Beginners: Sow something easy from seed now!

[Bernie Gunther]

Just been out planting more sweet peas, nigella, night-scented stocks and sunflowers. Trying to figure out where to put various other stuff now. Hmm.

 

[Bernie Gunther]

First nice weather for days and I'm trying to get a lot done today (got a very busy couple of weeks work coming up) Spreading lots of compost around and layering a thick mulch of composted bark (I get it cheapest in bulk from a local builder's yard) on top of it. I gave everything a really good sprinkle of seaweed meal during the last break in the monsoon a couple of weeks back.

Where I've been sowing seeds directly today, what I've been doing is making clear patterns, semi-circles usually, into which to plant the seeds, so that I can tell when it all comes up what's not a weed (I'll assume that it's not a weed if a bunch of very similar looking things are coming up in a semi-circle)

"Get your mulch on, baby get your mulch on. Oh yeah!"

 

[Bernie Gunther]

ooh, forgot to mention. Before doing any of the above, I advise getting right on top of all weeds. Dig out any with strong root systems and hoe all others.

Anything that needed moving around, I moved a couple of months back when it was dormant. Anything I meant to move but didn't is now very active so I'm not going to try to move it if I feel passionately about whether it lives.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

I succumbed to a Rambling Rector today.....

such beautiful hips too.....

 

[_pH_]

My favourite shade plant is probably this:

Can't beat it for scent

 

[Bernie Gunther]

I succumbed to a Rambling Rector today.....<snip>

It's a beauty, probably the prettiest white rambler I know of. Hope you've got plenty of room for it to do its thing though

I succumbed to a Paul's Himalayan Musk a couple of years ago, despite its obiviously ominous habits, and while it's beautiful and excellent for security, there could be a couple of dead burglars in it already and we'd never know

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Well this gives it a run for its money, pH.....

 

[Bernie Gunther]

Just how difficult are daphnes? I've always fancied them, but thought I'd leave it until I had a bit more experience, having heard they were tricky ...

 

[Mrs Magpie]

It's a beauty, probably the prettiest white rambler I know of. Hope you've got plenty of room for it to do its thing though

My garden is 25 feet by 16 feet and if need be I'll wind it round the whole perimeter and then up and over the house.....

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Just how difficult are daphnes? I've always fancied them, but thought I'd leave it until I had a bit more experience, having heard they were tricky ...

Daphne odora aureomarginata (the one above) is easy....partial shade.

 

[Bernie Gunther]

My garden is 25 feet by 16 feet and if need be I'll wind it round the whole perimeter and then up and over the house.....

I think it goes about 20 ft? The one I've seen was about that size anyhow.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

It's fairly easy to keep within bounds. Ramblers can just have hedgeclippers run over them, you don't need to prune as such.

 

[Bernie Gunther]

Also planted today, this time purchased in containers last week.

blue Clematis Alpina Frances Rivis (near Alba Maxima) and chaste white Miss Bateman (near Paul's Himalayan) plus a nice old fashioned white geranium under Mme Isaac Perriere and the scented pink peony Sarah Bernhardt somewhere fairly near Cardinal de Richlieu, Mme Hardy & Queen of Denmark.

I'm now trying to remember what else I forgot to do before it gets dark

 

[Mrs Magpie]

I've done a jokey combo at Ms T's....Clematis alpina 'Willy' scrambling up the stem of Rosa 'Golden Showers'....but my eclectic climbing combo is Lonicera 'Graham Thomas' with Rosa 'Phyllis Bide' in an eternal love triangle with Rosa 'Madame Alfred Carriere'.....just to complicate matters they are in close proximity to a Wisteria longiflorum alba, Clematis 'Wisley' and Rosa 'Myriam'....I shall see who is the dominant in this mélange.....

 

[ernestolynch]

Can Clematis grow in a pot? My folks say it can't - but if I keep the soil/compost watered I reckon it's okay.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Well, I have done Clematis in a very large pot on a tower block balcony but it wasn't a resounding success....even a large pot needs watering twice a day in the height of summer.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

It'll work if you retire now ern, and never take a holiday again....

