How to have fun in January

Well, you can gather snowdrops and crocus. Or you can cut down some trees, which is what corbies have been doing this weekend.  Along the drive, the ash and sycamores are getting tall and taking light away from the roses. We are taking out the biggest. They will be next winter's firewood. We are taking lower branches away from  most trees now, and leaving the skinny ash and sycamores to put on some width before cutting them down. It was not part of the plan to coppice the trees I planted on the drive 20-odd years ago. But it's good that you can remove a lot of trees and still have a lot of trees.

Fag-end of the year

We had a bumper crop of flowers to choose from for the Christmas table.  The photos show roses Old Blush China, Phyllis Bide and Cupid hips, bergenia, winter jasmine, feverfew, dame's violet, osteospermum, sasanqua camellia 'Narumigata', late hydrangea from Chas Ellis and marigolds. This is the first Christmas we have had snowdrops actually blooming (sheaths split) in the woods. The mild weather has also allowed rasps to ripen in the tunnel so we had a plate with our muesli this morning - and more to come!  There is a lot of rust on the old rasp leaves and also some hyperparasite (Darluca?).

November news, more tulips

Young sprouts

 Eira is almost as big as the new plum tree. It's a sucker that has been selected to replace the old plum tree behind it, which has very few branches left. After researching plums that do well in in the west, we decided we couldn't do better than continue with the small dark blue plum with no name that is found in the gardens all around here.

Blush noisette and Perle d'azur adding to the autumn colour

This mild autumn has given us some new colour combinations.

More tulips have been planted: Princess Irene to the left of the steps in the conservatory garden, along with grape hyacinths on both sides of the steps. Thalia and tulip India have been planted by the white lilac. Twenty-five camassias have been put in the "meadow". A few tete-a-tete daffodils are tucked under the turf in the tower garden, experimentally.

Mid November and looking back

It has been unusually mild for the last month and dry-ish due to a blocking high over Scandanavia.  So we have been able to do more outside now and then.  I am still havesting good rasps from the Moy in the tunnel every few days - they are ripening on terminal trusses on new canes.  The rust is abundant but does not seem to reduce yield.  The plant sale at Treborth last month made more than £1k and took a bit of time to grow seedling salads and harvest hobby spuds from Henfaes to sell at £1 or £2 a take-away bag of 1 or 2kg.

The algerian iris has produced many blooms but suffers predation by some voracious critter.  An ancient, neglected susanqua camellia, Narumigata, is starting to bloom, our reward for releasing it from its pot into the garden.  Rh. pachysanthum is flowering again and is extra special now with its silver indumentum now a rich rust brown.

I gave a talk at Rowen Gardening Club on roses and took a bucket of flowers to hand around.  There were various roses that almost never flower at this time including American Pillar and Francois Juranville.  Old faithfuls were Stanwell Perpetual, Blush Noisette, Mutabilis, Windrush, Mme Alfred Carriere and Phyllis Bide.  Large hips of Cupid were nice and I took cutting wood of Brenda Colvin.

We have had good late flushes of Shaggy Parasols and Blewits, some of which have gone in the freezer as duxelles. 

In the potager, the kale from 2010 has persisted and is still producing on 3ft high stems. We have plenty of Swiss Chard and some sorrel.

Corby lifted the dahlia tubers from the shed area and tucked them away safely (I hope) in the garage. Then what might be a glorious display of lily-flowered tulips went in, Ballerina, Moneymaker (bright red, but not as boring as the tomato of the same name), Doll's Minuet, a viridiflora, very tall and late, and. China Pink.  In the front row, a mixture of Greigii and Princess Irene to wake things up in April.(26 April 2012: greigii not that interesting and completely over by the time Princess Irene begins. Can't yet see Doll's Minuet in the row of lily-flowered tulips)

Jan Reus, which is supposed to naturalize well, went in to the conservatory garden in the amelanchier corner, along with another 10 Princess Irene. That leaves India and yet another 10 Princess Irene to plant somewhere else.

