Hobbies and Crafts

Just had a nice surprise from OH, an early birthday present of some lovely hellebores. I was looking at some recently but decided they were a bit dear and I couldn't really justify the expense. OH has bought them for me, bless his little cotton socks :-D

He has got 4 different ones and they are all big plants and covered in flowers. One is the normal White Christmas Rose, the others are Penny Pink, Spring Promise and Winter Sunshine. Spring Promise is particularly pretty - white splashed inside with purple.

All I have to do now is find somewhere to put them. Our wonderful planting plan that the designer drew up is fast going to pot as I keep seeing other things I like and popping them in odd spaces. Still at least it is beginning to look like "our" garden now.

They sound lovely Vera, we do have a lot of Helebores but the labels are long gone so i don't know what they are called any more. It is my OH who likes them really. That is the fun of a garden isn't it? filling up the empty spaces.

We have had snow here in Yorkshire this afternoon. It left a covering of about 1" and I have just been outside to check the garage door is locked and it is icy underfoot!!

You're never going to believe this but my very early flowering daffs were in full bloom at the end of November. All dead now. Normal time fror them blooming would be about the end of December. Now the normal flowering daffs are out, along with hyacinth.

Yes it is a shame because all the plants that flowered out of season are the ones we look forward to as herslds of spring.

Maid of Kent have we spoken before? If not welcome to the thread. :-)

Beautiful sunny day here bit a very cold wind. The gadren looks quite pretty with the spring flowers, as long as it is from the window!!! Too cold out there. We did walk round the shops and back, thatw as enough.

baby photos on the photo blog.

Our Snowdrops have only just come into flower, they are a bit late this year, they are doubles & ours usually flower after the singles but they are unusually late this year!

We had a flurry of snow last night but was soon away when the sun came up,it was a lovely sunny day today & actually a wee bit warmer than of late.
Hoping that we don't get a heavy fall of snow as that would spoil the show of Snowdrops of which I am very fond, & having literally thousands of them all over our garden I wouldn't manage to clear a lot of snow from them all.

Daffies are well up & lots in bud but not ready to flower yet, ours tend to get a battering once the are in flower which spoils them somewhat.

Joan.

Joan your snowdrops sound beautiful, I envy you, we have one small clump. We do have two lots of Tete a tete daffodils which are very pretty. You will enjoy your daffs when our are over Joan. :-)

Frosts and rain again. I hope it won't harm the plants. Can't remember it being such a wet Winter for a very long time.

No, I am sure we are about to set yet another record. Very cold here today, and wet too.

Sorry Joan, I missed your posting. Your garden sounds a pretty picture with the miniature daffs and so many snowdrops around. I love snowdrops, they look so fragile in Winter. We have the single ones in tubs and dotted about in the borders.
There are many clumps of snowdrops naturalizing in our village churchyard, giving an amazing display year after year. A real joy to see.

Hi AnninGlos,

re your one clump of Snowdrops, if you dig then up (after flowering) but whilst they still have their leaves on you can split them into new clumps,if you do this every couple of years or as each new clump gets bigger you will soon have loads like us, lol.

Our thousands started off from one small clump which we found growing at the edge of our garden underneath the wire fencing seperating our garden from the field when we moved to this property in 1985.

The ones we have are sooo pretty, doubles, the flowers look like little frilly petticoats.
If you would like some of mine then private message me your address I will send you some but you will have to wait until after they have finished flowering.
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Kandj,

Our garden is lovely during the spring / summe but rather "drab" in the winter, but the Snowdrops fairly brighten it up towards the end of the winter,especially as we have sooo many now,most we have transplanted from the original clump,but we do get some that have obviously self seeded as they show up in places where we could not have managed to plant them ourselves.

As for the daffies we have 100's of those as well,the tall big trumpet ones,we have a very long length of banking that is full of trees with daffies in amongst them & what a lovely show when they are in bloom, so long as wind doesn't get too serious,which many a time it does!

I am not the best at gardening but I try (hubby hates it!) all the things that grow in our garden are things that put on a show in the spring/summer,& dissappear in the winter,without my help!
I don't plants things that require spraying or feeding, dead heading or serious pruning, lol,I don't mind a wee bit of tidying up trimming but thats about it! If a plant cannot look after itself then I don't want it! lol.