 

[Bernie Gunther]

I've done a jokey combo at Ms T's....Clematis alpina 'Willy' scrambling up the stem of Rosa 'Golden Showers'....but my eclectic climbing combo is Lonicera 'Graham Thomas' with Rosa 'Phyllis Bide' in an eternal love triangle with Rosa 'Madame Alfred Carriere'.....just to complicate matters they are in close proximity to a Wisteria longiflorum alba, Clematis 'Wisley' and Rosa 'Myriam'....I shall see who is the dominant in this mélange.....

That sounds very nice. It's not dissimilar to something I'm doing.

I've got this arch I built last year, you may have seen it in my garden pics.

Basically a rip-off from a photo in one of Geoff Hamilton's books, used in his "Artisan's Garden". On the East side I've got Mme Alfred Carriere on one pillar and Wisteria Floribunda Macrobotrys on the other, with a honeysuckle (Early Dutch) on the nearby trellis. On the West I've got Mme Caroline Testout and Mme Isaac Perriere, plus honeysuckle (Late Dutch) on the trellis plus assorted clematis (mostly in shades of blue or purple) on the further side of the trellis.

Didn't do anything much last year, but Mme Alfred and the Wisteria have now both colonised the top of the arch. The other two roses got heavily cut back due to getting rust in the autumn rains and all the clematis flopped, although they're back and looking very healthy this year. The suspense is killing me

 

[Mrs Magpie]

I think Phyllis Bide must be planted with a scented honeysuckle. If it's not the law it should be.....

 

[Bernie Gunther]

Well, I have done Clematis in a very large pot on a tower block balcony but it wasn't a resounding success....even a large pot needs watering twice a day in the height of summer.

Yep I tried this last year and they all died. Nor have they come back like my soil-planted clematis.

I've also got Gloire d Dijon in a massive pot and that looks OK, if a bit stressed. I'm going to move her into soil when I've re-arranged a space. I might try putting her with honeysuckle "Graham Thomas" which thrives ...

 

[Mrs Magpie]

The real reason I got Rambling Rector is that I want an ecumenical fellowship with Clematis 'Polish Spirit'...all that white with deep purple...it'll be like a clash between a Lent Mass and an Easter Service.......

 

[Bernie Gunther]

The real reason I got Rambling Rector is that I want an ecumenical fellowship with Clematis 'Polish Spirit'...all that white with deep purple...it'll be like a clash between a Lent Mass and an Easter Service.......

Ahhh, nice. I've got "Polish Spirit" someplace on the trellis but have forgotten exactly where. It was one of the ones that flopped and came back.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

I love it....it looks great ramping through herbaceous borders at ground level too.....

Since the fall of the Iron Curtain, some great Clematis have come out of Poland, largely grown by one Polish Monk whose name escapes me for the moment.....

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Stefan Franczak

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Ahhh, nice. I've got "Polish Spirit" someplace on the trellis but have forgotten exactly where. It was one of the ones that flopped and came back.

It's one of the pruning group that should be cut back to three strong buds or summat...I confess I prefer the clematis that you 'trim to fit'.....

 

[Odd Socks]

I don't know how easy it is or how long it will take but I have potted up the seeds from my japanese anemones. The seed pods open and produce a cotton wool type stuff which the seeds are in.

 

[Bernie Gunther]

It's one of the pruning group that should be cut back to three strong buds or summat...I confess I prefer the clematis that you 'trim to fit'.....

Hehehe. I'm still waiting for one of mine to live long enough to prune.

They all shrivelled up after planting, I thought wilt, but they seem to have all come back this year and my guess is I didn't plant deep enough. Exception was the montanas, they were all eaten by the legion of demonic snails that live in our ivy, but again, they're both back and looking healthy this year.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Clematis Wilt is often mentioned, but ime never seen....slugs is the usual reason for 'Something's done for my clematis'......

 

[ernestolynch]

My folks said Clematis Wilt.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

LOL! My husband has just announced from the bedroom;
"Oh, nice. I've just found a crushed snail in my turn-ups."