Category Archives: flowers

Jobs to do in July

19/07/2020flowers, plantsJackie Elwin

There is always something to be done in the garden these days. The never ending dead-heading and weeding, the chopping down and cutting back, re-positioning unhappy plants, potting on, sowing seeds and buying more plants. This last week I have been pruning (with some help from Harry) the deutzia, philadelphus and weigela, which have all finished flowering now. In the raised garden I have cut back some geraniums and dug some out that had outgrown their space. The violas had spread far too much too so they were hoiked out. Most of the foxgloves have finished flowering now and I have pulled a lot out but will save the seed from a couple to sprinkle where I would like the next lot to come up. I am thinking of just getting rid of all of the nettles along the side wall now as I had originally grown them for wildlife, and I have not seen a single nibble on them over the last six years so I think it is time for them to go – a job for Harry as I can’t reach them.

In the conservatory the cactus had five lovely big flower buds at first but the weight of two were too much and they fell off. I put them in a vase so I could still appreciate their wonderful scent. They only last a day or so which is such a shame.

5 cactus buds ready to open

only 3 flowers left on cactus

2 cactus flowers in a vase

cactus flower side view

At the moment I am loving the combination of the Heuchera ‘Rachel’ coming up beside the Spirea Japonica ‘White gold’. The spirea buds have a pink tinge to them which go so well with the pink flowers of the heuchera.

Spirea Japonica’ White gold’ and Heuchera ‘Rachel’

The moss roses are looking good just now too. Harry thought that they were covered in greenfly but it is just the kind of furry, mossy look that they have. I have found that if they get chopped quite low then they don’t get such a straggly look. They tend to behave more like a shrub rose. The other roses are doing ok but the ‘Munstead wood’ has some rust on it.

Moss rose ‘William Lobb’

I treated myself to some air plants during lockdown. Harry had given me some Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides) at Christmas which I split into two clumps and I have kept thinking about some of the other Tillandsias that might go well with them. I am keeping them upstairs which means that I had to get a grow light for them. The trouble with upstairs is that I need all the blinds and doors shut to keep out the summer sun, which means that any plants I have would have to cope with very low levels of light. The grow light I did buy has a few settings and I have chosen to use the pink light for 9 hours per day and see if they like that. I don’t actually like the look of this black light in front of the plants so I may try to find a way of clipping it to the side of the shelf but the lead is quite short.

Collection of Tillandsias and couple of ferns

collection of Tillandsias and couple of ferns with pink grow light

And lastly, here is a photo of a moth pupa I found nestled in the corner of a door in the conservatory. I did keep it until it hatched but alas I did not get a photo of the moth. It looked kind of khaki coloured and I looked through some moth charts but couldn’t identify it.

Moth pupa

Noticing what is around you.

21/06/2020flowers, foliage, foxgloves, plantsJackie Elwin

I have found that most of the time while working in the garden or doing slug patrols, you tend to be so focused on the job in hand that you may not notice what else is going on in the garden. It is a good idea just to wander around and really see what is happening around you. Our rhododendron is flowering quite happily after it’s move last November so it never went in a sulk after all. Mind you, I did keep it well watered just to make sure, then gave it a wee feed just before flowering. We planted a couple of new shrubs (Enkianthus companulatus and Sambucus nigra f. porphyrophyla ‘Eva’). And to fill in a bit of space, added all the foxgloves that were found in the wrong place (just till I figure out what should go in there long term).

Rhododendron Gomer Waterer

Just along from the corner is arch that I have been trying to grow a rose over (Rose Generous gardener), in place of the Clematis montana alba that died. It is not an ideal place for them as they can only get the sun in the morning, and they are under the sycamore trees of the golf course. I need to keep them well watered and that has meant watering them almost every day this year. They are looking good so far, and once the elder is bigger I think the contrasting colours will look even better.

Rose, geranium and elder.