Which dahlias for 2012?

We tried a new set of dahlias this year, except White Ballerina, a hold-over that's a star. Even better because it has long stems and is still producing lots of flowers is yellow waterlily Glorie van Heemstede. The pale orange cactus-flowered dahlia has flowers that are gorgeous but a little too big for the strength of the neck. Can't find its name. Chat Noir may be Sarah Raven's favourite, but it seems too uniformly dark and doesn't last well indoors. We should go back to cactus Hillcrest Royal next year. It was good in 2010. The unknown pink/yellow-centred waterlily given by a friend from Treborth is definitely a keeper. We will try to insulate the tubers in the ground over winter. The little dark red pompom Ivanette didn't produce a lot of flowers, but it is good to have a pompom. Might try New Baby orange next year. One of the Karma series, Sangria, a cactus, would be one of the remaining plants. Also rather shy to flower. Karma Corona would be better, if a strong grower. It is a strong orange. The Karma group are bred for a long life as cut flowers.  I seem to remember we liked Taratahi Ruby a lot last year, a very bright red waterlily. Apache is a cactus in the same colour, but we couldn't find it last year. Another cactus dahlia to look for again is City of Rotterdam which did very well in 2009. Another bright orange, which kept going very well. It is said to be 20" high, which would be good.

Robin Lane Fox advises Vitax Q-4 at planting, Miracle-Gro through July, then Tomorite for good buds and flowers. Will we have artificials like that in the new age that's coming? And plenty of water.
These are dahlias mentioned by him: Dawn Sky, shell-pink decorative with long stems. Scaur Swinton, salmon/pink fine performer. Silver-pink waterlily Pearl of Heemstede. Pale cream waterlily Cameo, and waterlily Glorie van Heemstede. These are all a bit tasteful.....
 SR notes: Geerling's Jubilee is a hot strong pink cactus type. Autumn Lustre is a small decorative orange that SR likes a lot for its staying ability. New Baby also recommended by her.

Ends not with a bang but a prolonged season of weeding.

After the high point in July, when all was present and correct for the family shindig, the garden was left to its own devices till mid September, when we returned from the States.  Our many crops of self-seeders that are rather sweet in June and July had  become scraggly heaps of crowder-outers. I've filled up several cubic-metre compost bags with that green stuff.  The area where the old conifer was removed has been cleared of weeds and mulched with weed-free peat compost left from potato experiments. In that area 3 ruffly multi-coloured  California poppies were been flowering away during an unexpected week of summer that we got in late September. As I weeded, I enjoyed each poppy as it opened.

Dahlia Review for 2011

Each plant had a tag at its base, with the catalogue number from National Dahlia Collection. However, it seems the tags didn't necessarily correspond to the tuber as planted.
Ivanette is a miniature ball dahlia, very round and regular, dark purple in colour. Not such a prolific flowerer as some of the others this year. But that shape is a good addition to the mix.  About the size of a cricket ball I think. Long lasting flowers in vase.

Glorie van Heemstede. Waterlily flowers in butter-yellow range from 4 to 6 inches in diameter. More like 4 than 6 inches in our soil.  Lots of flowers and long stems. Nice open flowers. About the tallest of this year's lot.

Raffles. I'm not sure which one this really is. Look for 0825 on label.
Colour: Orange Blends Classification: Decorative  Description: Small Decorative - Flower size between 102mm/4 inches and 152mm/6 inches in diameter.

Chat Noir. Very dark and cactusy. Almost too dark and some flowers too big for the strength of the neck. Not very good as cut flower.. Tall.

Cactus Dahlia Karma Sangria-Deep pink buds opening to lustrous pink with a yellow base.  Check which one it is.

Gerrie Hoek. "Small decorative". Not that small. Formal shape but not a ball shape. Good pink/orange shading colours. Not that many flowers this year.

White dahlia, not too unlike Glorie van heemstede. Don't know the name.  Good flowers, weak necks, not too many flowers. This would be White Ballerina from 2010.