Mists and Mellow Fruitfullness

Not a lot has happened in the garden over the last few days due to persistant drizzle and general dampness, I just couldn't motivate myself to brave it.

However last week there was a heavy, heavy dew followed by clearer weather so I went out to wander around my domain. There were a couple of things that were so lovely I had to charge back into the house and fetch my better half to share them. He is conveniently a professional photographer and I thought I would share the gorgeous images he took.

Bronze Fennel seed heads

Weeping Bronze Sedge (Carex)

At this time of seasonal change, dieing back and clearing it is worth remembering that just leaving things alone can give you some beautiful interest in your garden. The Sedge is messy and unkempt and the Fennel has finished shedding it's seeds and is somewhat in the way so it would have been easy to trim, prune and tidy up. But then we would have missed how magical they looked on Saturday.

Now there's an argument for lazy gardening if ever I heard one. I knew I'd manage to find a justification for doing nothing if I looked hard enough!

Thank you for the lovely images.

Adrian Brown Photography

What do we want - lots of plants in our nurseries. When do we want them - now!

I came a cross this article today which sent a shiver of fear down my spine!

Apparently there are new European guide lines being introduced about plant labelling that could seriously reduce the numbers of plants available at your local nursery. Each plant sold will have to have an approved description (which is an expensive and time consuming process for each plant)  so small growers and nurseries developing new or unusual variants will be unable to continue. This will disadvantage small horticultural businesses and curtail horticultural diversity. Imagine if there were no more new variants of Heuchera, or Hosta, - it's unthinkable!

Read the full article here: The Guardian Blog. 

It's a frightening thought that lots of unusual varieties of our favourite plants might not be available any more. But it does reinforce the need to take cuttings and collect seeds and share and swap within our own gardening communities. These guidelines will presumably only pertain to the selling of plants, so if we choose to swap or trade them we are safe. It's up to us to keep the diversity of our gardens safe.

So, I'm off to take some more cuttings and collect some more seeds, just in case!

Horticultural Swap Shop anyone?

(I wonder if we could get Noel Edmonds involved, or even Keith Chegwin!)

Potting Shed Tales - Cuttings

(No this isn't my potting shed, it's at the Lost Gardens of Heligan see post - but I can dream!)

I was reading through Carol Klein's Life in a Cottage Garden yesterday and she writes that it's the perfect time for taking cuttings from Nepeta or catmint, so off I went with my secateurs to have a go. 

Now I'm a cuttings novice, in fact this year is the first time I've really had any success. In the past, things have either died instantly, lived but steadily looked more and more weak and miserable until I gave in and composted them, or have grown into bizarrely shaped specimens that I frankly wouldn't give garden space to! 

But this year - aahh this year has been different. It all started with my mad white Phlomis in the spring. It is beautiful and I love it but it has become very leggy and needs cutting back severely. My fear of loosing it pushed me to take 4 cuttings - not with much confidence or enthusiasm. But blow me if they didn't all take and now look very healthy! Now I can prune it slightly more happily - although I'm not good at vicious pruning unless it's something I'm secretly trying to get rid of!

That success made me more determined to have a go. So I took cuttings of my leggy white Cistus and my dark purple Osteospermum. The Cistus died instantly (not as fool proof as my Mum implied!) but the Osteospermum are looking good.

My garden suffers from a teenager with a football so there are constantly bits hanging off my plants. I have a beautiful, startlingly cerise Geranium that has been particularly picked on this summer, so every time the football does it's worst I have been putting the bits in water to root and now I have 3 good little plants for next year!

Yesterday I started my Nepeta and I have my eye on a pale lilac Osteospermum growing in a building site wall just up the road.

My cuttings have all been potted into a good seed compost, with a covering of Vermiculite. I keep them in a sheltered and bright corner, with not to much sun, and I've made sure that they haven't dried out. Only the Geraniums were started in water first, and only the Cat Mint has been dipped in rooting hormone (I kept forgetting to buy some) so it will be interesting to see if they are better than those without.