The foxgloves are the tallest they have ever been in this garden. Harry is a about 6′ 1” and he is standing next to one that looks about 7′ tall. There is one in the middle of the stumpery which is even taller. Although I read (Guiness world records) that the tallest ever foxglove was grown by Lydia Foy in Ireland in 1997 – 10’10” (3.29m) WOW!

Harry and the tall foxgloves.

In the conservatory there were a few nice colour combinations or just nice colours that I liked. I had a vase of roses and honeysuckle together and the buds of the honeysuckle were a bright deep red colour before they opened to release their exquisite scent. Little things catch my eye, like the purple foliage of the axalis against the pale green velvet cushion. Dangling roots of the sempervivums, and the little tufts of hair at the points of some of them. Others have web-like hairs across them, and some go through a colour change from green through to a mahogany brown. The tips of other sempervivums are very pointed and look like they have been dipped in ink.
It is always worth taking a few moments to do nothing but look and be aware of what is around you.

Purple oxalis leaves against pale green cushion.

Purple oxalis leaves against purple cushion.

Honeysuckle buds beside purple rose in vase.

Honeysuckle buds.

Seedling against purple rose.

Sempervivums (mixed).

Sempervivums.

Sempervivum with hairy tips..

Sempervivum roots and web/hairs.

Woodland/stumpery/cottage garden?

14/06/2020flowers, plants, stumperyJackie Elwin

In the stumpery – woodland area I have mixed some wild plants along with plants you might associate with a cottage garden like foxgloves and geraniums as they like a semi – shaded aspect and are often found in woodlands. I mostly let the foxgloves seed about where they like but if there are too many, otr they are just too close to the path, they get hoiked out and replanted in another area. The foxgloves are looking great just now and are mostly untouched by beasties. There is some damage on a couple of flowers – possibly snail damage. A couple have toppled over but most of them are standing up by themselves. The main colour scheme are shades of pinks, red, mauves, purples with splashes of white and gentle yellows. I don’t particular like orange plants in this garden but I do like coppery foliage of some plants especially ferns.

Foxgloves standing tall.

Foxgloves and geranium.

Foxglove damage.

We have had a very sunny and hot May but so far a rather foggy, cold, and drizzly June. The knapweed in my previous post is looking very bedraggled, and covered in mildew and brown leaves. I want to chop the whole thing back to the ground where it will shoot again, but there are loads of buds on these horrid looking stalks. What I may do is; once I have chopped it back, I will take off most of the foliage and put the stems in a vase, so that when the buds open – the bees can still visit them and I can enjoy both the flowers and the bees.
The deutzia is covered in flowers. It is usually covered in bees too, but not today as it is so cold there are only a few brave bees about. It may be Deutzia ‘Mont Rose’ but I don’t know for sure as I bought this from a sale with no label on it and no body knew what the plant was. It is under planted with a red astilbe which is now getting a bit smothered, but I will be cutting the deutzia back after it has flowers so the red flowers of the astible will become more visible.

Deutzia ‘Mont Rose’

Geutzia ‘Mont Rose’ closer.

There is also a Jacobs ladder on the corner near the deutzia but I am not sure that I want to keep it. When in flower it does look pretty but the slugs go for it and the stems are quite easily broken and it always looks a bit scruffy.
The tierella are looking a bit ‘lumpy’ this year and have taken ages to get going. I need to lift and divide them, then re-plant a little deeper. As they can take about a year to establish their roots it is often better to do it in spring rather than in autumn, so that can wait until next spring. After a few years they have a tendency, like the heucheras, to kind of extend themselves up wards out of the soil and can look very straggly, lumpy and generally scruffy. There are more tierellas in the sunnier bed by the patio, but they have been so trodden on by the massive wood pigeons that I am thinking of replacing them that can withstand that kind of treatment.

