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Gardening

just cool and wet wet wet here so barely made any progress. In fact decided that this year will be a repair, remake, mend and build year instead. Might get a grow bag of toms maybe, otherwise when it comes to veg, I'm taking a break. However cleared a LOT of invasive reed/rush from the pond just 3 days before the toads reappeared (phew). Loads of newts now and a tomn of t spawn. I counted 17 newts last night. A fine balance needed to clear reeds and overgrown waterlilies, whilst leaving them food, undisturbed larvae to eat and spawning grounds.
Looks like i might have got it right tho!

DSC_1552 by John Dutfield, on Flickr
 
More brimstones today, at least one "couple", so probably looking to lay soon. Such a wonderful pale yellow, and a beautiful shape to them if you can get close when they land.
Still waiting for a white though......................
A male wren has been shouting from the hedge - a pair nested very low down in a Clematis last year, so here's hoping.
I still see both of the robin pair around so maybe they still haven't produced a clutch, so not incubating. The give-away will be when the male starts singing a lot again - he will be alone again during most of the day when the hen is on the nest.
When I moved here, there were clouds, upon clouds of greenies that fed in the "lawn" and nested in the conifers, but they disappeared long ago. But they seem to be back in modest numbers - pathetic song from the hedge and one, or two or more shot out from a shrub yesterday. Welcome back.
There are almost as many goldies now, as there were greenies 20 years ago, but they nest late - the first tumbling chattering, squabbling "pair" that I have noticed so far was yesterday. Their tinkling song seems to be everywhere here though.
The bullies are still around - one white rump shot away along a neighbour's drive as I passed by this morning.
A rather obvious missing "person" are the house sparrows. I have a "sparrow hotel" (look that one up), on the end of the bungalow and that usually has 2 pairs in it, but no reall evidence of any adults at the moment.
Goldcrests still calling - tse-tse-sut-sut.
 
Masses of blackbird alarm calls this afternoon - ****ing cats!!! Wrong - a sparrowhawk made off low, carrying a very obviously recently fledged backbird. Nature is always red in tooth and claw but it does grate (badly).....................
Oddly, the first blackie that I had noticed carrying food was only 5 days ago, and the chicks are around 14 days in the nest.
It looks like the "tame" robins were working a flanker and both came to be fed when they heard me as I never noticed a time when only one was about, but they are now both carrying food (back to chicks). (Food is soaked complete greyhound food mashed with fishmeal, so very high protein).
The blackcap(s) and goldcrests are still calling, calling, calling.
And there are a few house spadgers in the hedge now.
The first pair of chaffinches that I have noticed so far, were bickering and tumbling together in the air as preliminaries today - they too nest rather late. The only one that I have found here was in ivy on an apple tree - a beautiful construction that was like most others - adorned with almost contless flakes of lichen/liverwort on the outside.
The Bramleys and the trully vast double-flowered cherry have been in bloom for around a week and are fantastic. The cherry blossom, on otherwise bare branches, viewed from underneath the tree, aginst the rarest of all things - a blue sky - are breath-taking. If the blossom falls naturally, no help from gales, it pretty much fills one builder's bag (the tonne and a bit ones, used for aggregates). Bramley blossom takes some beating too.
Even without being outdoors for long, I would normally expect one or more of the local ravens to go past, gwok-gwok-gwok contact calls as they go, but haven't noticed one for ages. I need to spend more time outdoors.

Oh, and the Arisaema sikokianum are just about to fully open, along with the weird hybrid (vigorous) longibracteata bluebell.
Allium paradoxum normale has just gone over - one of the most beautiful of the onions - the smallish drooping white flowers appear to be made from sculpted snow, semi-translucent.
Saxifrage sylvestris is very common in very localised spots around here and it seeds around in my garden/pots. It is just starting to put up its spikes of the purest, most perfectly proportioned and marked, white flowers.
 
Spring has sprung! (Finally!)
IMG-0694.jpg
 
Looking for an evergreen plant as nice as Mandevilla that I just bought this spring, only to learn it's going to die in winter unless I put it in the house. I had bought it as a wall climber for the outside of the house, so that's not really going to work in Strasbourg. It's got really lush thick leaves and pretty, intensely coloured flowers. I had thought it was evergreen, looking at the leaves. But as I am a gardening ignoramus, it turns out I was wrong, unless I live nearer the equator.

