Hobbies and Crafts

How is everyone's garden ?

Ann, out of all those bulbs I put in it looks like only two have come up. How are yours doing?

My Fresias are in bud but although the Tuberose and Peruvian Daffodils have got loads of leaf, there are no flowers in sight in either of them. The other thing I bought in the £ shop, a Commelina, seems to be a Tradescantia, it has grown huge and has lots of pretty blue flowers on it.

The garden has lost that early summer look , all the Aqualegias are over now and are gradually being replaced by the mid summer plants like Phlox, Lysimachia, sweet Williams and Lupins.

The hanging baskets are doing well despite the heat, I have some red Petunias that just seem to glow in the sunshine.

Vera, Sissinghurst has long been on my list of places to go. We are thinking of doing a weekend in Kent. There are several National Trust places we want to visit that way, including Igtham Mote, which we have been to a few times before and love.

M. :-)

Had a lovely day at Sissinghurst yesterday, apart from the journey.

We got stuck in horrendous traffic on the M25 leading up to the Dartford crossing so the journey there took us three quarters of an hour longer than it should have. That meant Troy the Head Gardener could only spend about 15 minutes with us instead of the planned hour. But he was able to tell us about the layout of the place and what to look out for and something about his plans for the future of the gardens.

The formal gardens aren't all that large. I liked them very much. Although they are set out with paths and hedging and proper flower beds, within the beds the planting is quite higgledy-piggledy and looks very natural, though I am sure it was quite artfully arranged. A lot of stuff was in full bloom, particularly in the rose garden and the white garden and there were some lovely clematis.,

There are also walks you can take through farmland, through woodland and round the lakes.

If you haven't been before and you are in the area it is worth a visit.

We then had an even worse journey home with the coach driver branching off on different routes to avoid the major hold-ups. Coming back it took about an hour and a half longer than expected. Good job we enjoyed Sissinghurst or I would have been really cheesed off.

Glad it's sunny for you Ann. Everything seems to be reversed at the moment. Lake District is the wettest part of the country and you've got sun, we are supposed to be in the driest part of the country and look what we're getting. It's not raining at the moment but the sky is still a murky grey. Still my French Marigolds in the back garden and my blue Campanula in a pot by the front door are looking great now so some good has come from all the rain.

I didn't know Croft Castle so I googled it. Looks a good place to visit and is only about an hour's drive from somewhere we occasionally stay so I'll be keeping that one in mind.

Very sunny here today so we have been for a walk round Elterwater then lunch outside a pub. Hope the weather improves for you Vera.

K we have never been to Croft Castle have to look into that.

Oh Vera I am jealous. We were in Kent last year for a holiday and managed to get to Great Dixter, but never got to Sissinghurst. Perfect time of the year to go. I don't mind an early start, it's late nights that kill me!!

Friends took me to Croft Castle in Herefordshire yesterday and I was very surprised how lovely the gardens were.

Very grey with spells of drizzly rain here all day so far. I am hoping it is going to improve tomorrow as we are going with our Garden Society to Sissinghurst.

The Head Gardener from Sissinghurst came to talk at our club a couple of months ago and tomorrow he is taking us round the gardens and then we have a while at leisure there. I'm looking forward to it as I've never been there before though I have seen several TV programmes about it. Only thing I am not looking forward to is having to leave home at 7.15 am to catch the coach which is going at 7.45. Far too early for me :-|

It does sound pretty. I wonder what happened to the white part??

When my OH left it rather late trimming a beech hedge last year I discovered we had a climbing rose with masses of white flower growing through it.

He had trimmed it back each year without mentioning it!!!!. It's growing by a pergola so I probably planted it years ago and it went wandering into the hedge. I wonder what else we'll discover this year :-)

Thanks Kay it looks as if the flowers are on the original flower stem (but I suppose that's impossible) will have a real good look tomorrow if the rain stops ... but like you say not looking good ....The small pink roses do look nice though even if it looks as if it's at the side of the road :-D

It sounds as though the branches that are flowering are growing from below the point where your white rose was grafted onto a wild rootstock. If you trace these branches back are they coming from below the nobbly grafted bit on the main stem?

Are there any of the branches of the original white rose left above the graft? From memory I think the wild rose suckers have more leafs than the grafted rose.

If you still have growth above the graft point you should be able the tear off the wild rose suckers and still leave the grafted rose above, but from your description it doesn't sound too hopeful :-(

I'm really quite upset.... 2 years ago I got a beautiful white rose tree laden with huge roses as a present for our Golden. Ann. Last year we had no roses at all (I wrote here about it) and though maybe it had used up all it's energy the year before so was very pleased to see loads of buds this year , well been away for a week and came back today and they have finally opened.............. the small Wild pink rose ! I just don't know what to do throw it out ? it certainly won't come back to the large rose now will it? Ah me and what do I say to my friend when she visits and sees it? Don't suppose anyone's got any advice? :-(

Thanks Vera so do I.

Nice day for the garden B/K? Not here it isn't! Or at least it is just drying up a bit now but we had quite a lot of rain overnight and this morning. OH is convinced the grass has grown 2" since yesterday.

I used another token from the paper this morning for half a dozen geraniums from Homebase. I'm building the garden up nicely now on Homebase freebies. They look really healthy so I might go and pay for a few more. I have two big tubs of bright orange lilies which look great at the moment but they don't usually last very long, so when the lilies are finished I'll move those tubs to an out of the way spot and put a couple of pots of geraniums out.

I'm still intrigued by my pot of bulblets. 6 of the 7 have come through so far and the leaves look like tiny tulip leaves. I can't imagine what they are and I have a feeling they are not going to flower this year so it might be a long while before I identify them.

Enjoy your Lake District trip Ann. Hope the weather is kind to you.

OH has been working in ours today ready for leaving it for a few days. It is looking good and yesterday evening we enjoyed sitting out there with a drink before our meal. :-)

Nice day for the garden so let's all get out & do some thing!
:-D

sounds like just the job Jean, get chopping!!! :-D

Thank you s/v I will have a go and hope it will be just what is needed...

love jean x

If you google "Pruning a Large Camellia" most sites suggest it can be cut back quite hard after flowering.

The following c & p is from the Trehane site. Hope it's some help:

Occasionally where a mature plant has got completely out of hand, more drastic surgery can be required. If necessary, whole branches can be removed with loppers or a saw, or several feet can be removed from the top.
In the most drastic case a plant can be completely renovated by cutting it down entirely to leave just a foot or two of stump which will respond by producing a mass of vigorous young shoots.

When a Camellia has been pruned hard the number of flowers will be reduced in the following year or two as it responds primarily with vegetative growth, but in the longer term a more healthy and floriferous plant will result.

Have fun!

Help required, I have a Camelia in a small front garden its gone berserk, it had loads of flowers that have now dropped off but the bush has got very large in fact its huge and taking over the small garden, how do I control it , how do I prune it, if indeed I should do, it looks very healthy and I dont want to lose it it means a lot to me, it was a gift off a dear friend who is no longer with us....hope someone can advise me what to do. many thanks.

love Jean x.

If I see one more rabbit in the garden eating my flowers and plants I'm going ..............
.....................cry :-(

Lesley x

Thanks Maryanna. The answer seems to be to just have a go and see what happens. Like most of my gardening :-D

I'm fascinated at the moment to see what's coming up in one of my pots. I think I might have mentioned that a while ago I found some little bulbs or offshoots of bulbs that OH had wrapped up earlier and totally forgotten. I stuck them in a pot and nothing much happened for a while. Now 4 of the 7 planted are through and they look like tiny tulip leaves! :-S