In corner, where the gutter down spout empties, the weigela, rodgersia, Soloman’s seal, and the ferns are looking good. The weigela is covered in flowers which the bees love. There is a pink astilbe there and it has grown quite tall, slightly taller than I had expected. I planted a variegated form of Jacob’s ladder at the front along with he twhite version of ragged robin to brighten up that slightly more shady area of the corner. The weigela often needs trimmed back to keep it under control so that can be done when it has finished flowering.

Weigela corner.

The new nepeta arrived this week so they have just been planted in
the right hand border ,where it gets a bit more sun than the stumpery,
and this time some organic slug pellets were sprinkled around them just
in case. I lost the first lot of plants so I don’t want to lose this
lot. I do slug/snail patrols every morning and Harry does a patrol at
night to try and keep on top of the slug/snail number. Nepeta are
another one of these plants often found in a cottage garden and they
have a very gentle habbit and pretty flowers – again bees love this.
Behind the nepeta are the circisium which are always covered in bees and
beside that are the poppies (Patty’s plum) which have huge flowers on
them. They do need staking though and I was a bit behind with this so
they had already fallen over by the time I asked Harry to stake them so
they are looking a bit trussed up now.
In the next few days the
weather should brighten up a bit and will hopefully be a bit warmer
too. It is much nicer to do the weeding when it is warm than when it is
cold and drizzly.

May Aquilegias

29/05/2020Aquilegia, flowers, house plantsJackie Elwin

These beautiful aquilegias add a touch of the ‘cottage garden’
style to the garden. They flower during spring and keep their foliage
for most of the summer and autumn and although they look quite delicate,
they are quite hardy. They love the shade in the stumpery area and the
raised bed, but are equally at home in the side border too. One pink
one has grown quite tall – 1m35cm which is as tall as I am (wheelchair
user). I love the way that, as the flower matures, it raises it’s head until the seed heads point upwards like little jester hats.

I don’t remember all their names and they have
been quite promiscuous so who knows what will come up next year. I did
have to take quite a few out as they had seeded in the wrong place, but
they have been potted up ready to be sold whenever the Duddingston Kirk
Garden Club starts up again after lockdown.

Baby pink aquilegia

Deep pink aquilegia

Pink aquilegia

Purple aquilegia

Purple aquilegia face on

Purple and white aquilegia

White aquilegia

Ruby aquilegia

Pale blue aquilegia

Pink and white aquilegia

Tall pink aquilegia

Sunniest April on record!

29/04/2020ferns, flowers, plantsJackie Elwin

My goodness what a change from the extremely wet winter. I have been out with the hose a few times to keep some of the recently planted shrubs and small plants hydrated. The later of the narcissi have now flowered, most of them beat the slugs, but a few have been nibbled before they flowered, some flowers nibbled while in full flower, and a couple chewed down to about 2 inches high!
The Actea is a very tall slender narcissi with a subtle scent. The Pipit is a small petite variety which also have a nice scent. The centre and cup of Pipit fades to a pale creamy yellow.

Narcissus ‘Actaea’ poeticus

Narcissus jonquil ‘Pipit’

The rhododendron looks fine after it’s move at the end of last year. The pieris which was leaning over to the right and was very top heavy has now been chopped quite far down. There was already new growth from the trunk further down, so after a good feed and water I am hoping it will bush out from the base.

leaning Pieris japonica ‘Forest flame’

chopped Pieris japonica ‘Forest flame’

The ivy-leaved toadflax is looking good just now and although some other plants are gradually coming into flower, most of the narcissi are over, so too are the corydalis, and some primroses. I am waiting rather impatiently to see if the nepeta and coreopsis have made it through the winter, as I don’t see any signs of growth yet.

