Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – February 2017

One solitary Tete a tete Narcissus to herald this February’s GBBD!

With the photos taken in Sunday’s gloom, it was a joy to find more yellow elsewhere from Cornus mas,

rather tatty looking Erysimum ‘Ivory Giant’

Hamamelis ‘Arnold’s Promise’

and the rather acid yellow of an Aeonium flower head.  (This latter one in the greenhouse!)

Less yellow and more green, the emerging flower spikes of Euphorbia characias Wulfenii. The joke is that this burgeoning clump is self seeded, whereas the plant I bought and positioned carefully closer to the swing, is a complete wimp in comparison.

The following pair were featured ages ago in a Wordless Wednesday called ‘Blues Brothers’ – they are both members of the family Lamiaceae, and both flowering now – Rosmarinus prostratus and Teucrium fruticans,

The pergola is still smothered in Clematis cirrhosa ‘Freckles’ but I have to admit that the recent wind and cold has made the majority of them look rather chewed.  I had to work hard to find this one!

I don’t have much white in the garden as I find it hard to mix successfully with other colours, but at this time of year there are a few exceptions – beautifully scented Sarcococca confusa,

Viburnum tinus

and this pot of Crocus – Crocus chrysanthus Miss Vain.  These have been growing in the greenhouse so now they’re out in the open I hope they don’t get eaten.  Wouldn’t be the first time.  Grrr.

And to finish, a lovely clutch of Hellebores.

With thanks to Carol at May Dream Gardens who hosts everyone’s GBBDs.  Why don’t you pop over and see what others have blooming now?

In a vase on Monday -fishing for compliments!

Last Wednesday I received an email from Erin at Floret flowers about her imminent book launch.

And, whilst I know it will never happen, I do still hanker after a new life as an incredibly successful Flower Farmer (you know, the sort who wafts through fields of blooms on sunny days – apparently like Erin – not the sort who regularly gets up before dawn and has permanently grubby nails, I have those already).  So, I went onto a well known site I really should embargo and pre-ordered said book. Whilst there, I found myself clicking on all sorts of related tomes and another one fell into my digital basket, “The Flower Workshop” by Ariella Chezar.

It arrived on Saturday and absolutely made my morning.  After a chilly, blustery dog walk, I snuggled down with coffee and book and was in flowery heaven until the OH returned from golf and the usual chaos ensued.

Consequently I’ve been inspired to return to IaVoM, despite a paucity of blooms to pick from (and certainly not the peachiest, gorgeousist blooms my new friend Ariella had to play with).

So here it it is, a play on green and white, with a sacrifice of a few Hellebore blooms which weren’t getting their due attention in the garden.  The Hellebores are supported by new Cerinthe major purpurescens growth, similar hued Euphorbia myrsinites and then bulked out with Viburnum tinus.

I was trying to do one of those ‘sweeps’ from high right to low left, but not sure I exactly achieved that.

Ariella is a big fan of the ‘compote’ – what she calls a footed wide vase.  I do have one of those but was lacking either chicken wire or a ‘frog’ and floral putty, so I made do with my lovely sister-bought Orla Keily vase, but I think it made ‘sweeping’ a little trickier.

And why the title?  Well, look what also got placed in the hall this week:

With thanks to Cathy at Rambling in the Garden who hosts this lovely meme.

In a vase on Monday – Solidarité

Thanks for hosting Cathy.

End of month view – January 2015

A rather sorry end of month view, but then it is January so perhaps I shouldn’t fret.

The old tin bath above was new (in a second hand sort of way) towards the end of last summer. I painted it to match the house and initially filled it with a bit of a quirky mix, including a number of Aeoniums and some Diascia which provided a jolly show to greet those arriving up the steps at the front of the house.

For the winter, I’ve changed its look to a dark red and silver combination of Cyclamen, pansies, Cineraria and Euphorbia mysinites.  Unfortunately I hadn’t read the crucial advice for winter containers, which is to cram in the planting from the word go as the plants won’t really grow and spread in winter as they do in summer.  Consequently my pot is a little sparse, but still, it provides welcome colour at this time of year.

The rest of the garden looks a lot like it’s ‘resting’.

The Drive Bed, below, has a few hellebores (worryingly I think fewer than last year) as well as one of the two Garrya Elliptica.  The strap like leaves are the Sisyrinchium striatum I moved from the Swing Beds in the autumn, the idea being that their flowers should match with the pale yellow flowers of the climbing rose ‘Snow Goose’, later in the year.

The right hand Lavender Bed is not showing much apart from the Phormium, Euphorbia and clipped Lavender

whilst the left hand Lavender bed is a little fuller with Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve‘, Anisodontea and a low conifer (front left) which I’ve forgotten the name of.

The view of the Grass Bed is rather disturbed by all the workmen’s kit.  Whilst the grasses are still looking good, the rest of the bed is pretty empty apart from the Forget me knots.  The numerous spring bulbs are still to raise their heads.

I had a little tidy of the two Med Beds in front of the greenhouse, and cleared away many leaves which had blown into the bed.  The two most obvious plants here are the Euphorbia mysinites (front left) and Agapanthus plants which I planted out last year and were grown from seed two years earlier.  I don’t know whether the Agapanthus will flower this year but I live in hope.

The picture of the two Swing Beds shows the Salvia and Phlomis italica dominating the foreground.  Both need cutting back so they don’t get too leggy this year.

The photo below is of the Oak Bed, which spends most of the year shaded by the Over-the-road-Oak.  There are a lot of Spring bulbs to come in this bed which take advantage of the better light before the Oak gets its full canopy.  And there are already a number of Hellebores flowering towards the front of the bed.

The Viburnum Tinus is rather overwhelming here and also needs to be cut back.

And to finish, a little more colour.  Sadly this isn’t in my garden, rather in my neighbour’s, but it’s their lovely Mimosa, flowering bravely in the January chill.

 

With thanks as ever to Helen at the Patient Gardener for hosting this End of Month meme,

Garden bloggers’ Bloom Day – December 2014

If you look hard enough there are still quite a number of blooms blooming in the garden. Some, including the geranium above, more unexpected than others.

I certainly wouldn’t have expected this number of roses in December, but they are the exceptions –

In other garden beds there are still Asters (A. frikartii Monch) Penstemon

Salvia

Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’

Verbena bonariensis

Bergenia 

Viburnum tinus

Rosmarinus prostratus

and Leptospermum, featured in last Monday’s vase.

And in pots, Echeveria,

Cyclamen

and Correa backhouseana.

And in the greenhouse, plants that really should know better by now, Geranium,

Plumbago

and beautiful Zaluzianskya ovata, Night Phlox.

Please join Carol at May Dream Gardens to see what others have blooming in their gardens at this time of year.