obelixx

Orange flowers

Geums, varieties of heleniums, roses, wallflowers, some forms of achillea,  alstroemaria, hemerocallis, kniphofia, euphorbia................

Spring Bulbs

But don't you want to build up a decent flower bud too?

I fed my bulbs in containers thus this spring, plus pelleted chicken manure for all round goodies, and they're now in the ground for a permanent display - the ones, that is, that didn't freeze to a mush spending winter in pots.

Spring Bulbs

Yes it will and you can feed them once they start flowering and until the foliage starts to turn brown.

can anyone name this plant?

It's a good border shrub that responds well to pruning so can be kept in bounds.  I know how easy it is to be tempted in sweetie shops like Tatton Flower Show but maybe next time you should chat with the grower about eventual size and cultivation needs before succumbing to temptation.

Blueberry bushes

U usually have good crops from my two shrubs but this year theer was a heavy frost at blossom time and that killed off the flowers so very few berries this year.  I also lost a good part of my shrubs to frosts over winter.

To remedy this, I cut back all the dead growth once leaf burst was over, fed them both with a good feed for ericaceous plants and mulched them with chipped bark once they'd had a good wetting following the drought we experienced from April '11 to April '12 but especially over last summer.

Both shrubs have now put on lots of healthy new growth and will get a cage of fleece to protect them from the heaviest frosts and strongest winds this coming winter.  It'll stay on until blossom time next spring when I'll open it to allow in the pollinators.

Hosta splitting

In my experince, hostas split in autumn can often sulk or even die so I would wait till spring.  Turf it out of the pot in late Feb or early March, cut into 2, 3 or 4 sections - an old bread knife is very good for this - and repot at the same depth with good quality compost such as John Innes no 3.  Give each plant a good drink to get it going and maybe some liquid rose or tomato food to give it an extra boost.

Colour. In garden

Snowdrops, crocuses, daffodils, hellebores, winter pansies and violas, winter flowering heathers, sarcococca (winter box with scented flowers) and no doubt many more but these are easily available and the bulbs can go in now, under your other new stuff.

Fig Tree

West facing as this will give it the longest and warmest hours of sunshine for ripening the fruits.  

Mahonia Aquiflorium

Use the RHS Plant Finder online.  It allows you to enter a plant and then tells you which nurseries sell it in which regions and whether or not they do postal delivery.

http://apps.rhs.org.uk/rhsplantfinder/

Colour. In garden

Japanese anemones are flowering now as are chelone (good for damp soils), physostegia, sedums, phlox and hardy geraniums.    Caryopteris and perovskia are in full blue bloom now, both are small to medium shrubs which get cut back each spring to renew vigour so they don't get too big.   My hemerocallis are still flowering and heleniums, helianthemums and Michaelmas daisies are great for late season colour.

Encouraging bats in our gardens

Beechgrove this weekend

Weekend 22 March

Good Morning - 21 March

Choosing chillies

Hanging baskets and window boxes

New shed - any tips?