ju1i3's blog

These muscari have been great this year. There's this large trough with quite a few and a few small pots by the front door (next photo below).

I did have some larger, very heavy stone pots here but they were too heavy and I was advised to move them. I just spontaneously put some of the small pots that had flowers blooming in them here. When these finish I can put some others in their place. The hyacinths are leftovers of ones I bought for forcing (I'm always buying too many - but I can't resist them). The pansies/violas on the left just appeared in that pot. The others on the right I bought on impulse at the garden centre. The muscari I planted last year or the year before and they've come back well.

I checked the auriculas again today (March 23rd) and I have 7 in bud, 5 no signs yet (I bought one on Saturday at the garden centre, making 12 in total).

I have just one auricula in bud middle of March of the 11 auricula plants I bought last year. I was hoping to do an auricula theatre but I'm not sure I can now. I feel very strongly that we all have to do what we can.  I think it's very easy to feel guilty or inadequate by the media's unrealistic expectations. Even if we just have a few pots of flowers that's ok! We don't need to "grow our own" - unless we want to. I know my garden is much too small for that and doesn't get enough sun. If I can get out and plant a few seeds, keep the weeds at bay and enjoy growing "something", I try to be happy and satisfied. The auricula theatre will have to wait for another year.

My first Viola this spring

crocus

The first crocus outdoors are always so exciting but it's very difficult to capture in photos.

these purple hyacinths (Delft Blue I believe) are just ready to burst

moving beyond bulbs (and it's stopped raining!), my first green alkanet

one of my first campanula

As the rain has finally stopped I've looked at what is coming up and seen lots of weeds! I thought I had eradicated the ground elder but found a few "seedlings", of course, spread by roots underground. And a few other seedlings which are easier to see now as so few other plants are growing. It's useful to know what the smallest seedlings are so that the weeds can be removed asap so I have added more images to the Weed Guide.

I had assumed these weeds next door were buddleja and were growing directly on the wall but when I asked the builder who was working up there to remove them he told me they were in a pot. I used the camera to zoom in to identify them and I see they are smooth sow thistle. Why someone would want those in a pot on a "balcony" (don't know what else you call this feature), I've no idea.

I was surprised to see this yucca in bud some weeks ago, just as it was getting cold. Now it's in full flower. I guess once it starts, it's going to finish.

The end of the leaves are extremely sharp so I had to trim it extensively before I started painting the front of the house.

So it's survived the cold, the hard pruning and, as you can see, the scaffolding. It's a real survivor.

I thought that was an excellent episode of Gardeners Question Time broadcast on November 22nd from Shrewsbury. Peter Gibbs was a great host and put everyone at ease with none of the animosity displayed by Eric Robson towards Bob Flowerdew (listeners notice such things!). Peter made such a nice relaxed atmosphere a number of comments got applause - more than I remember from any other episode. Well done GQT.

my mahonia is looking great at the moment

a huge artichoke that self-seeded itself

Here are some great self-seeders: another artichoke, another cerinthe and lots of borage. Note to self: tidy up the pots, etc in the background before taking a pic!

While I've been looking at borage today I decided to look at others' photos at google images. Three of the photos there on the first page of results show green alkanet and not borage - some from nurseries selling the plant! and using the wrong image to identify it. Obviously a plant that is often misidentified. See green alkanet at my weed guide.

Waiting for seeds to germinate can get so tedious and I've had so many discouraging failures, I was gratified that these lupin seeds which I collected from my few lupin plants germinated so quickly. Those white stick labels are the seeds I previously had in this tray, neither of which germinated at all, so I decided to just put the lupins on top.

I've had a number of cerinthe self-seeding this autumn. This one has grown to enormous proportions which I've never seen in cerinthe. I don't know why and I don't know what it will do in the spring - another "wait and see" plant.