“At what point do you give up on a 'dead' plant?”

This is a good question, because I hate throwing plants away, and I will always try to revive them, if it looks the least bit possible.

Here's one I was handed, back in May:

 No, it's not a new breed of Mopadoodle. It's a plant. I know, because I poked it, just to be sure that it didn't have ears and teeth, underneath all that “fur”.

“It's dead!” said Mrs Client.

“It's dead!” echoed Mr Client.

They looked at me, woefully. I looked at them. I looked at the plant. Yes, it looked pretty dead. Why did they have a dead grass, I wondered? 

It transpired that they'd inherited a lot of plants, in various pots and planters, from a recently deceased relative, and this was one of the less attractive-looking ones...

 

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Hypericum - time for the winter cut-back

 If you haven't already done so, now is the time to cut back the Hypericum, which is also known variously as St John's Wort, or Rose of Sharon: it's a group of shrubs and sub-shrubs, some of which are prostrate (which is how I feel this morning, but that's another story), some of which are upright in growth habit, all of which are covered in bright yellow flowers for a long part of the year.

 

 

I think that, technically, Rose of Sharon refers to the prostrate, ground-cover Hypericum calycinum, but frankly most people use the common names quite interchangeably.

But now it is time to cut it back.....

 

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Climate Change Predictions: True or False?

Back in 2020, while sorting out some old papers, I found an article in a gardening magazine from 2010, listing the three major changes we should expect in our gardens for the following decade or so - that is, pretty much, now.

They warned us to expect long, hot, dry summers, mild winters, and prolonged periods of flooding, which would mean three major changes to how we garden, here in the UK.

 

 

Like all predictions, it's interesting to see just how wrong it was!

 

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Ivy Myth 4: “It's ok on a modern house.”

 I think not!

This is a modern 80s built house, and the ivy has been allowed to grow right the way across the upstairs window (the house had been unoccupied for a while), covering it completely, and heading on upwards into the gutter and into the roof.

I sent my colleague up the ladder (I'm not daft!) to pull it off, and we found that the ivy had forced a way inside the actual windows, via the wooden window frames. So there was ivy inside the bedroom - lovely!

 

 

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More Iris chopping!

 Yes, there's just time, before Christmas, (ok, for you guys, "after Christmas...") to squeeze in a little bit more garden maintenance: this time it's another Iris, Iris orientalis. This is a tall, slender, summer-flowering Iris, with spidery white petals and a splash of bright yellow at their tips:

 

At this time of year, the depths of winter, you wouldn't expect them to be doing anything much at all, but in fact they are already shooting, ready for next year. This means that, if it wasn't done earlier in the year, it's time.....

 

 

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