Cymbalaria muralis (ivy-leaved toadflax)

And now for the mistake: I had originally thought of putting the sarcoccoca (winter flowering with fabulous scent) at the back of the garden where it would get quite a lot of shade, but a bit of sun in the morning. I then changed my mind and thought it would be nice to have the scent drift up onto the patio area and so I asked Harry to plant it just in front of the patio. WHY DID I DO THAT?? It gets much more sun there, and every day I checked on it, and it just looked sadder, and sadder. It finally dawned on me that it didn’t like that much sun, so it is now in the shadier stumpery area of the garden. So far a few of the branches look like they are perking up, so hopefully it will survive.

very sad looking Sarcococca hookerian var. digyna ‘Purple stem’

Now is the time of year for the ferns to start uncurling their croziers, and each fern unfurls differently. Oh how I wish I could remember all my ferns names! I will attempt the names of these ones.
Now I am just waiting for some rain, it might just be a shower, in which case I may have to get the hose out tomorrow.

Osmunda regalis ‘Purpuraascens’

Asplenium of some sort

Polystichum ?

Dryopteris crispa congesta

Spring flowers in a chilly Edinburgh garden.

11/04/2020flowers, plants, springJackie Elwin

There are a few plants just gone over, and many plants almost in flower, but right at this minute there are plenty of spring plants that give lots of welcome colour. In my back garden few of the shrubs that are in flower now are the Spirea Arguta ‘Bridal wreath’, Pieris japonica ‘Forest flame’, Prunus Shiroto ‘Mount Fugi’, Osmanthus burkwoodii, Viburnum x Bodnantense Dawn, Corylus avellana contorta catkins, and Berberis darwinii
or x lologensis apricot queen. In the front garden is the Mahonia Wagneri pinnacle. I won’t photograph them all but here a few:

Pieris japonica Forest flame

Pieris with fresh leaves

Spirea Arguta Bridal wreath

Prunus Shiroto Mount Fugi

Prunus Shiroto Mount Fugi close up

Berberis Darwinii or x lologensis apricot queen

The Pieris will have to be lopped off once it has flowered I am afraid, because it is leaning all the way over to the right as it is very top heavy. The good news is that around the base is lots of new growth so it won’t be long before it gains height.
The spring plants are dotted around the garden: Anemone blanda white, Brunnera macrophylla and Jack frost, Fritillaria meleagris snakes head, Hellebores (various), Lamium hybridum, Lunaria annua, Myosotis, Narcissi (various), Oxalis acetosella, Primulas (various), Pulmonaria Lewis Palmer, Vinca major and minor, Viola, Corydalis solida pink, Dicentra formosa, Cymbalaria muralis, Epimedium sulphureum, and Tulips Mystic Van Eijk. There are quite a few just ready to come into flower soon.

I am sure the pink tulips were darker last year.
I managed to decapitate one of the tiny Narcissus Segovia as my wheelchair spokes just caught the flower head. Some of the other Narcissi have succumbed to slug or snail damage. Only one Anemone coronaria Bordeaux is in bloom just now. I love the combination of the purple hellebores with the purple stems of hebe, just as the flowers go over on the hellebore, the hebe flowers bloom, although there are a few hebe flowers out just now. The Pulmonaria has lovely pink and blue combo flowers and pretty spotted leaves. Don’t you just LOVE spring!!
The pond however is rather bare as the lockdown due to the coronavirus meant that the pond edges had been tidied up and the overgrown grasses etc taken away, however, the company could not work during lockdown so I am still waiting for the new plants. Only the yellow marsh marigold is in flower at the pond edges.

Hellebore alongside Hebe Pink paradise (about to flower)

Pulmonaria Lewis Palmer.

Helleborus argutifolius

Corydalis solida with Munstead wood rose.

Oxalis acetosella

Lamium hybridum

Narcissus pontresina

Narcissus cheerfulness

Narcissus Segovia

Anemone coronaria Bordeaux

Tulips Van Eijk

Hellebores for early spring colour.

