Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Farway

Hoping the sun gets going, it's supposed to, even though it's grey right now. If it does pop out, I'll plant the rudbeckia out because a bit of rain due tomorrow allegedly, save me a job

I'll also prune off the rose overhanging the path, give me room & let a bit of light in as well

My mind has turned to fruit tree grafting, again. But now seems the right time, wish I'd thought of it when I was pruning the apples , I'll check while I'm out rose pruning

wort said:

Farway not sure I can get a decent leaf cutting 🤔 I am keeping a beady eye on it though.

I found you don't need a perfect leaf, helps of course, but I have used one that broke off and it worked fine

Bit of news, good & bad.

Good News, my granddaughter who is studying horticulture at Sparsholt college will be in charge of the plant design team for this year's Chelsea exhibition, directly involved in design & planting up.

They will stay in London for Chelsea week to build, plant up & "man" the display, including posh visitors' day, so she should see lots of TV faces as well as an experience few of us will ever have

The theme is the Foraging garden

Bad news, I won't be able to see it in the flesh:'(  , due to my health and non mobility it is beyond me these days, Just have to watch it on TV

And she has also applied for a space on Kew Diploma course starting in September, that could be harder because only 12 spaces available, still fingers crossed everybody

Finally, posted on another thread, but here for completeness. My Salvia "Hot Lips" cuttings, taken last Autumn when pruning and now on my window sill to get a bit of size before I split and move on come Spring

in_my_wellies

Blue sky and sunny here with a gentle breeze to blow the damp away so I was tempted out early. Just general tidying up and moving pots about. Pruned the rose by the greenhouse. I don't think it stopped growing this winter. Apples out for the blackbirds and veg for dinner picked easily. 

Snowdrops are out here in the garden and along the lane. The patches planted anonymously around 1990 are thriving. The beech tree has signs of buds opening so that will be the end of my solar for this summer. They were a project put in place 15 years ago when the tree was part of the hedge - if I had known......

I have also raised cuttings from damaged streptocarpus leaves so it's worth a try

@Farway - what a fantastic opportunity for your granddaughter. I will watch out for her garden. I do hope she is successful in her application to Kew. I was accepted on their apprentice scheme in 1972 but my parents wouldn't let me go. London was far too far away! They weren't ambitious for me, just happy for me to 'have a little job'.  I don't think I ever really forgave them and then after uni my DS1 worked there very happily for several years, not gardening, but in another department. 

YoungBlueEyes

Ooh that sounds amazing Farway, fingers and toes crossed for her here 🤞🏻

Sounds like Spring is near sprung in your garden Wellies, I love to see snowdrops 😊 

Cold but sunny here, blowing a hoolie too. So I’ve had 2 loads of washing out and dried already! 

Spring is trying to sprung here. I’ve a tiny wee purple crocus bobbed up through the gravel at the front. I was as giddy as a 5 year old on finger painting day when it saw it 😁

twopenny

I've got one as well!

It's small, butter yellow and nothing fancy but as beautiful as anything and gives me joy.

So easily pleased

YoungBlueEyes

(I’ve actually moved my car over a bit so I can see it from the front window 🤭)

goldfinches

Huge congratulations to your grandaughter @Farway and commiserations that you aren't able to see the results in person. I'm another who'll be looking out for her garden in the articles and videos. Good luck with her Kew application too.

Lovely sunny day here but no crocuses yet so here's a photo of the sarcococca which is just beginning to smell wonderful, one of my favourite scents.



If there's anything to the notion of re-incarnation perhaps we can all come back to have another go at the things we missed this time round, then @in_my_wellies you could take up your apprenticeship. 

in_my_wellies

Bright with light cloud here this morning, looks like rain later so I'm going out now. 

I checked the geraniums yesterday. I'm quite sure they succumbed to the cold, there are very few shoots. My own fault as I did rather neglect them. Mostly I didn't take cuttings for two year, just plonked the same plants back in so they are very woody. Anyway, I've tidied them up and we shall see. Fuchsias are shooting so they have been watered and tidied too

@glodflinches, you have solved a mystery. I must have taken a sarcococca cutting last year (or even the year before) and it's in flower. I had no idea what it was. I shall have to go and smell it later. 

The sun is shining, spring has indeed sprung and coffee time is over!

Farway

Dull start but sun maybe later

What a shame about your parents & Kew IMW, but it was different times then, some good & some bad. I do think kids today have loads of opportunities never really open to us in times past, not that I begrudge them, best of luck to them I say

Nice photo GF, not a plant I'm familiar with, but maybe it's one I've seen but never really noticed

No signs of crocus around here, but then the squirrels have probably eaten them all by now.

I had an invasion of nature yesterday evening, a fox on my garden wall peering in at me as I was eating my dinner, cheeky thing, not content with leaving builders' chewed gloves around they now want my dinner

I did manage to plant out my rudbeckia, in fact it had grown enough to split up, so now I have three, yippee, free stuff

And planted into the ground vine weevil chewed & rootless primroses, they should be OK once roots start to grow and VW are not really a problem in my open ground, too many hungry beaks about

Plus spotted possible fruit tree grafts, need another warm sunny afternoon like yesterday, and I'll give it a go. The grafts will be "donated" by neighbours "family" apple tree which has three, unknown, varieties on it

A scion from their Concorde pear tree may also become involved

YoungBlueEyes

A single tree can have 3 varieties on it? I never knew that. It really is a wonderful world isn't it?

Fuschia was one of my ma's favourites, that and freesias. I took a cutting of our big old fuschia when we sold that house but it didn't take. God I did cry.

The sarcococca looks very dramatic with it's black berries and white flowers - I want one of them now too. Also, snowdrops

TMC is in a bad way. He didn't come home to lovely neighbour's the other night so her and Dog went looking (Dog loves Colin, it's so sweet. Colin has nothing but disdain for him, naturally). She found him in her other neighbour's garden meowing and crying. She took him to the vets and he has an abscess on his rump. She's actually taken a week off work to care for him, she's so upset.

Ever so windy here still. The sun is trying to get through the clouds but it'll have a job of it today. Cold too. It's produced quite a pretty dawn though

in_my_wellies

Bin day today, I felt the cold putting it out so I tried to do all the outside essentials in one go. The sun is trying though...

I swapped 5 house plants with my daughter yesterday. Or rather her office. She brings them back and I try to revive them. 

I do miss peat compost. Has anyone found a good match? The one I've bought is very lumpy.