It's a beautiful day her today, think I will take a stroll around the garden & see what else might be starting to come through.

Joan.

Hi Joan, yes I must remember to do that with the clump we have.

And that is a very generous offer. I would love some if it is not too much trouble. I will of course reimburse postage. If you don't manage it because of weather etc please don't worry. after the flowering season of course. :-) :-) thank you for the thought.

Hi ann,

No bother at all, och, they don't cost much to post, the bulbs are quite small & light weight, lol
I will get back to you re your address nearer the time to dig some up.

Joan.

OK Joan thanks.

Joan, your garden sounds like it is very BIG. I don't blame you for choosing plants that look after themselves.

Not had a lot of chance to walk around the garden as it is just too cold and wet again.

Hi kandj.....

It IS big,1/2 an acre, much of it is planted with a variety of trees,mostly the outer edges,with another triangular shaped grassed area at the rear of the house just trees but underplanted with Snowdrops & Crocus.

Most of the trees we both grew & planted ourselves over the years & some are seedlings that the birds so kindly "planted" for us,but usually in the wrong places,lol.
Whenever we find any of those I take them up & transplant to pots until big enough to replant, starting to run out of places to plant any more now.

We have seperate sections of the land,so the "best" part is directly in front of the house, mostly gravel & slabs now with 3 borders,shrubs, ferns & bulbs.
Another seperate part that used to be the childrens play area,swings, ball games etc, not used much these days.
One side of the house is a gravelled area,with a group planting of ornamental dwarf conifer trees,underplanted with Daffies, Snowdrops, & Bluebells, plus large tubs full of bulbs

Then there is the outer areas whiich almost wrap round the house, trees trees & more trees, just fields surround us.
To think when we first came to this house there was nothing but grass, 3 huge mature Sycamore trees,(since reduced in size) 1 clump of Snowdrops & 1 clump of Daffies!
Looking at the before & after photos the change is amazing!

Joan.

It sounds wonderful Joan as long as it doesn't take too much upkeep. do you get many birds with all the trees? I know you are quite isolated (at least i get the impression that you are), will you be able to continue living there as you get older do you think?

Hello AnninGlos....

It does sound wonderful doesn't it! I forgot to mention that we still get plenty of weeds, LOL.
It's not too bad to deal with,that is until the leaves come down!! clearing the leaves is something we really don't enjoy,so many to clear up.
We have 5 garden seats dotted around so as to be able to rest as & when we need! lol.

We do get a lot of birds, Blue / Great tits, Wrens, Yellow Hammers, all types of Finches,Jackdaws that live in the obsolete house chimneys, Woodpeckers have put in an appearance over the past couple of years, Swallows in the summer nest in our garage (former barn) we do encourage the birds with lots of feeders all around.

We are on our own but not isolated as such! we can see a farm & what used to be a couple of farm workers cottages in the distance,but we are off the beaten track,no passing traffic or people, lovely in the nice weather.
It's not too bad in the winter either as long as we don't get too much snow! too much can mean being blocked in & no-one to help us get out!! fortunately that doesn't happen "too" often!

Village is only 5mins away when in the car, but a good 1/2 hour if walking (going through the farm! that was when when we were younger! lol.

The road leading directly to our house is unmade, just a dirt track! & VERY long,it gets a bit muddy in wet weather! not too bad when in the car,but when the children were young it was not so nice walking along it in the winter.
It meant wellies were worn until we got to the bottom of the road,& then we would change into shoes for school or catching a bus to town, oh what fun, lol.

Whenever I went along that road I would toss seeds & daffie bulbs into the verges,the seeds never grew but some of the Daffies have come through & thats without actually planting them! lol.
I reckon the tough grass in the verges were just too thick for the seeds, but daffies are almost weedlike,I have seen Daffie bulbs flower here just sitting on top of a wall !

We are going to be buried in our garden,so no plans to move out?

Joan.

You obviously love it Joan and it sounds an idyllic lifestyle. Not sure about the long muddy unmade up road though :-D

Your birds sound wonderful too, would make our birds on the bird thread look a bit sparse. You should pop on there sometime and tell us about the birds. :-)