07/03/2020flowers, plantsJackie Elwin

Finally a bit of warm sunshine – warm enough for me to get a spot of gardening done and tidying up of the patio. February was such a wet month, the ground has not been able to dry off for months now. The patio is full of plants at the moment: some of which need to be planted in the back garden, while others are in little pots to be sold in May at the Duddingston Kirk Garden Club.
I have been waiting for my six double Hellebores to flower before I plant them as I couldn’t see any labels on them when they arrived from the nursery last year. They were only small plants and so were nice and cheap. Three have now flowered and have been planted, but three are still to flower. I do love Hellebores as they give great colour at this time of year and they clump up well. I had a couple of old large clumps that needed a bit of rejuvenation so I split the old large white clump so that I could have some in the stumpery as well as in the main bed. They didn’t mind at all being split and moved.

Helleborus niger white

I split the purple clump to have some at the back of the garden, raised bed and also the main bed. This one is in the raised bed which is much drier and shadier than the main bed so it doesn’t put on as good a show.

Helleborus niger purple

The one in the main bed is also in the shade, but it gets more rain than the raised bed, and the soil is more moisture retentive too. It loves it there.

Helleborus niger purple

Of the six Hellebores that I bought last year, the Helleborus Double Ellen white spotted is doing ok (a little bedraggled but ok) and was not on the list – it may have been substituted instead of the double white but I won’t know until the others have flowered.


Helleborus Double Ellen white spotted

This next photo may be the Double form of Picotee but is is not in great shape so is pretty hard to tell.

(Just after I took the photo my new dog had a mad run around the garden and took both flower heads off! Grrrrrrrr!)

Helleborus Double Ellen Picotee?

The Double purple one is looking good and I can’t wait for them to clump up and put on a good display in the coming years.

Helleborus Double Ellen purple

The Helleborus argutifolius is situated in the stumpery and is just starting to flower now. Their flowers last such a long time and are a quite bright, pale green that show up well against their very dark green foliage.

Helleborus argutifolius

Now I mentioned a new dog, well, he is a force to be reckoned with in the garden. He has already charged into my lovely Acer palmatum Dissectum atropurpureum and broken off a very large branch. He has trampled a few tulips (not in flower yet). He has ripped out a Verbena bonariensis, and has chewed on a few shrubs and just loves to leap about in my favourite fern! Argh! He is six years old (from the dog home) and still requires a bit of training so here’s hoping he will calm down a bit in the garden eventually. I have already removed my beautiful dark red rose (‘Erotica’) as it had extremely big lethal jaggy prickles and I didn’t want the dog to get hurt. The good news is that my good pals (neighbours) now have it in a position to deter opportunistic crooks.

There are a few bulbs in flower in the garden, like the purple crocus, but still waiting for the Narcissi and tulips. The conservatory is looking colourful just now with the reds of the cyclamen, yellow Narcissus Tete-a-Tete, purple Oxalis, green Selaginella Kraussiana and Soleirolia Soleirolli (mind your own business plant) and various Sempervivums, cacti and ferns. The greenfly are around already so I have to regularly check my plants to just keep the blighters from getting out of control.

Conservatory colour

There is still no sign of frog spawn yet although the heron has been spotted on the garage roof again, and Harry did find a frog in the front garden. The first spawn in 2018, was on 20th March, then in 2019, it was 27th February. Wonder when it will be this year? The pond is very overgrown at one side and really needs dug out and replanted. That will be the next big job.

