Our gardening diaries - from latest toys, flowers to wildlife .. Please upload pics

[Verdun]

Hey! Some gossip going on here
Whiskey in the porridge BigC? Sounds good
Busy non gardening morning but it is a glorious day.
Picked up a couple of polemoniums earlier......they were the wonderful variegated Brise d'Anjou. They didnt look fantastic, dried out and under potted so the nursery owner said "are they worth a quid"? So, yep they were/are. Planted out an hour or so ago and now look superb next to a purple heuchera. Slight teasing out of the roots and generous watering works wonders.
Left the soaker hose on in the back

 

[alp]

£1?! That's a bargain. I'm thinking of using JI seedling compost and 50% of perlite. Is it good enough for helleborus seedlings. I have headache.. I don't have mushroom compost or leave mould .. How about 50% peat and 25% perlite and 25% sand for helleborus plants?

 

[Verdun]

Hiya alp
Hellebore seedlings and plants need something a bit more substantial esp for the plants. They are greedy and deep rooting things. Less of the sand I think

 

[alp]

I have irish peat - how about 75% peat 25% perlite?

 

[Verdun]

Yes, should be good alp

 

[alp]

Right O! I'm off to make 5 trays for seeds and 20 pots of helleborus .. That's the target any way! Hehe! Thank you, my resident adviser, @Verdun !

 

[alp]

I have made 4 trays x 24 x 3 seeds of seeds for my hellebores. Tomorrow, I'm going to pot up my plants. as they are all very congested. Happy to report that the salvia amistad cuttings has now got buds.. Very excited.

 

[BigC]

I have made 4 trays x 24 x 3 seeds of seeds for my hellebores. Tomorrow, I'm going to pot up my plants. as they are all very congested. Happy to report that the salvia amistad cuttings has now got buds.. Very excited.

Well done @alp....will you sell these on (i.e. Boot Sales) or keep for yourself?

 

[alp]

Hyde Hall features in the latest GW episode ..

 

[alp]

Well done @alp....will you sell these on (i.e. Boot Sales) or keep for yourself?

I will build up a collection first. At the moment, I don't have a collection. Look at the purity of the hellebores here

Some of the colours are so pure - pure green, pure yellow with spots.

 

[Logan]

Watered all the blueberries, used up the water in 3 butts, only got 2 left. It's very worrying, that won't last long. Hubby dead headed the marigolds. People going past commented on how nice the garden looks.

 

[alp]

I have used tons of crates, any containers or big flower pots without holes to pick up the excess rain water and I still have about 6 butts of water left. With this heat, I can understand your panic. Your border is very pretty and I think the marigolds jazz up the whole border.

 

[Logan]

Thanks. Those videos were good.The last time we had to put tap water into the half empty butt, just to make it go a bit further. Just for the blueberries.We were going to get another butt, but when i fractured my knee,it changed everything. There's only one place we can get the same and that's at Bromsgrove. Hubby was going to get it when he would have done invidulation at Bromsgrove Academy school.

 

[alp]

Winter will be here soon. It might be a good idea to get more butts. After all, quite a lot of plants prefer rain water. From now on, I won't buy online from Wilko as they have sent me a lot of dodgy butts. 2 of them with bottoms not level. One fell down in the winds and all 230L of water enabled my bamboo to grow 2 feet in a few months. With all that rain, your butts are nearly empty .. What a shame! I even used rubbish bins, paper shredder holder, and planting troughs to hold excess water.

 

[Logan]

Yes in December. Yes we'll have to get another one for next year. That's a Shame about yours.2 of the butts aren't connected up, have to do it by hand.