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#1
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Another lovely day!
Any minute now, someone is going to complain about drought and the heat.
;-) This is the third day in a row that we've had lovely sunshine. This morning there is quite a mist and I'm guessing the roads are foggy because our papers are very late. But the sun is slowly burning off the mist and it's obviously going to be gorgeous. The jackdaws are squabbling and scuffling on top of my chimney and I feel certain one of them is going to arrive down here any minute! The downside of all this glory is that it looks as if frost and the heron got to the frogspawn in the pond and it's all dead. ;-( And last night, while I was cooking supper, I got a huge fright when there was a great crash at the window and a startled sparrow hawk sat on top of a plant pot, getting its breath back and staring in at me. Sparrows nest in a Rosa bracteata right outside that window and the hawk obviously thought it had found an easy target. I hope it's decided otherwise after its shock. -- Sacha http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk South Devon http://www.discoverdartmoor.co.uk/ (remove weeds from address) |
#2
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Another lovely day!
"Sacha" wrote in message . uk... Any minute now, someone is going to complain about drought and the heat. ;-) This is the third day in a row that we've had lovely sunshine. This morning there is quite a mist and I'm guessing the roads are foggy because our papers are very late. But the sun is slowly burning off the mist and it's obviously going to be gorgeous. The jackdaws are squabbling and scuffling on top of my chimney and I feel certain one of them is going to arrive down here any minute! The downside of all this glory is that it looks as if frost and the heron got to the frogspawn in the pond and it's all dead. ;-( And last night, while I was cooking supper, I got a huge fright when there was a great crash at the window and a startled sparrow hawk sat on top of a plant pot, getting its breath back and staring in at me. Sparrows nest in a Rosa bracteata right outside that window and the hawk obviously thought it had found an easy target. I hope it's decided otherwise after its shock. -- A nice day here too, although the forecast is for things getting damp from tomorrow. And Maggie is now outraged because the pigeons have cracked how to get at the food on the bird table. Pointing out to her that pigeons are also birds cuts no ice, I'm going to have to modify the table. Steve |
#3
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Another lovely day!
On 28/3/07 09:27, in article , "shazzbat"
wrote: "Sacha" wrote in message . uk... Any minute now, someone is going to complain about drought and the heat. ;-) This is the third day in a row that we've had lovely sunshine. snip A nice day here too, although the forecast is for things getting damp from tomorrow. And Maggie is now outraged because the pigeons have cracked how to get at the food on the bird table. Pointing out to her that pigeons are also birds cuts no ice, I'm going to have to modify the table. Steve I have a bird feeder hanging from my upstairs study window. I've had dunnocks, hedge sparrows, green finches, blue tits and great tits coming to it. They're so amusing to watch and the great tits are fussy eaters, digging away at the seeds, spitting out the ones they don't like and then happily pouncing on their favourites. The wood pigeons and collared doves feed on the seed I throw onto the grass and a pheasant comes into the bottom of the garden for seed we throw down there. It costs a small fortune in this place, to keep the fish, birds and dogs fed! -- Sacha http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk South Devon http://www.discoverdartmoor.co.uk/ (remove weeds from address) |
#4
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Another lovely day!
