Dahlia Triplet

Had to share these iconic giant dahlias! Not from our garden, but from a garden not too far away, currently gracing our kitchen!

ps: Use the skirting board in the picture as a reference to estimate the size of the florets! 

The most rewarding of 'em all

We lined our geranium pots along the path to our back garden when we brought them out of the conservatory in spring. Gave them a good prune and they promptly re-energised to yield a beautiful display. A friend who often travels to Switzerland remarked that it reminded her of Swiss Chalets with blooms spilling out of window boxes against the dark brown timber of the chalets. Very flattering, but it sort of does, doesn't it?

The geranium amaze me with how little they need by way of care and how spectacular they are. One of those great species in nature that take so little and give so much in return. No complaints against the more demanding types, it takes all sorts to fill this world!  

A beautiful display also from the crocusmia who have this casual air of elegance about them. The bulbs planted in the shade of the ceanothus have paler blooms compared to those that get more sun. Or they may just might be different varieties, who knows! The foliage is elegant too, long sword-shaped leaves with a dark green centre and paler towards the edges.

The crocusmia are special in our garden as they were the very first bulbs we planted after we dug out the flower beds. They have taken a few years to establish but the wait has been well rewarding. 

Talking of rewards reminds me of the hollyhocks. We bought two small potted plants less than 10 cm high in March this year and planted them in our front beds. Less than six months later, we have been rewarded by spires that over 7 feet high with buds and blooms along the length. The hollyhocks are now the defining feature of the front beds, bringing great sculptural value with the wine-coloured flowers, height and textured leaves.  

The Hollyhocks stand straight and tall
like captains in command. 

If they could walk, I'm sure they'd march like soldiers, 

to a band.
From 'A Day in My Garden' by Elizabeth Gest

A post on rewarding plants would be incomplete without mention of ceanothus, which has grown into a whopping big tree, now flush with lilac blooms!

A very becoming Begonia

Following on the joy of discovering that our red begonia had survived the winter, here is a picture for posterity.

Re-potting Rhodo

Rhodo, our pink rhododendron has had a rough start with us. First we planted him in the wrong soil. It was a year before placed him into a large pot with the ericaceous compost that acid-loving plants like. There would be be annual blooms which encouraged us into believing we had done right by him, but the blooms would wilt rather soon. And there seemed to be very few new leaves and new ones were very small. At one point I was counting the leaves to check if there was anything new at all.

Feeling like we had really let down this plant, we offered to re-home Rhodo to our friends' garden where it could be better cared for. However, our friends advised us to get a larger pot, water it more regularly as the soil seemed dry and to feed it. So we bought a beautiful, large, wooden barrel for a pot and a large carton of rhododendron food that weekend.

The pot was filled with more ericaceous compost, mixed with the food and ready for Rhodo. Re-potting made us realise that the original root ball had not grown at all, which was alarming in itself. How did this plant survive this long? That probably explained the small leaves and short-lived blooms, the plant was conserving all its energy just to stay alive.

A few weeks of being better fed and watered in the larger pot, and it still seemed like Rhodo's roots were still knotted tightly and the whole plant could be lifted out of this pot so easily. This time we were advised to tease out the roots so the original soil  would be shaken off and the roots would be free to grow again. Forking the root ball revealed dry and coppery roots, dreadlocked. Decided to soak the root ball in a bucket of water for a few hours so that the stubborn soil would relent.

Rhodo has now been re-potted for the nth time with some more food and hopefully this time it will all come together and he will thrive.

Saving Seeds

Have started to save seeds from our plants this year. So far we have alliums, aquilegia, sweet peas and iris (generously given to us by a friend). We should soon have hollyhocks too.