Gardeners Diary

Archived Posts from this Category

April 9, 2011

Brunnera Jack Frost

Posted by Barhi under Gardeners Diary | Tags: , |
1 Comment 

One plant that is looking really good at the moment is Brunnera ‘Jack Frost’.

Those delicate “forget me not” blue flowers are a joy, particularly against the older leaves which have the typical silvered leaves that gives the variety its name.  The younger leaves take a while to develop the hue, but are just as good a foil for the flowers.

This particular plant is in the front garden, so the dogs don’t get too close to it.  The brunneras in the back garden are not as robust as this plant, but they do get a lot more sun.  I have the feeling that it is the growing conditions in the front that enable the plant to grow so well, rather than the impact of the dogs.

 

April 5, 2011

Early Spring?

Posted by Barhi under Gardeners Diary | Tags: , , |
Leave a Comment 

For some time now I have felt that Spring was early this year – I suppose it makes sense as we had our snow two months earlier than we would normally expect, and there was much more of it this year, so the plants really believe that they have had a winter.

Amelanchier - Apr 2011

I now have my confirmation that Spring is earlier this time around.  Last year the Amelanchier (Snowy Mespilus) was in flower in May – over a month later than in 2011.  It only flowers very fleetingly – within a week, those beautiful snowy white flowers drop to the ground to allow the wonderful bronzy leaves to take over the show.

Magnolia - Apr 2011

The Magnolia isn’t quite into full flower yet, but the Garden Introductory video taken almost exactly the same day a year ago showed absolutely no sign of flower then, and just look at it now.  In fact the whole garden is so much further ahead than it was when I made that video. 

The interesting thing will be what is in flower when we open under the NGS in early June.  Luckily the garden is designed to have a succession of plants in flower rather than peaking at one particular moment, so there is bound to be loads looking really wonderful when the weekend arrives.

 

March 21, 2011

Today’s the day

Posted by Barhi under Gardeners Diary | Tags: |
[3] Comments 

Today in the UK (and everywhere else on roughly the same latitude) is the first day for six months that we have more daylight than night.   It’s a momentous day, and next weekend the UK says goodbye (for a while) to Greenwich Mean Time and moves to British Summer Time.  This is therefore a week that I spend the winter months looking forward to.  There is all the promise of Spring right on our doorsteps and then the long days of Summer to come.

How about this for putting a smile on your face?  I bought a number of new hellebores this year, and had absolutely no idea what the flowers would be like.  This little beauty is the star  of the show so far, but there are others that look like I will have to wait until next year to see their faces.

 

« Previous Page — Next Page »