Awful weather - typical Brits talk

phoebe1989seb

Sweet goose pic, goldfinches! And lovely fruit, pink_poppy 😃 
Please don't get yourself chucked off permanently, Dave!!!

Hope everyone's gardens are surviving the gales today?

It's pretty wet and gusty here - expected to get up to 70mph later 🙁 Yesterday I took the precaution of checking things were well staked, paying particular attention to the 47 (!!!) shrub roses (soon to be 48 as DH came home with David Austin 'Grace' last night, lol!) as some have grown rather leggy. All seemed as ready as possible to withstand the forecast gales.

Fast forward to this morning and I popped out to check all was well, only to find the rambler growing over the porch (Frances E Lester) had completely collapsed, snapping at least one huge branch in the process 😢 I'd naively assumed that the climbing and rambling roses were securely tied in...but obviously not. There was no way I was scaling a ladder in an attempt to sort it out, so will have to await DH's return from work, when I can hold the ladder whilst he ties it back in.

In other news, I'm looking for a pair of (preferably blue or purple) evergreen shrubs for two huge Errington Reay urns (approx 1m high x 50cm diameter) in the walled courtyard which is a fairly sheltered, sunny spot, although being Wales we do get a fair amount of rain! I'd got my heart set on ceanothus but understand they don't like being in pots.

Any suggestions/ideas for alternatives would be most welcome please 😊

twopenny

Farway, could you ask the person with the lilac in their garden if it is throwing out suckers yet? The old type do at a rate of knots and snap them off and root them. Sometimes they are growing from the root and already have some of their own. That's how I got mine now.

Phoebe I had a massive rambling rose and it was stapled and wired into all sorts. These winds when they were in full leaf always broke it free and it was a nightmare to put back up because of the weight. It takes two people.

The winds are terrible, I'm amazed stuff is still standing. It's chucking it down periodically.

I've changed my mind yet again on how to have the garden and it will take again, a lot of work. Don't know if it will go ahead or if I can think of something simpler or just leave it. No one really cares but me, they're more interested in a cup of tea and cake.

goldfinches

Sad end to a horse chestnut today.


This was taken on Feb 8th this year.


Then I took this on April 4th.


And then this afternoon, this was all that remained. 

twopenny

So sad, I hate to see trees felled. I live in a heavy wooded area so you'd think I'd be used to it but the ones you see daily over decades become familiar friends.

I watched 3 poplars felled that were the view from my window for 60 yrs. We'd grown up together. Also a huge beech tree on the by the beach that were also part of my childhood was the last of 3 to go last year.

Yeah, I know, and I do hug trees...........just when no ones watching

Davesnave

Farway said:

 ...finding information, or even being aware that there is a narrative not covered by, or obscured, by the main stream isn't common knowledge, without it becoming a conspiracy either

I find skulking around the darker bits of the internet quite informative at times, dodging occasional nut jobs of course

I wouldn't want to call the internet sites I visit 'dark' in case that gives the wrong impression; they're much more wholesome than the puerile outpourings of the BBC and MSM. And yes, it's surprising how often 'conspiracy theories' later prove to have substance, when the powers that be decide to allow them. Witness the recent shift of opinion on where Covid 19 originated, or the Pentagon recently confirming  there are definitely flying objects that defy our knowledge of physics.

But let's look at something much harder, like Phoebe's large evergreen plant flowering in purple or blue for a tub. I can't think of anything except selected phormiums which don't flower in the colours required and even the purple is rather subjective!

The chestnut tree is sad, but what's more sad IMO is when there's a lack of planting of new trees to become our  landscapes of the future. Around me, I'm happy to say that the excesses of pine and larch planting dating back to the 1950s  are being rectified to some extent as they become fence panels and power poles, but I think there will be a dearth of mature native trees in some areas, especially where hedges have been grubbed-out to increase field sizes.

Davesnave

twopenny said:

Yeah, I know, and I do hug trees...........just when no ones watching

Just as well; the government haven't allowed hugging until very recently. However, some of us never stopped.

quirkydeptless

goldfinches said:

Sad end to a horse chestnut today.


This was taken on Feb 8th this year.

Then I took this on April 4th.


And then this afternoon, this was all that remained. 

  ...   ...

Farway

Wow, wot a night,very wet & howling wind which woke me up, it was the same outside

Still blowing the trees about but the rain's stopped, plenty of reports about flying greenhouses, trampolines etc but seem to have been spared around me

Pity about the tree GF, but given last night's weather probably as well it's down now with a wet full leaved canopy & the wind it would surely have taken more battering, I know after the Great Storm many tree were left where they fell and safety allowed, heretical new thinking at the time was leave it to nature, bugs, fungi etc, plus thousands of downed trees probably concentrated financial minds

Evergreen shrub for Phoebe?

How about Hebe?

Flowers in the colours, some have leaves in the colours

And a bonus, grow readily from bits that may stick to clothes

2P, lilac suckers, thanks for the memory jog, I now have a white one from a mislabelled purple at my volunteer border so two sources of supply

And on cuttings, update on the figs rooting in water. All going well and I expect to pot up sometime in June, here's the pic taken this morning during a water change

pink_poppy

It’s a wonder Scotland has any trees left, the number of timber logs I see being transported around here 😕 it’s probably why the roads are in such a state as well...

goldfinches, glad you got the lilac identified.

RAS, a gold star for you in identifying the red currants 😉

phoebe, would a standard Ceanothus work in your urns?? Or a Cotinus Royal Purple?? I’m not sure if standards would look a bit odd in urns though?? 🤔

pink_poppy

The Lily of the Valley is flowering, I’m glad I didn’t dig them all out by accident!!

We’ve also got this, which I think is a bluebell, but it’s a pinky purple colour.