Sunday 31 March 2013

Happy Easter

A very Happy Easter to all our lovely followers, Spring is finally here (honest!) and now the garden fun really begins! Come Tuesday we'll all have some chocolate to work off, and what better way than getting busy in the garden. But just for now we'll just enjoy the chocolate and a bit of sunshine (there is some in Truro I promise you - oh it's gone again!)

Thursday 28 March 2013

One man's weed is another man's Orchid!

Everyone has their favourite plants, and has some that they can't abide. My least favourite garden plant has to be the bedding Begonia, particularly in acid yellow, but lots of people love them and so they should.  I have always loved Tree Ferns but they are quite an investment and so had remained a distant wish. So I am very pleased with my 'rescue' Tree Fern which now has pride of place at the woodland end of my garden. A neighbouring gardener wanted to clear it from her garden (she was unimpressed by it's performance), and when we expressed our interest offered it to us. Needless to say we jumped at the chance of owning a 4ft Tree Fern for free.

It was, however quite difficult not to look shifty and suspect when dragging said Tree Fern along the road on a tarpaulin from one garden to the other, and even my own children looked at me with concern and asked 'should you be doing that?'. I think we just invented fern rustling!


It isn't shooting yet and will be wrapped in fleece for the next week to protect it from the threatened frosts. I know it doesn't look like much at the moment,  but I'm very pleased with it and have great expectations!

Which started me thinking! At this time of year there are always plants that we decide to get rid of, things you inherited from past owners, things that are not right for their situation, or seeds that did better than we expected and suddenly you have more seedlings than space. So towards the end of April we at Daisy are planning to hold a plant swap. Everyone could bring a plant (or two) and put them into the mix, and hopefully go home having partaken of some tea and cake with something new for their garden. If you're based in or around Truro let us know if you are interested and we'll set a date.

Monday 25 March 2013

Weekend work


I am feeling very righteous about my garden today, because this weekend I started digging it over and doing all the things that I had been putting off because of the wet. I know for most of the country, languishing under a layer of snow, this may sound like the actions of a maniac, I know that many gardeners recommend that you don't dig over ground that is heavy and sticky, but frankly I was getting desperate! Every time I get to the point of thinking it might be dry enough to dig, the heavens open for the next week and I'm back to square one! 

It was time to act, I had an increasing pile of new plants to put in and existing plants that needed moving, and everything is starting to grow. It was hard work - it was easy enough getting the fork into the ground, it was getting the soil off the fork afterwards that was the problem. Two afternoons of digging and obliterating Bittercress (my nightmare weed - it's flowering already!) and things are looking much more under control.

All the new plants are in, and my candidates for moving have been moved and some parts of my garden look almost presentable. The Hellebores and Fritillaries featured here in past posts are in the woodland end of the garden, and some beautiful Ipheons bought  very reasonably at the Truro Farmers Market on Saturday, have gone into the rockery. The Euphorbia that had got too large for it's spot (a common problem) has been moved back in the bed where it will be much more suited, and last but not least my lovely 'rescue' Tree Fern is in and surrounded by Cyclamen, but the rescue story is for one another time.

So now onto the planting of seeds - today I think Cerithe and some Leeks...

Wednesday 20 March 2013

March is the month of the Daffodil


They are everywhere, massed on road-side verges, scattered in woodlands and cheering up our gardens, spreading cheer and colour where ever they appear. So I thought we could spread the the cheer a little further by recording some of the ones we've seen for our blog.

Daffodils come in an infinite variety of sizes, shapes and shades and can flower in some form from before Christmas (in mild areas like Cornwall) right up until May. 

Daffodils, Narcissus, Jonquils - all come from the family Amaryllidaceae (you can see why other more tongue tripping names are commonly used!). They all share common features: growing from bulbs, strap-like leaves, leafless stems carrying single or multiple flowers, and the flowers all have 6 outer petals and a central cup or trumpet corona.

Colours vary from white through creams and yellows, to deep orange and even pink, and some have petals and coronas of differing colours. They look spectacular as a single variety massed together, or as a mixture nodding in the breeze. You can get miniature versions, long trumpets, short trumpets, double ones, scented ones, frilly ones, and ones with flipped back outer petals. 

In fact the RHS has a Daffodil Register and Classified List that documents 27,000 daffodils of garden origin, and this list was compiled in 2007 and has been added to every year since! 

So there MUST be a Daffodil to suit every taste. Daffodils should be planted early autumn and once they have flowered should be deadheaded so that the bulbs can recharge for next year and the plant doesn't get diverted into seed production. Don't cut the leaves down though, even if they flop over, and definitely don't tie them in a knot like my old neighbour did! Let the leaves  to die back in their own time, which they will do once the bulb becomes dormant.

Our favourite place for spring bulbs and particularly daffodils is Fentongollan Farm, just outside Truro, so put a visit in your diary for September and make a note of what you like the look of now so you can be focussed and decisive when you're shopping (we live in hope of this working!)

Visit Fentongollan Farm to see 250 varieties of bulb cultivated on their farm in Cornwall, and if you can't get there they do mail order too!





Monday 11 March 2013

Fabulous Fritillarys



Having spent the last couple of weeks obsessing about Hellebores, a trip to the garden centre on Mother's Day reminded me of another of my favourites at this time of year, the Snakes Head Fritillary, or Fritillaria Meleagris.


A hardy bulb, Fritillarys like rich, moist soil in sun or partial shade and are originally a beautiful British wildflower. The versions cultivated for gardens come in shades of purple and pink, and white, but all retain the checkerboard effect which makes them so striking. The word Meleagris, according to the RHS, means 'spotted like a guinea fowl', a lovely way of describing their markings.

You would think that originally being a wildflower would make them easy to grow, however I have always found them quite tricky to get established. Once you have found a place they are happy and got them going then the clumps will come again and again, but I have planted many Fritillary bulbs around my garden and watched them dwindle to nothing over the years. 

The longest lasting plant from my last attempt insisted on growing right under the swing, causing untold agro between Mother and offspring and a non-swing zone was implemented last year. There is no sign of my lone Fritillary this year (I blame the swingers!) 

So this year I decided to try planting in the green, like you do with snowdrops (another thing I have struggled to establish) and I'll let you know how successful that proves. Even if they're never seen again, they look lovely now! 






Wednesday 6 March 2013

Lovely plant shopping!

So we thought that having told you all about our lovely outing to the Hellebore Day at Bosvigo Gardens, we should really share our lovely purchases with you too. 
We do enjoy a shopping spree and here's what we bought -






From lovely dark pink double, through tall, palest pink single, to white and speckly, a fab collection I'm sure you agree!
Now the next job is to plant them and give them pride of place in our early spring gardens. Happy days!