So now I'm a bit of a cuttings convert, mind you I have to get them all through the winter now - wish me luck!

Fruit Harvest Part 1

This is the harvest from my rescue pear tree. 

A Williams Pear, it was saved from a photographers studio in London. I found it looking sad in a dark corner having been bought to provide some leaves for a fruit shoot. I bought it back to Cornwall on the train (I got some interesting looks, and no it didn't need a ticket) and planted it last summer. It looked very peaky last autumn but this year, after a bit of feeding and care, it had lots of blossom, much of which set fruit. I removed two thirds of the baby pears, a heavy crop would have stressed a little (it's only 6 foot tall) and slightly delicate tree too much. I was expecting that some of the fruit left would drop before maturity, but no! They have ripened and tonight we will enjoy our first pears - they smell delicious! 

Next I will harvest my apples - also rescued from the same photographers studio!

Beautiful photography.

Shopping for Spring!

Yesterday saw my first shopping expedition for next year. The Daisy! duo set off to Fentongollan Bulb Farm, near Truro, a regular haunt of ours around this time of year. This year I went with a plan! Having said that I had a plan last year but it was 'buy a few bulbs' which turns out not to be good enough, and most definitely expensive. 

So this year I had a list:

• Daffodils for the shady bottom of the garden, which is my autumn project - a tree is being taken out and.. but that's another story. I wanted to get a range of daffodils, scented and flowering from Feb to May, so a bit of preparation was required. With the help of the Fentongollan bulb catalogue I chose:

    

Martinette - flowers in Feb                Jack Snipe - flowers in Mar

    

Cheerfulness - Flowers in April          Pipit - flowers in April/May

These are all Jonquil/Narcissus type Daffodils, with small flowers and more than one flower on each stem, which should mix well with the traditional Daffodils that are already established in shady bed.

•Alliums for my sunny border. I love Alliums and I put some in every year with varying degrees of success. So this year I kept it down to two types:

Allium Christophii                                       Allium Roseum

I planted some Christophii about 6 years ago but they have dwindled over the years and this year I didn't have any. So time for some more in a slightly less dry spot I think. They are glorious and I can't have a Christophii free garden, even if they don't last. I planted some Allium Roseum last year and they did really well. They are much more delicate and less stagey than many Alliums and self seed apparently, which is always popular with me!

Now that was all they had on my list, the Nectaroscordum, white Camassia and Anemone Nemorosa weren't in yet (which means I'll have to go back again - oh dear, that's too bad!), but frankly I wasn't likely to leave with such a restrained haul, so...

Ixiolirion - tall and summer flowering             Flaming Parrot Tulip - Flowers in May

Now I don't strictly have anywhere to put these, but I couldn't resist. The Ixiolirion are dark blue on tall slender stems and could go in to come up after the Aliums. The Tulips are exactly like some I saw on my trip to Florence in May so it seemed rude not to buy them. They will be in the hot pots at the back I think - nothing subtle about them!

So a successful trip, Fentongollan is a lovely place, and their Daffodils (grown on the farm) are second to none. They are open 7 days a week, 9am - 5pm and have an online/mail order arm, so wherever you are you can join in our bulb madness!

Fentongollan Spring Bulbs

Hurrah for the Lost Gardens of Heligan!

It's a good job my Mum likes gardens - she's been staying for the last few days and all I've done is drag her round gardens and nurseries! 

So off we went again on Saturday, as the weather was a little better and with teenagers in tow, to The Lost Gardens of Heligan. It was Granny's first visit and there is a lot to see in one afternoon, so we decided to concentrate on the Northern gardens area, whilst the teenagers took Dad to the wildlife hide and jungle. This is a great way of doing it, no-one gets bored of walking too slowly and no-one gets worn out by charging around.

It is amazing to think that the Gardens were only rediscovered 20 yrs ago. From the film and photographs the difference is amazing, from a state of... well disrepair really doesn't cover it, there wasn't really anything other than bramble covered rubbish heaps with the the old fallen over building, to what you see below in such a short time (it's taken me 6 years to get my front garden under control). Tim Smit (the man who found the garden) is either a man of enormous vision and drive, or a lunatic who got lucky. I suspect the first and full respect to him for persuading others to see what he saw.

