Showing posts with label garden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label garden. Show all posts

Sunday, 22 June 2008

Green Thumb Sunday - Mystery Plant Revisited!





A couple of weeks ago, I posted some photos of a mystery plant in Mum's garden and asked if anyone had any ideas of what it may be. Well, Mum's been away on holiday to the fjords of Norway and guess what? She managed to find a similar specimen and I've googled it extensively and can confirm (at least, going by the photos) that it is a Saxifraga Longiflora - there, learn something new everyday huh? Here's the photos again to save you scrolling back :)



It's still going strong at the moment but according to the Saxifrage Society, it will die back once it's finished flowering. Propagation is via seeds so we are going to keep our eyes open and hope it produces some seeds before it dies. I'd love a couple of these dotted around my garden and as I'm only across the road from Mum, the conditions should be similar enough for it to survive. Mind you, it originates in the mountainous Pyranees so my mild little climate should be OK.


This post is brought to you by the wonders of modern technology (or Bloggers scheduled postings) as I'm off gadding about in London, meeting a load of lovely girls from across the country at a craft fair. See earlier post if you're curious! :) Catch y'all next week, Happy GTS

Sunday, 25 May 2008

More Flowers from Mum's Garden


Why Mum's garden again, I hear you ask. Well, she's the keen gardener, I'm just the flower photographer! My garden is very small and basic - mainly paved with one small border and a couple of shrubs on the other side for balance. The paving is a wildlife haven though - I have ants, woodlice, snails and loads of self-seeded 'weeds'. It takes me about an hour a week just to keep it relatively clear of growth but I do potter a bit occasionally. Anyway, without too much more waffle, here's a few beauties.

Does anyone else have formatting problems with their blog? It doesn't seem to matter whether I preview or just guess but I always have to edit and re-publish about 6 times to get it looking OK.

Sunday, 27 April 2008

Green Thumb Sunday - The Sun Came Out!

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Yesterday was the warmest day of the year so far - it hit 22 degrees centigrade on our north facing verandah so it must have been much warmer in the actual sunshine. I actually managed to move my butt, pick up my camera and wander over to Mum's garden (only about 30 yards away tho') to take some photos.

Why Mum's garden, I hear you ask. Well I'm not much of a gardener really - I know loads of flower/plant names and even quite a few of the latin ones but that's just because I bought loads of gardening magazines a few years back when we were trying to design our garden. It never came to much but I did get to know quite a few plants! Mum on the other hand could probably spend all day, everyday pottering in her garden and mine as well now that hers is so full! She can never remember names though so between us, we make a good team!


One of her favourite flowers is the auricula family. She has about 20-30 different varieties in her little patch - some special named varieties in individual pots and the more common ones grouped in larger planters and troughs. These two photos are the best of the batch but once she's home from holiday and can supervise me moving the special ones around for better lighting, I'm going to do some more.


In my garden, my hostas are just beginning to show through and my darling acer (japanese maple) is doing really well. He's called Arnie 'cos he's grown from little more than a stick into a beautiful example of treehood! I used to name my special plants - Terry Triffid got eaten by our cockatiel and Sam the spider plant died of over watering. I've learnt much since then but still manage to kill houseplants on a regular basis.

Garden plants tend to fare a bit better - I only 'look after' them for the first few weeks to help them settle in - after that, they're on their own. I think that's probably a good thing given my past record, don't you?

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

Sunday, 20 April 2008

My First Green Thumb Sunday

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Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.
It's taken me absolutely ages to get this far so just a lovely garden statue for this week and next week, I'll be properly organised :) I need to pretty up the blogroll (the list is down by my Redbubble slideshow in the sidebar) and work out how to get some other blogrolls in there too and I need to visit all those other lovely blogs. It will probably take me most of the week so see you back here next Sunday OK?