To prune, or not to prune

Come Feb-March and I am always left wondering which plants I am meant to prune. I recently came across this rather useful phrase that goes, 'If it flowers after June, then Prune', courtesy Monty Don. The rationale being that these plants flower on new growth and if you don't prune them most of their energy is spent on growing the plant rather than flowering. Also explains why the cherry blossom which flowers in April does not care for a prune! Armed with this piece of wisdom and our secateurs I set off into our garden last weekend. The buddleja went down several notches and the clematis got a bit of a trim too.

Found tender, bronze miscanthus shoots in the front bed so I transferred them to the new bed at the back garden. If they grow anything like the grasses in front they will provide quite a feature. Meanwhile, Mr Macaron gave the barbecue a good scrub down, brought out the geraniums in the troughs and put up the hanging baskets. Felt rather pleased with our efforts and the garden looked cared for after the self-maintennance spell over the winter.

Shopping at a new food market this weekend, we found a packet of bulbs that seemed just the sight for our front bed. Our front bed lies adjacent to our red door and red garage shutter and we wanted to have blooms and foliage in colours that would complement it. So we needed little persuading to buy a pack that said 'bulbs in red mix' and Sunday afternoon saw us planting thirty anemone bulbs and fifteen each of crocusmia and gladioli. The packet says 'summer flowering', not sure if that means summer of 2012 though!

The front bed now has one cherry blossom, two rows of miscanthus, box hedging, a couple of oriental poppies, couple of red roses, heucheras, holly hocks, alpine plants and lots of sedum overlooked by a hanging basket of geranium and sweet peas. Quite the planting scheme if there ever was one!

The packs also came with red dahlia tubers, a species we have had no success with previously. Held back from planting it along with the other bulbs. Plus, there's only so much red our neighbours can take from the front bed!

Wrapped up the Sunday afternoon after a top-up for the bird feeders and spray of Bordeaux mixture for the peach buds. If we are spared the blight of peach leaf curl this year, we should have lots of Peregrine peaches this summer.

Four days of sunshine

Great time to be out in the garden
Tulips, Anemone and Alliums in gear for a gorgeous display 
Several cherry blossoms in our neighbourhood - in the prettiest spectrum from the palest pink to dusky mauve.   

Received a generous gift of a pair of Oriental Poppies from a friend at church, so that prompted a trip to the garden centre for a few more flowering plants. Been messing about in the garden since. Dead-headed the escallonia and the ceanothus. Emptied the rest of the Rake & Shake summer flowering seeds on the Rose Bed.  Re-potted ten little strawberry plants into two large pots with generous spades of fresh compost - they look rather cramped already. Topped-up the achillea patch with four new saplings - spotted them in our garden centre for the first time. The achillea in our garden are from our visit to Hampton Court Flower Show three years ago and they  have survived quite well so far - despite an accidental spray of pesticide they didn't quite care for along the way. 


So pleased that the bulbs planted in Feb this year, well past their use-by date and in various stages of decay, have taken root. Shoots of grape hyacinth are now emerging at the base of the peach tree and a couple below the eucalyptus. 


Also remembered the Bordeaux Mix, to protect our peach tree from the dreaded peach leaf curl. The label on the bottle says 'Don't let diluted mix stand'. Well, ours has been standing for the last couple of years. Time for a fresh mix then. And a generous spray. Can count loads of flowers on the peach tree. Think someone said each flower becomes a fruit - which means lots of delicious peaches this summer. 


Grateful that most of our garden has survived the harsh winter. Got to plant the Oriental Poppies and a couple of crimson Hollyhocks later today.  And Mr Macaron will need to mow the lawn over the weekend.