Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Dustyevsky

twopenny said:

Lovely primrose photo Dusty, have you pinched one of those red ones to go in there

And you seem to be permently on the ground - do you just stay there? Great way to get photos though.

I think the red one's been introduced. All the known variations here have trended towards white, or an unappealing mucky pink.

I can do grovelling well enough, and I can get up again too. It helps that I'm quite near the ground to start with. When I was little, I remember my Mum warning me about sitting on wet/cold ground. “You'll get piles!” she'd exclaim. Piles of what wasn't clear, and I'm still waiting for them.

Speaking of ailments, I told you my lurgy would be gone by Sunday night, and it was!   I slowed-down, but carried on working. Putting one's feet up in this lovely Vit D  (other vitamins are available ) enhancing weather would make no sense.

Farway, my photo tweaking-computer is of 2012 vintage on W7, and it still goes! It was built by a little old man in Paignton, who just enjoyed putting them together. Also, as he pointed out, once up in his attic, he was free from the cares of the world, and his wife. Like your super bum, I've placed the emphasis carefully there! 

pp, I'll give up altogether if you keep posting sunsets like your latest. We had a stonker here tonight, but alas, no mountains to form a backdrop.

LessImpecunious

I think the red one's been introduced. All the known variations here have trended towards white, or an unappealing mucky pink.

Hmm, according to Plantlife "A Primrose flower will be red if you plant it upside-down", though they do add "according to one old superstition"...

Primrose featured in my monthly email from them, so was hoping for some enlightenment on the subject of hybrids, variations, etc, as I was still confused having consulted the RHS website and a well-known online encyclopedia; and there is some in the article (at https://www.plantlife.org.uk/plants-and-fungi/primrose), on variants, at least... (If you're prone to high blood pressure brought on by dumbing-down or poor grammar (with apologies for my own - I did go to a grammar school, but it was at a time when they had given up teaching the subject, and I've never quite got the hang of it since, though this hasn't stopped me spotting it in others... ) don't watch the video...).

Elsewhere, on hybrids, I found this: "Polyanthus primroses are so called because they produce several flowers on a tall stem. Their origins are lost in the midst of time but probably derive from crosses between Primula vulgaris, Primula veris and Primula elatior" on a webpage by Barnhaven Primroses... So I'm concluding that if an odd colour flower is single-stemmed it's a variant, and if multiple-stemmed, it's a hybrid... Now just need to check my own!

BTW, the (very pale) mucky pink are some of my favs - don't seem to have any trending towards white though...

OT, sunny, wind has dropped, and warm - I spotted a white butterfly (species undetermined), and swallows turned up yesterday. Aquilegias are turning into mounds of leaves at great speed, so guessing that could be the subject of the next discussion of mucky pinks, etc

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Flying visit (trying to finish laying a patio before it starts r@*ning), congrats Poppy, great photos as always  

Farway

Another sunshine day ahead, mixed day of gardening & computer fiddling

Dustyevsky said:

Farway, my photo tweaking-computer is of 2012 vintage on W7, and it still goes! It was built by a little old man in Paignton, who just enjoyed putting them together. Also, as he pointed out, once up in his attic, he was free from the cares of the world, and his wife. Like your super bum, I've placed the emphasis carefully there! 

The one I'm on now is W7, duff, non internet is W10.

I'm pondering if I should keep y W10,  now non internet PC as my photo one, it would be sensible because it has the editing progs on it, save me trying to find them to reload onto my new one

The actual images are already stored on stand alone hard drive, so I could just plug & play for most of it.

Story of my life right there, bodging & making do!

Hoping to pot on a few more tomatoes once sun gets round to my potting on spot, plus sow sweet peas, in pots.

If my back still allows by then I want to plant out the three  plants I bought yesterday.

Dustyevsky

Farway said:

Story of my life right there, bodging & making do!

Ah, but us bodging codgers will be OK, should the normally ordered way of things become a little... err...less orderly.   I'm not sooth-saying; just musing that when times are tough, the ability to adopt and adapt may be worth more than a head full of specialised theory.

I'll try to have another look at our primroses/primulas Less, but like Luna, I'm on a mission to get some things done rather than others while the weather holds.   Yesterday, I finally ticked off one job involving the long-handled hedge cutters. Some may remember our delightful neighbours planting trees, making tractor-cutting the elm hedge impossible for about 8 metres. Well, their side can do what it wants , but I wanted our side neatened-up, so there was well over an hour of struggling with the long reach beast!

Today, it might finally be the much put-off, septic tank area clear-up, but Mrs Dusty is mumbling about more chainsawing......

Before pp comes along with another masterpiece, I'll lower the tone with another daft captioned photo of Greenfinches. It's a bit fuzzy, and normally I'd have deleted it, but I caught one bird between flaps.

OT: Warm, sunny, not windy, and the pollen, (not the cotton) is high.

twopenny

Popped in here last night and couldn't find the thread!