We started off in the Vegetable Garden, where rows of beans and apple arched walkways were interspersed with rows of jolly Zinnias, and the potting shed was a dream!

Then we moved on to the Italian Garden with it's ornamental pool and delicate pale yellow Nasturtiums and ferns.

    

Next was the Sundial Garden with its beautiful sunny borders full of Echinacea, Verbena Bonariensis, and Anemones. Oh, and a pair of boots that definitely needed a clean!

    

    

Finally, via mad Geranium greenhouses and cosy Head Gardener's Office...

    

...we reached the flower garden, which was a riot of Dahlias.

    

    

With Cleome, Orange trees and Vines in the Vinery, it was a lovely place to meet up with the teens.

And their favourite bit of the Gardens - well that would have to be the tree swing next to the Stewards House - that was awesome!

The Lost Gardens of Heligan is a great day out, with formal gardens (as above), a Lost Valley walk, a Jungle Valley with arial walkways full of tropical plants collected by Victorian collectors, a Woodland Walk with green sculptures, lawns, meadows and a fabulous wildlife hide with remote cameras in nest boxes. Lots to do for everyone and definitely worth more than one visit. 

We'll have Granny swinging through the Jungle Valley next visit!

Stop me if I've said this before...

This weekend we took a visit to Bosvigo Gardens... STOP! No really, I know I've said it before but it is the most lovely garden so I thought you might be interested to see how it has faired over the summer. 

The House looked as lovely as ever with mounds of blue Ceratostigma and a delicate yellow clematis scrambling through the other climbers on the front.

The walled garden was STILL filled with colour, with the Dahlias blaring through the mizzle and the cloudy Thelictrums softening the effect. Acteas with their gracefully white spikes against their dark leaves, and pale Stocks lightened the gloom of the day.

The shady area looked beautiful as ever, coloured almost entirely by variegated foliage.

And the hot garden almost cancelled out the now quite determined rain, with it's bright pom pom Dahlias, dark Lobelias, fiery Crocosmia and sunny Rudbekia.

 And a stunning dark and ragged Dahlia with the rain dropping from it's spikey petals.

If only the weather had been more co-operative it would have been lovely to sit and soak in the atmosphere, and I found the perfect place.

Sadly there would have been plenty of soaking involved but not of the atmosphere!

So now Bosvigo Gardens is fully endorsed by my Mother-in-Law, Husband, Mother and friends. I might even try taking the teenagers some time - or maybe that would be a visit too far!

Jayne's Ravishing Raspberries!

A lovely lunchtime was spent today down on Jayne's (the other half of the Daisy! duo) allotment. I have to admit that I was rather distracted from the other very impressive vegetables by the raspberries. The row of bushes was groaning with fruit and it was a little difficult to concentrate on anything else - well it was lunchtime! Luckily I was there to help with the picking - YUM!

There were also lettuces, beetroot, courgettes (green and golden), sweetcorn, beans and carrots to pick and squashes and pumpkins to check on, oh and a Cabbage White Butterfly to chase out of the Purple Sprouting Broccoli net - ggrrrr! (see previous post)

All of them were fab (luckily I managed to come home with a bag full) and it made me feel quite inferior with my little garden patch. However my leeks look much like Jayne's although possibly a little more snugly planted, and my beans have been as good, there's just a little less picking space. But sadly I don't have space for a row of raspberry canes so I shall just have to keep offering to help on the allotment (at least until the raspberry season is over)!

Terminator!

I found this horticultural version of a rat leaving a sinking ship in my garden today.

"Mmmm... that's the Horseradish polished off, what now?"

 Now I'm a nature and wildlife fan but I'm a bit scared now he's on the loose!

Ps. He's a Cabbage White Caterpillar, quite glad I haven't grown any cabbages now.