Gardening will be the ruin of me

[callmemadam]

Not my garden but at the garden centre. First the bad news.
Drought. We’ve had hardly a drop of rain for weeks and weeks.
Deer. They’ve eaten all my phlox and sedums. Now I know why there weren’t any in the garden when I moved in.
Crocosmias. Crocosmias! I’ve already paid a man to spend most of a morning digging out the ginormous clump of ginormous crocosmias I hated so much. The damn things are like dragon’s teeth, though: they keep coming up again. Some of the corms are the size of a large baking potato. Grr.
Age. I was out in the garden at 8.15 this morning and when I came back indoors I felt twenty years older.

Yesterday I went to my local garden centre, which was full of temptation.







I didn’t buy any of these things but did succumb to more perennials and yet another pelargonium. Just to show how potty I can be, I paid £10.00 for a newly-introduced hardy geranium because it was called ‘Alice’. Sentimental fool. It’s well worth looking at the manky-looking plants on the reduced trolleys. Often they’re only there because the garden centre/nursery needs the space, the plants won’t sell without a flower and potting on is too much bother. So I picked up Aquilegia ‘Black Barlow’. Less than half its original price and before planting I was able to divide it with a smart chop of the spade and get two for one. The other rather choice plant I got was Pelargonium ‘Splendide’. This is one of my favourites and is very unusual; you’d never guess from the foliage that it’s a pelargonium at all. I’ve lost count of the number of these I’ve killed. A nurseryman told me years ago that the trick was to keep them quite wet. I’ll try. Here’s what I came home with:


Lucky they had some empty boxes. Once, I was out with cybersofa and bought some plants unexpectedly. As I was stowing them away I remarked that if it had been my car there would have been a box there, just in case. 'If this were your car,' he replied, 'you could have planted them straight into the boot.' Whatever did he mean?

The first picture above is the garden centre’s idea of eco gardening. Cute, eh? I love the turf roof. Here’s some more jolly things to be found there:




Abutilons


Tastefulness

And this is a special clematis named for the Girl Guiding centenary. It's called 'Guiding Promise' and I'd never seen it before.



This morning when I got up it was dark and cloudy: might it rain? That’s why I was out in the garden so early and I’m pleased to say that every plant bought yesterday is now in the ground or a pot and all have been thoroughly puddled in. Rain? I’m still waiting.

Comments

[land-girl.livejournal.com]

Ah. Me too.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Cloudy all day but still not a drop!

[land-girl.livejournal.com]

It's like living in the great plains, here! The air is full of dust and my throat is getting really sore! Just cranking up to spend the next half hour watering ...

[geraniumcat.livejournal.com]

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for rain for you - we've had a little but not enough to do any real good. The age problem - ah, I know that one...

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

We must live in a rain shadow; it seems so localised.
Nothing to be done about age but put up with it!

[aellia.livejournal.com]

No rain down South either!
My annuals don't seem to be growing at all.
I love that Aquilegea,and often wonder about the term "vulgaris"..showy?

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

We've never had a hosepipe ban in this area yet, but who knows?

Vulgaris = common, I think.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

A local builder has installed a turf porch to show his eco credentials but I haven't seen one on a shed before.

It was so dark this morning I needed lights on indoors but it still didn't rain!

[lethe1]

Strange, the weatherman here said England and Scotland were getting plenty of rain. Here, have my icon.

The Aquilegia and Pelargonium are lovely.

I once planted some Aquilegia seeds, but the very next day the gardeners (for lack of a better word) decided to do some spading, so it all came to nowt. That is what happens when you do not have exclusive rights to your garden, unfortunately.

Last year we had a beautiful blue-flowering Pelargonium, but I'm afraid it hasn't survived the winter. My fault entirely.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the rain! It is drizzling slightly this morning: you have powers.

I find aquilegias seed themselves all over the place so that I actually have to weed them out!

[gghost.livejournal.com]

We've had the opposite problem -- rain almost through all of June. I'm hoping this means that we will be off of water rationing this year.

What a wonderful garden center! They are dangerous places for me, budget-wise. Your choices are lovely.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

I guess no one can be really happy with their weather.

It is a nice garden centre. It's in the country, very friendly and they're keeping on trend with what people want. They also grow their own plants in the nursery there.