Wrong plant, wrong place?

 This is a common phrase in gardening: well, the phrase is “right plant, right place” and it means that if you want to succeed with your garden, you need to choose plants which are appropriate for the position in which you want to grow them. Or, if you prefer, when you buy a plant, you need to give it the conditions it requires.

For instance, there is little point putting a plant which requires full sun in deep shade: it will struggle, and will never be glorious. Likewise, a shade-loving plant will wilt and die if planted in a position where it is exposed to the scorching sun all day: that's an example of putting a plant in the wrong place.

And there is no point planting dwarf conifers, if you need a high privacy hedge: that's more a case of buying the wrong plant.

I came across an example of this the other day: I'd been asked to clear a series of rather stylish raised beds, ready for replanting, and when I returned a week later, the owner had started the planting, with this rose:

 

Me: “Oh, that's a lovely rose, is that a temporary planting, until you decide where to put it?”

Client: “No - I thought it would be lovely just there, trailing over the edge.”

Me: (bites lips) “Ummm, it might be just a bit big for that position...”

Client: “Oh, I thought it was just right, look, it's lovely, just trailing over the edge there.”

Me: “Perhaps we could just check the label?”

Client: “Look, it says Wedding Day.”

Now, I'll be perfectly honest with you......

 

 

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Acorn Update: it just gets better!

 Ooh! Ooh! Excitement!

You'll remember I wrote about my second attempt to germinate some Acorns for one of my Clients, which started with just four acorns, some of which were not very promising, last October:

 Then, as though by a miracle - and let's face it, it is a miracle, that a huge oak tree really can from a tiny acorn grow - we had 50% germination:

 

Well, 66% really, as I didn't expect the tiny one to germinate.

And to be honest, I didn't expect the damaged Knopper Gall one to germinate either, so really that makes it 100% germination, yay!

And now, a couple of weeks later......

 

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Ladybirds: a bumper year for them?

Lately, I've heard many people saying things like “Oh dear, I've hardly seen any bees this year” (pause while I flinch away from wading into the Pulmonaria to trim it, deafened by the buzz of pollinating insects) and to be fair, I was walking along a run of flowering Lavender last week, with not a single insect to be seen on it, which was a bit odd.

And then there's the ongoing Ladybird shortage: “The aphids! The aphids! Where are all the ladybirds?”

Good news, cats and kittens, there are plenty of Ladybirds around: well, there will be, shortly.

 Can you see them? Yes, all those weird-looking black and orange things are the larval stage....

 

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June Newsletter

 “June brings tulips, lilies, roses,
Fills the children's hands with posies.”

Tulips? Seriously? Mine are out in the middle of April, and by mid May they are pretty much over, let alone into June! My Lilies, well, yes they did finally open:

 

 .. and as for the roses, they've been going mad since the middle of May, or earlier:

 

Aren't they gorgeous? I am very partial to a yellow rose, but they must be a good strong clear yellow. I have a rose on the side of my house which I grew from a cutting: I call it Megan's Yellow Rose because it came from the garden of a dear, dear lady - called Megan, yes, well done - for whom I worked for something like 14 years: when I first went there, they were a couple, but her husband died five years or so later, so I stayed on with just Megan for a further nine years, before she, too, sadly passed away. During the probate period, while I was maintaining the garden until the grown-up children could sell the house, I took cuttings of my favourite rose from their garden, and it is flourishing with me now.

Well, when new people buy a house, you never know how much they are going to rip out: and of course it is their entire right to do so:

 

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