Magazine style - all inclusive

[Perki]

I can't see me ever moving out of the area unless I win the lottery and buy a house abroad where I'd stay over winter, getting house valued tomorrow considering looking into buying it so that will put a nail into that coffin of moving away .

The weather like usual has been rotten it can't make its mind up one minute its calm then it blowing a gale plus snow - hailstone - sleet - rain and lighting, looks like its forecast snow on and off all day tomorrow.

I do like the veined hellebore much more than the speckled flowers. what happened to the other hellebore alp ? quite usual colour with the green. I quite like your new snowdrop bottom one looks very different , maybe next year will be a better showing.

 

[alp]

Now I have included my wind gusts. Glad that I have turned on my washing machine as those sunshine icons look blinding. Half of the electrics don't work in my house and now extension cables everywhere. When will rains stop? Tomorrow another serious run of rain! Guess I can't complain. I won't if my lean to is dry. I need a dry lean to? Last night, an important sortie for the dehumidifier! Nothing beats mother nature though! The winds are howling and rustling, sounds like some cosmic bloom!

Yes, buy rather than paying rent. It's difficult when you grow up in the area, with relatives all around. When I look at all programmes about living abroad, I just feel quite jealous. Acres of land, and remember Lee Bowyer, he has lakes as well and he names his place Etangs de Bowyer something like that. All seems very idyllic.

My hellebores have a bit of blackspot attack. There is a veined yellow one I bought reduced from The British GC and the virus keeps attacking even the new buds. But I can't bear to throw it away, I planted them out in the sunniest spot and hope sunshine access their crowns and turn them into healthy plants.

Those snowdrops cost me an arm and a leg or 2 if I can stretch metaphor. Andre is probably £40 and they are at least £30. But I can resell them next year if I remember my chilli powder before the buds are out. To see them arriving in such a sorry state is heart-breaking. Would you crush those petals with wood shavings like those coming with wine bottles? These are so delicate.

I always ripped off the petals to process pollinate them. No chance of doing that to Rosemary Burnham and The bud on Andre won't seed properly and I want to collect seeds. I bought some seeds and they actually germinated! Quite pleased. I love fiddling and messing about.

Yesterday, I discovered this yellow snowdrop growing next to a peony. I was too blasée, using a hand fork to lift it up. The fork removed the bud and crushed not only the flower, but my money recouping dream! Turned out it was so deep down that even a full-size fork had to be yanked several times to reach the very end. If I moved, the garden would be paved with gold. LOL!

The snowdrop that makes me spend so much money on the camera - Midas - 2 arms and 3 legs it costs me.

I need to go around the around and weed out the wishy washy hellebores - this is perfection itself.

Out of my horse manure and egg shells comes this little dainty slender beauty - Wasp or Ding Dong?? I give up.

Well, I can sell my cameras and just use my son's iphone. He's using ISO ??? and he's got a very steady hand!

 

[alp]

I think I'd better take up painting as you just never know ...

Going to be auction for a possible £23m .. I might be in for a chance!

No lashes or cosmic booms today. Going to turn on the washing machine later. 3rd time this year. Silver lining of gusty rustles.

Daphne aureomarginata with lots of blooms

hepatica Nobilis Pink

Hepatica Nobilis Blue

So I have 3 Hepaticas: white, pink and blue! Quite nice but too small for my camera.
Erythronium Pink Perfection is showing up one leaf. Very difficult to take photos as they are hugging the ground, literally.

 

[Perki]

First Garden centre visit today how disappointing especially on dahlias, they normally have a whole wall full but this time just a corner , only got some red duke of york spuds and some tomato seeds.

Payed for my Hellebores last night they were a bit more than I were expecting but they are dear plants anyway £44 for two plants £10 of it were P+P, The hellebores at the GC were boring / bland so I am happy I've got some I wanted.

I saw that painting on the news last night its awful, they'd be paying me to take it off their hands .

Going to walk down lidl now they got some bulbs in so I'll have a nosy.

 

[alp]

Not a good day outdoors.

Perki: There were cheap compared with my tiny snowdrops. The nursery returned the whole cheque and they still haven't sent 2 items. I had to post the cheque back to them. I am banking on getting those 2 snowdrops. Any way, I can't possibly take the 4 plants for free. I couldn't possibly give mine away as they are full of black spot this year. I suddenly saw a Harvington Apricot double and the stem was snapped in the mddle. with black spots all along the stem. My camera little Samsung ghosted me - didn't store the photos. Now you have to visualise. It's reminds me of Zenj's avatar.

Please imagine as I removed the afflicted stem and flower

Here is my dead Apricot - spotted one photo, but I had taken more.

Tutu

Cream picotee

Did a lot yesterday. Planted out a spreading conifer and snowdrop Inverse Poculiform. When I bought the seeds last year, I wasn't optimistic. I'm not very good with them. But in the midst of snow and rain stood a pot with several tiny blades WITH A LABEL! Ah, that's news to me. I could never keep the label. But this time I had a LONG label fashioned out of milk bottle (one bottle a week, so plenty for my banana skin fertiliser and labels). 3 blades are now out in the front. After that, some Desdemona or Snow Fox??? out in the front. Some alstroemerias which were split from 2 clumps I bought from Bonnett. I have about 5 pots now. 2 out there free range to stretch their legs in the front where the heat and sunshine will spur them to flower and seeds (my ultimate goal). One variegated euonymus to filter out the foul exhaust fumes at the front. I love that a lot and will take a bit of cuttings. Removed some citus branches to let the sun access my Jeecee Iris.