July, in between ninja showers…

23/07/2019flowers, plants, wildlifeJackie Elwin

it is muggy, sunny, and hot. Lots of my plants have some kind of rust or mould on them.. The meadow sweet, verbena bonariensis and a few others have powdery mildew. Some of the roses have rust and black-spot. Some huecheras have rust. I have sprayed the roses again, and have just given them their final feed so I hope they will pick up a bit. I have taken off most of the rusty leaves form plants, but the powdery mildew can be quite stubborn I am having the constant battle with the humongous slugs and have resorted to using some ‘Sluggo’ near my new delphiniums as I am sick of my new plants disappearing overnight.
Normally at this time of year I see loads of bees covering the purple lavender, veronica and agastache out in the front garden but this year there are only a few about. The agastache to the left of the mahonia is devoid of all leaves courtesy of slugs and snails, while the ones at the right side are fine. The purple loose-strife, persicaria, hedge woundwort, verbascums, geraniums, delphiniums, cat-mint and a foxgloves are still attracting bees and other pollinators.
I finally moved the old bird-bath plinth from the patio as it was falling apart and found it had been a good home for the green cellar slugs (which are good guys) so I let them find a new home behind the patio plant pots. I found a cricket on the garage wall (horrid photo taken with my phone) which was nice. We used to hear crickets when we first moved here, but haven’t seen or heard any for years now so maybe they have come back this year? All over the garden are lots of tree seeds: mainly sycamore keys and tiny silver birch seeds. They really make the place look untidy but I have finished dead-heading and weeding for today and I am off out to enjoy the sunshine before the next lot of torrential rain due tonight (along with thunder and hail so they say).

Lavender

Veronica spicata ‘Royal candles’

Persicaria affinis superbum

Sorbus hupehensis Pink pagoda berries

Delphinium cameliard

Verbascum chaxii album

Old bird-bath plinth

Green cellar slugs (Limacus maulatus)

Grove snail or brown lipped snail (Cepaea nemoralis)

Cricket?

Sycamore keys (samara)

New plants…

14/07/2019flowers, plants, stumpery, wildlifeJackie Elwin

for the widened border. I have been shopping at MacPlants again to fill in some gaps in the border. For a nice soft purple and yellow combination there is Nepets junior Walker and Coreopsis verticillata ‘Moonbeam’. Along side some Cosmos Xanthos (which I had in pots on the patio). A couple of Leptinella squalida ‘Platt’s Black’ for a couple of corner areas. I had planted some Ammi visnagi but the massive slugs got them (one seedling survives). These massive slugs are such a pain and even all the wool pellets I put down are no deterrent what so ever. These slugs have destroyed half a dozen honesty, all my blue poppies, primula vialii, the ammi, knapweed and loads more besides. I do a slug patrol every morning and pick loads. They curl up into a ball to prevent being eaten, and I have found some almost the same size as a golf ball!
The milk churn was moved to a corner in the bed to make a focal point and I didn’t have a pot the correct size but ended up putting a bronze grass on a plastic saucer inside the churn, which is held up by a wooded support underneath. It looks great just now.
We moved the bench that was sitting under the tree canopy (overhanging from the golf course), which was collecting loads of bird droppings so was rather dangerous for anyone sitting there. It is still in the stumpery area but under clear skies so much nicer for resting on.
There is still more planting to be done, and moving plants about – which probably shouldn’t really be done just now but some are now in the wrong place. They used to edge the border but now that the borders are wider they need to be moved to the new edge.

Coreopsis verticillata ‘Moonbeam’, Nepeta Junior Walker

Cosmos bipinnatus Xanthos

huge slug curled into a ball

huge slugs

slug on the wool pellets

Carex commons bronze in milk churn

Carex commons bronze (diff view)

bench in the stumpery

Finally a little bit of sunshine…

11/06/2019bee, flowers, plants, wildlifeJackie Elwin

in amongst the rain showers. The lawn is like a huge sponge, full of water, and every time my wheels go over it, it gets churned up so is like a quagmire now. The sooner I get more paving the better. When the sun does come out, it brings the bees out with it. They are everywhere. Here is a list of plants in flower now that they visit: deutzia, heuchera, syringia, foxgloves, aquilegia, centaura, rhododendron, geraniums, daisies, thyme, hebe, saxifrages, cirsium, erigeron, geum, clematis and philadelphus. The garden is literally humming with them. I have been playing with my macro lens again trying to learn how to use my mirrorless camera.