What else could I go for?
 
richardg said:
Looking for an evergreen plant as nice as Mandevilla that I just bought this spring, only to learn it's going to die in winter unless I put it in the house. I had bought it as a wall climber for the outside of the house, so that's not really going to work in Strasbourg. It's got really lush thick leaves and pretty, intensely coloured flowers. I had thought it was evergreen, looking at the leaves. But as I am a gardening ignoramus, it turns out I was wrong, unless I live nearer the equator.

What else could I go for?
Click to expand...

Evergreen shrubs / RHS Gardening

Learn all about evergreen shrubs - choose the best ones to grow, where to buy, where to plant and care advice from RHS experts.
www.rhs.org.uk www.rhs.org.uk

We grow a lot of holly as it keeps the birds happy in winter

Edit, sorry I just noticed where you live, so I might be talking horse muck
 
richardg said:
Looking for an evergreen plant as nice as Mandevilla that I just bought this spring, only to learn it's going to die in winter unless I put it in the house. I had bought it as a wall climber for the outside of the house, so that's not really going to work in Strasbourg. It's got really lush thick leaves and pretty, intensely coloured flowers. I had thought it was evergreen, looking at the leaves. But as I am a gardening ignoramus, it turns out I was wrong, unless I live nearer the equator.

What else could I go for?
Click to expand...
If you want evergreen Trachelospermum jasminoides, Passiflora incarnata, Lonicera americana, Clematis armandii . People also train two of my favourite evergreen things against walls -- Magnolia grandiflora and Itea ilicifolia,. Pyrocantha against a wall can look good.
 
mandryka said:
If you want evergreen Trachelospermum jasminoides, Passiflora incarnata, Lonicera americana, Clematis armandii . People also train two of my favourite evergreen things against walls -- Magnolia grandiflora and Itea ilicifolia,. Pyrocantha against a wall can look good.
Click to expand...
So these are evergreen in that they keep their leaves, not just not die?
 
In theory, yes. I have grown all of them. Lonicera americana loses its leaves in my garden in summer, after flowering -- but that may be a quirk of my plant or garden. The text books say it's evergreen.

Thee may be some evergreen roses which can be trained, I'm not sure.
 
Mandevilla can be very hardy - there is an ancient one with a 6-8 inch trunk in Oakham, wrapped around a building. It is deciduous.

Trachylospermum asiaticum is hardier than jasminoides by quite a margin - smaller leaves, palest cream flowers, same fabulous scent.

Clematis armandii tends to grow like a weed of does nowt, for no obvious reasons.

A good deal will depend on aspect, but evergreen with a nice show of flowers, in a climber....................... no matter the aspect. Also, how tall? Self-clinging? Needs how much attention?
 
Vinny said:
Mandevilla can be very hardy - there is an ancient one with a 6-8 inch trunk in Oakham, wrapped around a building. It is deciduous.

Trachylospermum asiaticum is hardier than jasminoides by quite a margin - smaller leaves, palest cream flowers, same fabulous scent.

Clematis armandii tends to grow like a weed of does nowt, for no obvious reasons.

A good deal will depend on aspect, but evergreen with a nice show of flowers, in a climber....................... no matter the aspect. Also, how tall? Self-clinging? Needs how much attention?
Click to expand...
Thanks. No more than three metres, south facing, happy to put a wood frame up to help the right plant. I'm not a gardener but seem to have picked up a bit of interest in this new house. But assume I'm fairly lazy for now.
 
richardg said:
Thanks. No more than three metres, south facing, happy to put a wood frame up to help the right plant. I'm not a gardener but seem to have picked up a bit of interest in this new house. But assume I'm fairly lazy for now.
Click to expand...
Can Trachylospermum asiaticum cling to brick?
 
The huge majority of things can be kept to 3m with just an annual prune or not much more than that, so what, a couple of hours per year, although usually more time for a couple of years to get the thing growing as you want (literally ten minutes twice a week is never missed).

Trachylospermum are woody twiners, not self-clinging
 
Jasmines - loads to choose from, not all scented, Akebia quinata - totally fabulous scent, Solanum - various to choose from, fairly boring but easy and cover themselves in flowers for quite a while., no scent. Actinidia - fabulous plant but reasonably slow.

None mentioned are reliably evergreen, some are straight deciduous.

Plus, as @mandryka suggests, an awful lot of shrubs can be trained against a wall, but probably require more effort than you'd like.

It would be easy to suggest two plants that would give foliage and flowers between them but that does require quite a bit of time as absolutely no two plants won't compete, so that one disappears without time and effort.
 
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