It's been glorious here too and I've spent a few hours tidying and
trimming over the past few days. With such a mild winter of no air frosts here, I half expected a nasty parting gift by way of sharp frosts. Luckily it has all passed without event and now there is a mass of old growth that needs cutting out to make room for new. Last week I was worried that one of the tree ferns might have become too dry since although we've had rain, it has dried off very quickly here and the soil gets dust dry even in mid winter. I've been out with the hose several times and all is well. New croziers (emerging fronds) are pushing up so quickly you can almost see them growing. Last year's leaves came through totally undamaged so there'll be really big masses of fronds this year. A perennial 'morning glory'; Ipomoea indica has retained most of its top growth this year and there are stems rooting and shooting wherever they hit soil. I've had to be quite brutal and cut about 20 or so feet of growth away, but there's still masses, which means it will probably be even bigger this year. There's a large hanging basket nearby that was planted up with a species Pelargonium - P. acetosum, 2 years ago. In theory the prolonged cold of last winter should have seen it off, but it survived and gave a brilliant show last summer. This year is going to be even better and I predict it will turn into an enormous sphere of spidery, coral salmon flowers by June. Another major pruning job was butchering a lilac-mauve flowered Lagerstroemia (Crepe Myrtle) that Sacha and Ray brought back from a trip to France several years ago. I struggled to get this to flower for ages, but hit on the secret last year. Seriously hard pruning! All branches are cut back to within inches of their bases and the resultant growth is explosive. They flower on current season's wood anyway so the more of that, the more they flower. Very much a case of off with the old! There's an 'orchid vine' - Bauhinia yunnanense that I grew from seed about 7 years ago. It is one of the few semi-tender plants that I've never quite had the courage to rip out even though it was a miserable thing for a very long time. In 2005 it flowered for the first time and they were such squinny, distorted efforts in an immediately forgettable shade of off-pink that I hoped the cold of 2005-06 would put it out of its misery. After a late start it took off like the blazes last year and grew more in 3 months than it did in the previous 5 years. First flowers were again disappointing, but then it sorted itself out and gave a very good late show. It has held on to its leaves this winter and is already making strong growth. It might yet turn out to be worth keeping. I pulled out some chunks of herb-robert that were growing in a big container of Crinum moorei and discovered that the Crinum's old seed pods had fallen and started to germinate. The Crinum is quite strange in the way that it grows. Each seed sends out a long root-like growth from the seed which buries itself into the soil. The tip then swells to form a bulblet, which sends out the leaf from the top and roots at the base. While all this is going on, it draws nourishment 'down the line' from the seed. A lot of palms do much the same thing, but I've never noticed it quite so dramatically in other plants before. Remaining on the bulb theme, a while ago I realised that I hadn't seen my small clump of Veltheimia bracteata for quite some time. Today I discovered its soft pink pokers peeking out between clumps of Pelargonium 'Captain Starlight' near the house. Originally it used to flower in mid winter and quite often rains or light frost would ruin the display. In a year when almost everything else is very early, it is very, very late. I'm not complaining. Nearby, big clumps of Clivias are just starting to open so there'll be a glorious clash of soft pink and vibrant orange red. There are still plenty of juicy limequats (a hybrid between Mexican lime and kumquat) ripening well. They are marvellous alternatives to limes or lemons, but look so highly ornamental on the bush that I only pick those lower down that are partly hidden. As an evergreen shrub for mild areas, I rate this neat little citrus very highly. In summer it is a mass of fragrant, waxy white flowers which yield pullet's egg sized fruits that are ready for picking in just a few months. What else in the foody line? Ah yes, a rather nice pomegranate is in bud and should be in flower within a month or so. Maybe this year I'll be picking those as well. If not, its vivid, crinkly petalled flowers and translucent amber autumn leaf colour is already enough. None of my flowering 'gingers' (Hedychiums) have lost any growth this winter and most are still carrying seed heads from last years flowers. Normally, the glistening ruby red berries set in intense orange seed pods are quickly plundered by hungry birds, but this year they have remained all winter. They'll have to come off soon now that the new growths are well under way. I suspect there would be a few interesting seedlings from them since they are intermingling clumps of Hedychium gardnerianum (yellow), H. 'Tara' (brilliant orange-red) and H. 'Corelli' (white and lemon). Unfortunately there isn't the time or space to grow them all on so they'll have to go. Unremarkably the banana clumps came through the winter unfazed and most are still in leaf, although they took quite a battering from winter storms. Both Musa sikkimensis and basjoo flowered several times over the summer and there are now young fruits which appear to have survived winter well. If they have and if the masses of wasps that crowded over them did their job, any seeds are likely to be hybrids between the two species. It's still a bit early to see whether viable seed has been set, but I have to say it does look a bit odd having bunches of small bananas hanging about at this time of year. Finally, I must mention Hardenbergia violacea yet again. This glorious purple-flowered Australian climber opened its first flowers in late November last year. It is still looking good and dripping with tight drooping spikes of neat little pea-like flowers. I can't think why I ignored it for so many years, but thank goodness I've seen sense. In summer the leaves are like slender, sage green tongues lapping the breeze as they hang from the stems. Even though there are no flowers then, the give the plant presence. In winter it is smothered with flower and on a dull, dark miserable day they provide a much needed splash of quite a rare colour for that time of year. |
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