Tag: Hydrangea

Moving up a gear

The garden has really grown on in the last couple of weeks – Antirrhinums are flowering, the Sweet Peas are recovering, and some mystery seedlings have turned up….

The garden has really progressed in the last couple of weeks since I last blogged.

antirrhinum-chuckles-on-flower
The Antirrhinum ‘Chuckles’ plants are beginning to bloom.

The Antirrhinum ‘Chuckles’ (above) are now sturdy plants with the beginnings of a colourful range of flowers – their leaves a lush green.

All of the plants have really grown on, I’m now two courgettes in, with two more that will probably be ready for harvesting this weekend. It hasn’t rained for a few days, so i’ve resumed giving both plants more of the Doff Liquid Tomato Feed, as well as giving some to the Hydrangea to help boost it a little in this drier (although not warm) weather.

The Sweet Pea ‘Cupani’ plants are beginning to recover from the army of aphids, with new green growth without a sign of those pesky bugs. I even spotted a ladybird clambering about.

A Sweet Pea 'Cupani' flower
Last year’s Sweet Pea ‘Cupani’ produced few flowers after battling with aphids.

The Nasturtium ‘Peach Melba’ plants have settled into the basket and the garden and this has helped to attract the hoverflies. These hoverflies in turn like to feast on aphids – so this may partly account for the sweet pea’s recovery.

Some mystery seedlings appeared in the garden a few weeks back in a small space beneath the Forsythia. I had a good idea as to what they were and how they got there and now that they have grown to almost 1ft tall, I’m sure.

Sunflower seedlings
The Sunflower seedlings

During the winter and spring I hung some bird feed fat balls from the Forsythia branches – a favourite with the Blue Tits. The balls contained lots of seeds. These plants are clearly Sunflowers and given where they’ve grown – they have clearly fallen from the ball and germinated. There’s also some grass too. It’s unlikely that they’ll come to much height or flower-wise, but they are welcome to stay in the border – adding some greenery and height amongst the plants.

Daylily Dose

The Daylillies have finally opened, along with the Sweet Peas and Hydrangea. Meanwhile, one of the Courgette plants is beginning to form tiny courgettes.

When I moved into my house in October 2009, I inherited some clumps of bulb/grass like plants. There’s about three clumps in the garden. Last year they didn’t really do anything and I continued to wonder what they were.

For the last couple of years they have always grown with a big green lush surge of foliage in about March and April, but this year is the first year where they’ve actually bothered to flower for me. Perhaps it was because i dug around the green clumps in March and dug in a little compost?

A yellow daylily on flower.
The Daylily dose of flower greets me when I step out of my house.

I don’t know what variety of Daylily they* are but their blast of golden yellow and tinge of fox red really adds to the garden. It sits in contrast to the black brickwork of my neighbour’s wall and the blue of the Lavender nearby. It works well with the Courgette ‘Black Beauty’ plant that is thriving beside it (this courgette plant, like the other one, is now flowering.. but this one is starting to form tiny courgettes). The other courgette plant had a habit of dropping flowers – but it turns out that this isn’t anything to worry about at all.

Nearby the Hydrangea (again inherited when i moved in) is now starting to open – tiny salmon pink flowers – although it looks like it needs some feed. According to the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) they prefer moist, well drained, and slightly shady areas. The part of the garden it sits in has a lot of drainage but gets roasted by the sun.

Further up the garden, the first Sweet Pea ‘Cupani’ are flowering. They are an old and fragrant variety but I am yet to notice their reputed aroma – perhaps once they manage to fully scale the canes and bloom en masse, then i’ll be hit properly with the smell.

*UPDATE: Fellow blogger and budding horticulturalist Alex Jobber, reckons they might be Daylily ‘Hemerocallis Bonanza’. Certainly looks very much like them.