year like nothing happened, otherwise I give them a annual tidy up in spring . Armandii already explain about cutting back group 3 clematis down to 12 inch , they is quite a few in this group 3 but the biggest group and my favourite Viticella , the easiest group to look after by far.

Forgive me if I am not correct ( @ARMANDII ) but Armandii the GC member has lots and lots of clematis of different groups which may have tangled themselves together which makes it unconventional to prune them by set groups, pruning now works best for him and I am sure for other people as well. I didn't want @Michael Hewett to get confused about pruning clematis even though I may of confused everyone else now , its can be confusing subject

 

Thank you @ARMANDII I have lots of Clematises that have grown together into a tangle and for the last two years have not produced many flowers, that's why I was thinking of cutting them right back and sort of 'starting again' so to speak, in the hope they would not get so tangled and choke each other. I may cut them back to 18 inches and make sure there are some buds on the stems.

Thank you @Perki I get confused about the groups but I understand that the early flowering ones must not be pruned in the spring. However, on the trellises I am talking about there's a mixture of large flowered ones and Viticellas (but no early ones). Am I right in thinking they can both be pruned in the spring since they don't flower very early, and they're in such a tangle that I don't know which is which ?

The only early one I've got is an Alpina which grows on its own.

 

One was planted here already at the end of garden but needed for privacy the neighbours are friendly(except the ones to the side are needing those plastic bags suggestion without holes by.....?It only really took off after three years of being here and now it covers well until late summer and starts to lose its leaves...Sunny here today but not warm enough to tempt Girlze out..Saber yes, loves trotting about with M.W, for a bit then collapses in his bed for hours...
Nice to do a few jobs outside and nice to take a break with a cuppa after, inside...

 

We have managed to lose a lot of Clematises over the years. A neighbour in Bexhill use to grow anything that was a challenge or different in his greenhouse and would give us a few of some of them, so when I said Clematises are a problem to us, he grew some various varieties and we did try for a season or two but when we left for France we had none left living. He could not understand really..nor do we..we follow the info on the different flowering and pruning times we have roots in the shade and heads in the sun...what are we missing here.

 

@Michael Hewett yes you can cut them both back to the lowest buds. If you are in a frost pocket or cold region might be best to wait till early march / late Feb .

 

Hard to say what the problem is . Maybe water logged or disease like Clematis wilt / honey fungus

 

Hello Michael, When you sort out which ones are Viticellas, you can confidently cut them right down to 12". They're the easiest to look after, as you get rid of all the tangled growth every year

 

@noisette47, thank you, I think I'll have to label them.

Thanks @ARMANDII I have never thought about feeding them but will certainly do it this summer.

@Perki I usually do it in mid February, my garden is quite sheltered.

 

Certainly was on the verge of a river...at times but drained quickly being on side of hill..Loved our front garden though...A Well in the far right corner we rebuilt from reclaimed bricks..there was only one row of broken bricks when we removed a giant Pampas we found it..Had another working well in the back garden depth around 6 metres with a drain cover over as 1/2 metre away from the extension...



The Korean Pine would have hundreds of beautiful mauve cones every year..The Monkey Puzzle cost around £20 as a baby and over the years grew to be a very lovely tree..just do not touch it! We had some very good Garden Centres and notably Hilliers, Stone Cross,Lime Cross being our favorite one..The wooden bench we retrieved from Bexhill Beach after a storm. the beach was littered with wood of allsorts....The wooden bench was retrieved from the beach part of a sea break solid oak... after a heavy storm,the beach was littered with all kinds of wood as a ship carrying timber had also gone into trouble...