Tulips, Pots and Saucers.

03 Tuesday Dec 2019

Posted by Brian Skeys in Gardening, Our Garden@19, Photography, The Life of Brian.

Tags

Alliums, Autumn, Camassia, Crocus, Narcissus, Open Gardens, Our Garden@19, spring, tulips

The beginning of November saw the planting of pots with, crocus, iris, narcissus and species rock tulips.

Old hanging baskets used to keep the squirrels away.

Two large pots either side of the banana bench were planted with Tulip ‘Abu Hassan’, Siberian Wallflowers and Forget-me-Nots.

When the rain finally eased I managed to complete planting my remaining tulip bulbs.

Those of you who regularly follow my blog will know that I rotate dahlias with tulips in the raised beds edging the patio. Last year I used three bulb saucers for the tulips as an experiment to see if it was any easier, when it came to lifting them in the spring.

I was suitably impressed to use them for all the tulips in these beds this year. I purchased extra ones to have four 30cm ones for each bed. One hundred flaming spring green tulip bulbs were shared out between the eight saucers, four pots of Camassia leichtlinii ‘Blue Heaven’ saved from last year, Allium ‘Purple Sensation’ planted around the edge with Wallflower ‘Vulcan’, grow from seed planted in July, in between the bulbs. Forget-me-Not’s will be added in the spring from self-sown ones from around the garden.

Hopefully they will all be putting on a show for our opening on the 2nd and 3rd of May, in aid of the village church, when we will have a plant stall to raise funds for St Richards Hospice, based in Worcester.

Here’s looking forward to Spring.

Drought Busters July 2018.

05 Thursday Jul 2018

Posted by Brian Skeys in Gardening, Our Garden@19, Photography, Plantlife

≈ 20 Comments

Tags

Alliums, Birds, Drought, Plants, Selfseeders, Wildlife

Those of you living and gardening in the UK do not need me to tell you that we are ‘enjoying’ one of the hottest June/July periods for some time, with day time temperatures reaching 30c. Whilst for many of you reading this in other parts of the world this may not be unusual, but here it is , testing both the gardener and their plants.

These plants featured are the drought busters in Our Garden@19. Interestingly I originally grew them all from seed, except for the allium, also some of them have since self seeded around the garden.

The wild chicory towers above almost every thing in the garden, here in the herb bed, growing through the standard gooseberry. It is a beautiful shade of light blue.

Cichorium intybus. Wild Chicory.

Also towering above everything else are the teasels, this is the first year I have grown them. Listening to a talk by Fergus Garrett inspired me to plant them and they allow them to self seed around Great Dixter. They are good for wild life especially the pollinators and the seeds are said to be loved by Goldfinches in winter. I have only planted two in the garden, they can dominate if left to their own devices.

Dipsacus fullonum Common Teasel.

Dipsacus fullonum
Common Teasel.

The ‘thistle-like’ plants always do well in dry conditions, here Echinops ritro, is yet to bloom…

Echinops ritro.

…also ‘Miss Willmotts Ghost’, I do like this spiky plant. It is I think, a little like the lady it was named after. Especially if you worked for her.

Eryngium giganteum ‘Miss Willmotts Ghost’.

The wild carrot has seeded itself around the garden including here between two paving slabs, thus preventing anyone from sitting on this chair!

Daucus carota ‘Dara’.

Similarly the Lychnis of both colours have seeded in the gravel…

Lychnis coronaria alba.

Lychnis coronaria

…and the Linaria seeds around everywhere!

Linaria purpurea.

In a sunny spot by the banana bench and in the alpine boxes on the south side of the house, is Dianthus carthusianorum, with its clusters of diminutive deep pink flowers.

Dianthus carthusianorum.

I am ending with this single Allium ‘Red Mohican’. I wish I had more!

Allium ‘Red Mohican’.

An interesting fact about these plants is that several of them were for sale during our open weekend and very few of them sold, because, I guess, they were not in flower at that time.

I wonder if they would sell now?