I did a search and it came up but very curious. I thought maybe we'd got top heavy with photos and posts and they'd taken it away for cleaning up.

Currently sunnyish but chill with high white cloud so taking the time to gett the pot plants dunked and throughly soaked, doing domestic nonsense to stock up for the Easter period. Tends to be overrun with people around here, they even find their way into out of the way spots.

Had a look at Tesco small trees in pots but they'd lopped them to make them charming and small while they were destined for 3-4mtrs so will grow all wrong or be a hassle.

Ditto Morries, sheesh when they arrive on the lorry their in a state! Our darling of the plants reinvigorates them but I wonder if there's an ongoing weakness.

Dusty, Thats an amazing shot. Was the bird leaving or coming in to land?

Farway, I can beat Dusty with my 2007, W7 (I had money once) computer. Still going strong but I was hoping to replace and keep it for my photos and writing only.

Hi Luna, reminds me I ought to be chipping out block cement prior to laying but it's cold out front so it can stay scruffy.

Less, that was kind of you to release Harley and friend. We need all the ones we can get that eat bugs and I guess they do too.

I have a pretty cultivar, pale yellow with lovely pink middle. It's tried to grow buds but seems flowerless and I can't find anything eating it. I;m not fussed about how any plant grows on it's stem as long as it's healthy and pretty but I know it's important to some. Which reminds me, anyone seen Arbitrary Random?

pink_poppy

Dusty, that pic of the greenfinches is brilliant    Funny caption too    
We've had gorgeous sunsets here for days and days, although we missed last night's because DH shut the curtains too early.

Less, I won't be participating in any Aquilegia discussions this year as I dug most of them out, including my beautiful white one!! I do have seeds from them, but not sure if they'll be viable by the time I come to plant them.

Thanks, Lunatic   Hope you got the patio finished. We're due rain/drizzle on Friday this week - it'll be a shock to the system after all this sunshine.

Farway, I think there's a bit of bodger in all of us

twopenny, AR seems to have gone awol, hopefully just busy with work.

DH and I have been busy emptying the pond of sludge and other yukky bits this afternoon - we have a big pile of it on the grass, so hopefully any wee critters that were accidentally dragged out can climb back in. We've already rehomed a newt and I saw a frog hop away, but that came from the pond edging.

OT - another beautiful day. We're away tomorrow and not back until Thursday - we're going to be tourists in another part of Scotland    

Dustyevsky

twopenny said:

Dusty, Thats an amazing shot. Was the bird leaving or coming in to land?

Landing. It was a fluke. Here are the birds awaiting their turn on the feeders (and more in focus!)

pink_poppy said:

Less, I won't be participating in any Aquilegia discussions this year as I dug most of them out, including my beautiful white one!! I do have seeds from them, but not sure if they'll be viable by the time I come to plant them.

Aquilegias do best outdoors. Just distribute the seed and let nature do the rest. So long as you can ID the seedlings....
I'm missing a pond.   Well done for attending to yours.   It was an annual event when we had ours. Well, we have the tin baths, horse trough, etc, but they're not the real deal.

LessImpecunious

Dustyevsky said:

pink_poppy said:

Less, I won't be participating in any Aquilegia discussions this year as I dug most of them out, including my beautiful white one!! I do have seeds from them, but not sure if they'll be viable by the time I come to plant them.

Aquilegias do best outdoors. Just distribute the seed and let nature do the rest. So long as you can ID the seedlings....

If they're anything like ours you'll have self-seeded ones popping up all over anyhow.... More likely dirty pink than beautiful white, but you might be lucky!

Dustyevsky

LessImpecunious said:

Dustyevsky said:

pink_poppy said:

Less, I won't be participating in any Aquilegia discussions this year as I dug most of them out, including my beautiful white one!! I do have seeds from them, but not sure if they'll be viable by the time I come to plant them.

Aquilegias do best outdoors. Just distribute the seed and let nature do the rest. So long as you can ID the seedlings....

If they're anything like ours you'll have self-seeded ones popping up all over anyhow.... More likely dirty pink than beautiful white, but you might be lucky!

You can improve your luck by starting with a good mix of seed and then ruthlessly pulling out any mucky coloured ones as soon as they flower. Also, if you have, say, too many blues. Do the same with those. Goes against the grain, I know.....

I have a few Aquilegias in pots that haven't flowered yet, so we'll see what they do. I know one is from a white plant, and it looks like it will come true. There are also some species doubles, which generally don't hybridise with the others, but they may not flower until next year.

There's more work to do on the 'embarrassing' bit of our garden today. We began yesterday, so I'm hoping by tea time there will be a tidier space and few weeds, so we can plant in the in where there were failures.

OT:Must crack-on as I've a lady to deliver to the Health Centre shortly, but it's another sunny morning here, with just a touch of ground frost in odd pockets. It won't have hurt anything in the polytunnel.