 

[Perki]

Well its been a mixed day , sowed plenty of seeds 7 varieties of petunia - cleome - digitalis Gigantea & stewartii - sweet peas - diascia - busy lizzies - penstemon twizzle purple & scarlett - echinacea pallida and some others I've forgot . Got the wallpaper table out to sit the other propagator on and moved everything round in the spare room for more pending sowing / seedling .

While I were sow I thought I'd have a look at the dahlias cause one stem caught my eye by how damp it looked , took it out rotten so took another dahlia out rotten and another and another until I inspected all the dahlias lost nearly all my dahlias , I still got two david howard and two thomas edison and the odd one which might make it, got 4-6 plants out of roughly 17 -18 plants left. I most of stored them to damp or something but what ever happened its to late now . I am not normally to bothered about losing a plant cause I see it as an opportunity to try something else, but to lose so many at once I can't deny I am a bit gutted . The good news I've seen some I fancy and probably wouldn't of bought originally ( thats what I tell myself ) because I didn't have anywhere to put them.

That means more money being spent , I've insured the bike again now to be back on the road 1st of March so I can go gallivanting again.

 

[alp]

Ah, March can't come fast enough!

I saw my hellebores literally die in front of me:snapped in the flowering stems, shrivelled buds, This is the year when I can safely say i have more or less all the hellebores that I want. But no, the rain and rain and rain and the aphids conspired together to ruin my idyll.

I have also killed quite a few of my dahlias - Kelvin Floodlight was no more last year, nor Café au Lait, Polka, Purple Explosion, Spider Woman, Boogie Woogie.. I have all my dahlias indoors in pots and quite a few have new shoots. That's why my yellow sticky tape had been so full of bugs that I changed it two days ago. Now I have a new one and son was very annoyed with the uninvited flying guests! I bought 2 or 3 new dahlias: One has the continental name of Siemen Doorenbosch!!

I think I have got hellebore black death!

This is a new one to day, big and perfect!

This looks a bit confusing - could be a yellow freckled!

Thought this was yellow when I bought it last year - turned out to be cream/white!

 

[alp]

Happy Valentine!

 

[alp]

Busy day with camera yesterday.

First camellia - Camellia Williamsii Debbie

A Wasp

Hepatica blue and pink

Love this one. Should have used Level to remove the darkness a bit.

New camera

A bit blurred.

Another day heralding cosmic chaos!

 

[alp]

How are the wind and rain situation your way, guys?

It's quiet here now. Raining, but not pitter pattering.

Ever since I have had my new glasses, the TV seems to be so bright that I had to tone down my Vivid mode on the TV! Glad that I had this new pair of glasses. Make sure you get your eyes checked.

Hepatics from yesterday. Still, can't focus on the nectaries very well. Old camera

Any Hepatics with a bit of raised nectaries cost an arm and a leg.

 

[alp]

Whoa! It's lashing out!

Gave the tits a bit of a wash digitally! Wanted so much to do it justice! The small camera is brilliant!

 

[Zenj]

Morning all the winds here not as bad as expected but plenty of rain ,lawns like quagmires,but dry at the moment 7c

 

[alp]

Have you had snow yet, Zenj?

My whole lawn is covered with 2mm of water and I literally walked on a sheet on water. Put some plants in the car before scavenging for food. It was raining all the way through, from 10 to 3 and was wondering if the weather report held true - predicting a window of sunshine at 17 hr! We were very lucky, buy 4.15pm, the sun was out. Went to the allotment and snapped one hellebore

Dug up a wasp and a Desdemona snowdrop. pretty happy and culled a few hellebores.

Not a bad day. Yesterday sowed some petunia Royal Blue Nana compacta, some asclepias incarnata or curasassvica. This time, I used only one cup for each. Have a drier day! May the sun be with you!

Forgot to say I didn't hear any winds the night before, but son was saying it was awful. The whole day is peppered with rain with its heaviest from 2 to 3.30pm. Jet stream is wreaking havoc. Keep safe!

 

[Perki]

Its not been that bad storm dennis here , still rained alot and been windy . Storm clara was worse quite a bit of flooding here and there , it was on Sky news surprisingly. Lawn wet through along with everything else and no damage to the Greenhouse, rain forecast for the rest of the week.

Sowed some more seeds yesterday lobelia and some dahlia bishops and coleus . Not much has germinated yet ( other seeds ) . I could do to get out and prune the roses they are all budding up or growing already.

 

[alp]

I have quite a few seeds germinating - collarette dahlia, dahlia dandy, aubergine, onion (big ones). Even a cup of mixed seeds (cosmos, one salvia, one salvia clotted cream ... are in action)

Sadly, the agapanthus is still sleeping. Whilst tidying up the lean to, I saw blooms on the Enkianthus Campanulata! Whoa! Can't wait. V Mariesii is showing bud clusters, too. Day gets brighter so much earlier and gets dark so much later. It seems spring is nearly here until you go outdoors where the chilly winds hit you left, right and centre!

Wasp looks a bit pathetic!