Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Farway

Black_Cat2 said:

My dead buddleia was a white one which I bought at the local garden centre, not sure of the name.  Didn't seem to attract butterflies as much as a purple one I have but mostly hover flies and wasps.  I'm thinking of dodging buying a white one again and might stick with a purple variety 🤔

My, still alive, white buddlia was borrowed from the Co-op car park so long ago it's now an Asda . I think I prefer purple but white makes a change, I've both plus a dark purple on loan from somewhere, still on the lookout for a weeping one, I've seen one near Costcutter but it was lopped before some fell into my jacket

Talking of colours, I was tending my volunteer border this morning and the purple lilac I bought from Morries and donated has an alarming look of whiteness in it's forming flower spike, typical if it turns out white, I deliberately chose purple bog standard purple because white can look manky once it starts to brown & fade

And to neatly segue onto mis labelling items, just had e mail from T & M, my replacement pear tree is on it's way , the one that turned into an apple on my last delivery.

Should be in the ground by the weekend I hope, in time for some promised rain and being a Bank Holiday it should bucket down

Black_Cat2

Paspatur said:

Black_Cat2 I had a white one, or more cream really which replaced a very old past it's best purple one.
 I hated it, branches/flowers were white/off white for a few days and then went a yukky brown colour so it was never all white at the same time and just looked ugly. I chopped it down and have not replaced it yet but I do miss the butterflies although I also got lots more on the purple one. No idea of the variety.

Hi P, yes it's not as stunning as a purple one I agree.  Not sure why the butterflies didn't like it, unless they go by sight rather than smell?  No idea on butterflies and their preferences tbh 😸

Hiya F, still loving your pics and D's and A's etc, hope you're all well, I'm still loitering 🐈

twopenny

Interesting all this talk of manky white flowers. I bought a white geranium to go with the colours and assumed that the brown flowers were overhead watering in the shop. Looks like they just turn brown for a passtime.

I did a lot of exploration along the coast walk where buddleias have self seeded and flourished. Such a variety of shades but I dismissed the lovely dark purple for lack of scent and the pale one because it's common place and picked a mid purple that also had the scent. The butterflies loved it but I think the original gets the most.

Long walk today in the woods, lots of early purple orchids flowering - well early.

Then a dash to a far off garden centre for my blue grasses. Never tried grasses. It will be a learning curve so any tips welcome.

Also went to another, the only one to have Wallflowers but they'd sold out in a day. Did come back with a peaches and pale yellow Grannies Bonnet and the same for a primula. So pretty but I bet neither is tough.

This buying plants is hard work. I wanted Aubreitia which is currently in bloom here but told they don't sell it now because 'its in bloom' and ditto the Wallflowers. They are bringing on plants like Agapanthus in bloom now and Foxgloves, Peonies. All too early but the shelves are ripped bare in a trice.

Even tried to get some seeds but there's none of those either.

Watered the garden as many plants that I moved this year are turning up their toes with the eternal hot dry weather. So feeling a bit despondant tonight. Its gone cloudy and very chill now, 25C in my bedroom at 9am but only 10C last night.

Davesnave

The wind finally went around to the north west today, meaning I could have my long-awaited  bonfire which had grown greatly in the past week or so. For a start, there was an impressive pile of stuff from garden clearance and field hedge tidying. Then a friend who cannot burn things in the village added another trailer full of wood from a demolished outbuilding. Finally, there were 8 dumpy bags of small branches from the garden oak tree we had felled on Saturday because it was threatening the drains and septic tank. We were sad to see the tree go, but now it has we can plan that area of the garden accordingly and plant another nearby in a safer place.

goldfinches

@Apodemus your constructive suggestion re hi-vis gave me a good laugh.
@Davesnave the more I see of the inside of other people's heads the less I want to.

Some friends and I visited a local cafe this afternoon where there was an interestingly small apple tree that I photographed next to one of my friends for scale. There were no labels and no-one to ask so I can't tell you more than it had visible healed pruning cuts at the top of the main trunk and the ends of all the side branches and its graft was about 3" diameter. It struck us all as being both very manageable and productive for small gardens.

RAS

Goldfinches, most varieties on M27 rootstock would produce a similar tree, although I'd have been inclined to stake the leader of the one you photographed when younger as it's fallen over with the weight of fruit. The triploids like Bramley Seedling and Belle de Boskoop would grow bigger. However I know one of the red sport of the latter that's on the larger M9 and only just over 2 metres tall.

One person I know grows apples in beds almost like large rose bushes underplanted with spring bulbs and primulas, not dissimilar to your photo. The issue is that there are some varieties that have weak growth and don't do well on M27. But if you find a healthy looking one or two year old on M27, it should do well.

I and we (where I volunteer) grow a lot of cordons which allow a good range of fruit from a small space. We occasionally have to prune some hard but most of the time it's summer pruning (September here) and thinning the spurs at the top every so often to keep them down to about 5-6 feet. 

The other trick with most varieties is to let it grow to about the height you want and then let it fruit heavily. That reduces future growth and the tree won't gain a lot more height. I've some varieties that I want to produce new growth for graft wood and they've been 1.5 metres for 5 years with little new growth because I let them fruit young. Don't try this with triploids though.

Davesnave

goldfinches said:

@Davesnave the more I see of the inside of other people's heads the less I want to.

I know what you mean!

Farway

No rain yet, the weather picture has all the rain blobs circling around but not over me. Time will tell

Cold though, I was in two minds about putting the young plants out to continue hardening but I've done it anyway and secretly hoping it pours down & I have to dash out to rescue the runners

Further e mail messages on the pear tree replacement from T & M, it's left the clutches of Whistl and is now winging it's way with Hermes

I have seen reviews where that was the last ever seen of T & M goods, with all sides blaming the other. Hermes deliveries seems to be OK round here so fingers crossed

Update on the fig cuttings rooting in water trial, all is going very well, I started with six cuttings and all six are now showing white rooting nodules & in some case real roots are growing, 6/6 is good I reckon, could be a couple more months before they can go into potting compost but the warmer weather may speed them along

RAS said:

I and we (where I volunteer) grow a lot of cordons which allow a good range of fruit from a small space. We occasionally have to prune some hard but most of the time it's summer pruning (September here) and thinning the spurs at the top every so often to keep them down to about 5-6 feet. 

The other trick with most varieties is to let it grow to about the height you want and then let it fruit heavily. That reduces future growth and the tree won't gain a lot more height. I've some varieties that I want to produce new growth for graft wood and they've been 1.5 metres for 5 years with little new growth because I let them fruit young. Don't try this with triploids though.

That's a very handy tip RAS, thanks for that. Thinking about it we are always told to not let young trees fruit early because it weakens them but that "problem" sounds like it can be used to our advantage once aware of it

pink_poppy

Good to see you back posting again, Dave, although not sure about those statue pics, they remind me of the stone angels in Dr Who 😱

So my Herb Robert is actually a Dicentra 😂 I’ll have to inspect the flowers as I think they’re also known as Bleeding Heart ❣ IIRC.

I found this in the garden a couple of days ago and think I’ve managed to identify it as a snowflake?? It looks very much like a snowdrop, but with a longer stem.

pink_poppy

I think I should have put some hand cream on before I took that pic 😳

On the subject of manky white blossom, I had a pyracantha in my last garden (with orange berries) and the white blossom was gorgeous when it came out, but looked horrible when it turned brown. The scent of the blossom was lovely too (when it was still white) it reminded me a bit of honeysuckle.