Do you have any ‘Drought Busters’ in your garden?

Top Ten for March.

28 Wednesday Mar 2018

Posted by Brian Skeys in Gardening, Our Garden@19, Photography, Plantlife

≈ 23 Comments

Tags

Alliums, Camassia, Camellia, magnolia, Top Ten, tulips

Weather lore says: “March, in like a lion out like a lamb.”

March is a month of transition, a much used word of late. In a gardening context I think emergence is a more suitable label. The garden and plants are emerging from winter into spring.

It was traditionally the month for planting spring crops, mainly spring barley, when the March winds would help to dry out the soil as it was cultivated in preparation for the drill. Warm April showers would follow to help germinate the seed.

Joining in with Chloris at the Blooming Garden and the other bloggers posting their top ten flowers of the month, I decided to post pictures of emerging flower buds and leaves,( There is a theme emerging here!)

These pictures were taken during the month – we haven’t recently had snow.

Forever the optimist, here are my ten ‘potential’ flowers to brighten the spring garden.

Tulip ‘Red Riding Hood’.

Allium Kartaviense

Fritillaria ‘William Rex’, already producing its distinctive smell!

Hyachinth ‘Blue Pearl’.

Camassia leichtlinii ‘Sacajawea’

Camellia

Magnolia ‘Stella’

Paeonia Lactiflora ‘Duchesse de Nemours’.

Rhododendron Yakushimanum ‘Grumpy’

Hydrangea.

Even the Head Gardener emerges occasionally!

Please visit Chloris and see what she and all the other bloggers have posted as their Top Ten.

What is emerging in your garden?

Tulips. (From Hanley Swan).

30 Thursday Nov 2017

Posted by Brian Skeys in Gardening, Our Garden@19, Plantlife

≈ 28 Comments

Tags

Alliums, Dahlias, spring, tulips

I am, sadly, old enough to remember Max Bygraves singing the cheerful song ‘Tulips from Amsterdam’.

Tulips along with Dahlias are a vital element to providing year round cheer and colour here in Our Garden@19

The dahlias are all now lifted and safely stored in the small greenhouse, this one is kept frost free. There are two electric tube heaters in here, with a new heated propagating sand bench, at the rear, containing some seedlings which I am hoping to carry through the winter. These have been joined by the Aeoniums, Cotyledon Orbiculata, Colocasia ‘Black Dragon’ and Pelargoniums.

The dahlias on the bench are labeled and waiting for the ‘head gardener’ to box them up in compost similar to the ones you can see on the shelf below.

The raised beds that edge the patio have been home, during the summer, to the dahlias and annuals, it is my nod to the Exotic Garden at Great Dixter. I wrote about the dahlias I grow here.

Tulip ‘Abu Hassan’, now follows into the raised beds along with a few Erysimum x allionii (Siberian Wallflowers) and Myosotis (For-get-me-nots.) Hopefully these will be putting on a show for the early May Bank holiday open gardens.

Raised Bed 1

Raised Bed 2

The pots contain more tulips to dot around the garden in the spring, they are wintered on the patio to help keep the squirrels away.

The Tulips carried over from last year are Tulip clusiana ‘Peppermintstick’, Tulip ‘Calgary’ ,Tulip ‘Orange Emperor’, Tulip ‘Prinses Irene’, Tulip ‘Red Riding Hood’, Tulip ‘Spring Green’, Tulip ‘Tres Chic’ Tulip ‘Queen of the Night’ and Tulip ‘China Pink’. These were lifted or emptied from their pots after flowering and laid out to dry in the small green house rotating with the dahlias.

Tulipa ‘ Ballade ‘ is left in the main borders.

These bulbs are new for 2017, adding to the ones already in the garden.
Allium ‘Beau Regard’, Allium Karatavience ‘Ivory Queen’, Iris reticulata ‘Polar Ice’,
Muscari ‘Siberian Tiger’, Scilla siberica, Narcissus ‘Thalia’ and Tulip ‘Angelique’.

Some tulip pictures to show what we are hoping for.