Sunday 16 February 2014

YIPPEE, SUNSHINE AT LAST.


After all the rain, at last the sun came out today and despite the weeks of heavy rain the crocus still manged to raise their pretty heads and open in the sunshine. From just a few clumps when we moved here 30 years ago the crocus have self seeded and spread throughout the garden. Over the years I have added a number of hybrid crocus but few remain just the self seeding ones.



I went into the garden to prune the clematis. Garden writer Margery Fish says to prune clematis on 14th February. I have tried various times to prune late flowering clematis but have found her advice to be sound. If pruned too early as I have done in the past, I have ended up with late flowers while still enjoying early summer blooms but only to find the season of flowering curtailed.


 I decided to add the Blogger search bar to my side column and have been having fun looking back at earlier posts - a search for clematis shows this  I had forgotten I had done so many posts on clematis, this post is one before I learnt how to tweak the photos so they are presented larger.

 But this is the way to see photos of Clematis on this post  Of course my first trip out to garden in 2014 left me so spoilt for choice - what to do, clematis first, but oh that shrub needs a prune too. The greenhouse cuttings needed watering and dead stems removed from Lilies and Agapanthus, which I over winter in the greenhouse.


 I had forgotten I had moved some snow drops to this little pond area where I grow hostas. So it was a nice surprise to see them in flower although my photography did not do them justice.



  A bit of weeding and tidying led me around the paths only to notice some Delphiniums are sprouting and in need of rescue from slugs. I have been meaning to move a couple of Delphiniums that grow into the apple tree, so now was as good a day as any. I was surprised the roots were only about 15-20 cms deep especially as these Delphiniums grow 7ft tall ( do you like my mixture of metric and imperial, I still struggle to use just metric must be the dressmaker in me). So more weeding around the Delphiniums and slug pellets and cloches, to help protect the early growth. Here's an earlier post with Delphiniums


Hellebores are doing well this year and are always a welcome addition to spring flowers especially as the bracts add colour for so long.


Another little pond area in the front garden with a few more snowdrops we can enjoy seeing as we enter and leave the house.



 Here are a few more snowdrops edging the path to the water barrel.


Another shot of the wayward crocus in the front garden.


More Hellebores border the drive.



Just a few spring flowers on the door step.

I also started my tomatoes, peppers and cucumber off in seed trays which I start off indoors to germinate and then move to cooler places as they grow. I was really had by Sutton seeds 5 seeds in a packet of peppers 5!! what are they playing at and how did I miss reading that on the packet. I like to have about two dozen plants I would have done better by just taking seeds out of last years peppers, I'll never learn.

So 5 hours gardening was a really good start for 2014 and resting at the computer playing with photos and my garden blog a nice way to round the day off.

Happy gardening.

11 comments:

  1. Hi Joanne! Five hours of gardening in February - it's a lot! With so many lovely blooms, it looks like spring has already come to your garden! All the best!

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    1. Hi Tatyana how nice to hear from you. We have had a few more hours of sun in between the showers but so much to do in the garden. I go out to do one job and before I get to it I stop and do others and then run out of time for what I intended to do Lol!

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  2. Spring doesn't desperately like my garden. Snowdrops won't grow and crocuses come up weedy and thin. Daffodils usually come up fine but I was worried they would have rotted this year. But no. Here they are. Here, also, is a bag of daffodil bulbs in the shed which never got planted. I'l put them in the ground some time for all that and hope they come up next year instead.

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    1. Hi Esther I have missed your humor, not visited your blog for such a long time. On the rare occasions I take a break from Lyme Disease advocacy and look up some of my garden blogging friends I am surprised how few are still regularly blogging.
      I expect your bag of daffodils will grow another year. I planted some tulips late last year and see they are coming through now. They were a present and as our soil is very clay I planted in pots, in view of all the rain it is just as well I did.

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  3. Glad that the rains eased and allowed you to spend some time in your garden Joanne. It's certainly been wet in your neck of the woods but your flowers are looking fabulous. Maybe a letter or email to Suttons is required!

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    1. Hi Anna so nice to hear from you. Yes I might just do that to Suttons but really much bigger fish to fry with Lyme Disease - we are winning though actually have attention of Public Health England who are now in the process of setting up specialist clinics - first positive steps forward in 30+ years. Plus Porton Down RIPL have found a new Borrelia here in UK which they have no tests for Lol! Another good reason why NHS testing is missing so many patients.

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  4. Hellebores are indeed pretty flowers! And the greenery in your photos looks like end of may where I live (north of Sweden). Good thing to add that search tag, been thinking about growing clematis on my balcony and keep them indoors during winter, so that would give me the chance to choose between many sorts of clematis :) though its a bit difficult to find some of yours I imagine, remember I´ve seen a white sort in your photos that was very nice.
    Gods peace
    Ann-sofie

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    1. Hi Ann-sofie - I don't know why I didn't add search long before now I use it daily on my Looking at Lyme Disease blog. One of my favourite white clematis is Marie Boisselot, although Wadas Primrose is nice and I used to have a nice Henryi but lost it and my replacement hasn't yet flowered. Actually a Google search of Marie Boisselot clematis Joanne's Cottage Garden in Images is interesting https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=marie+boisselot+clematis+Joanne%27s+cottage+garden&espv=210&es_sm=93&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=eBMNU_-oOKav7AbNmIGwAw&ved=0CAcQ_AUoATgK&biw=1024&bih=728

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  5. Belle of Woking, is the name of it, so pretty! But if I grow one it has to endure shade, my balcony face north but we have ofcourse midnight sun during summer so that helps.
    Gods peace

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  6. So nice to see your garden and its pretty flowers. We're still under snow, but the sun is shining. The birds are pretty, and we have better weather forecast this week. I need to unearth my hellebores. Loved seeing yours.~~Dee

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  7. Hi Dee thank you. I just popped by your blog and loved to see your variety of Hellebores. It is nice to catch up with garden blogging friends, I miss them, but oh so busy with Lyme Advocacy, but here in UK the science is winning, very very slowly minds are opening in Public Health England.

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