Awful weather - typical Brits talk

twopenny

I spent the morning travelling in mist and drizzle but in the afternoon the sun shone just like spring!

The trees in the woods are shoing colour as the buds are growing. Phew! at least somethings going the normal way this year.

My only gardening today is watching Monty Don's Italian Gardens and Garden Rescue.

It's so satisfying watching someone else doing it.

Farway

More rain this morning not much just wet & gloomy. Ideal to wash the fresh ornamental cherry blossom away

When I was out at yesterday’s volunteer meeting I noticed the border that we worked on during lockdown is sprouting fresh growth, and the shrubs are starting to fill out with fresh green growth

One has already made it into flower, boring but very welcome forsythia, just a plant from £land a couple of years ago which should provide years of spring flower

wort

Thanks Farway for the pics of the streptocarpus, that has identified mine as the purple spotted 🤩🌺. I seem to have acquired quite a lot of house plants again .
The forsythia in my garden is only just coming into bud. But I have tete a tete and tulips snowdrops and hyacinth all in flower . Such a wonderful sight to see signaling the end of winter. Gardeners World back on tonight too👏🏻 

twopenny

Ohhhhh I didn't know that! Joy!!

My Forthysia isn't nearly in flower. Mind it was a baby but I expected more knowing how flourishing it is.

Farway don't dis the Forthysia, I'll post a photo later in the month of one near me. They've let it flourish and I asked if I could take a photo because it was glorious, no idea what I did with it  so I'll do another.

Yes, bucketing with rain. I took a walk around my little plot looking for the giant wallflowers but looks like most have been eaten. The grass is sodden so even with a weather break I mustn't go on it again and compact the soil.

I did buy a winter clematis today, Jingle Bells, to grow along the rose that looses it's leaves in winter.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/296339/clematis-cirrhosa-jingle-bells-(c)/details

I said to the lady on the till 'This must be the last purchase' and she laughed . Oh well.

Farway

Early start gardening this morning, the garden wheelie bin was emptied yesterday so took the opportunity to start filling it up again, buddleia pruning and the sedum dead heads will not become “Art” so into the bin they went

I don’t mean to ‘dis Forsythia 2P, love it personally which is one reason I planted it, It’s one of those shrubs that is so easy it’s common, bit like buddleia I suppose. I’d like fancy forsythia one day but CBA at the moment to look into different varieties, even though now would be ideal time to do so

That clematis of yours looks a good choice as well, but having taken decades to actually get one to succeed here I’ll rest on my laurels for the moment and not chance sending another one to the great compost heap in the sky this year

My seed sowing trigger fingers are itching, I’ll ask someone to lug the propagator downstairs for me next week, I’ve Bishop’s Children dahlias to sow, plus a few tomatoes, maybe squeeze in some cosmos?

I wasn’t going to bother with toms this year but listening to Farming Today on R4 seems with cost of gas UK grown toms will be in short supply, just too dear to heat the glasshouses commercially though I suspect some will manage, Thanet Earth springs to mind

PS, looking at my older pear tree with only a few flower buds on it, it may have to suffer the ignomy of being repurposed as Clematis support number One

twopenny

Well, a break in the rain but too wet to go out in the garden.
More to come next week. It's like a repeat of last year when i couldn't get seeds in for the rain and cold.
On the plus side ive seen a horse chestnut coming into leaf and the gorse is in full beautiful flower.
From my empty garden 3yrs ago I get wonderful bird song and always some to watch. The blackbirds are chucking gravel and soil over the path every day. Aparantly the food I provide which they now demand is only a starter.

RebekahR

Went out and cut a bush and fuscia. Not sure if your are meant ot cut fuscia as I see some buds on it so only ut it by half! Decided it was too cold and manky so came back indoors. Planted some more seeds indoors yippeee!

wort

2p ,I have that evergreen clematis, it is definitely vigorous!! It’s in flower at the moment and I nipped out yesterday afternoon to get a piece to bring indoors ,but couldn’t get at it properly without a ladder, so did a bit of tidying for half an hour. Cut a piece of the kojo no mai blossom instead. Sounded very windy outside last night, and a bit overcast today. 

Might try to plant the chilli  seeds I collected last year. I’m not very good with fruit and veg and don’t have room really ,I gave some seeds to my brother in law ,hopefully if they are successful he might let me have some of the spoils.

Farway

At least it’s a sunny start to the day, if it keeps up I may bimble around the garden, I think I spotted some rhubarb peeking up the other day, it’s late this year because my FB memories from this day in the past show proper growth

The wind has of course blown over the tall daffs, just as I was thinking this year maybe I’ve got away with it, later on I may shuffle through the seed packets finding the likely ones for sowing next week, just remembered I have castor oil plant seeds, or think I have, I know I was thinking about growing them for the foliage, not sure if I acted on the thought.

Rebekah, yep, now is time to hack at the fuchsias, idea being by now any growth that was going to die has done so and you can see the green shoots and cut back accordingly, I normally reduce mine to about six inches but it depends on the shape you want

twopenny

Wort, I was warned where I bought it that it can be a bit of a thug. The one I saw in a garden I noticed has been cut down to a shrubby bit about 3ft high.
Unfortunately it's still sitting blown over in its pot as the rain is blowing sideways and it's been another storm. The ground is squelching and the bucket under my gutter drip is overflowing for the second time running.
Not a chance of doing anything in the garden again!
There is a small but excellent market at a small town called Watchet, Somerset where they have a stall devoted to chilli plants. An amazing selection.