NO ID ,its a really petite little bloom,I think it morphed,Ive never planted any like that,it came up in the field stone,and I let it grow.glad I didnt move it
Fall...so what's blooming in your garden?
just mums
malva zebrina,doing nicely
busy bees
very pretty hugger....
nice composer in the back ground....
and that reminds me -- I need more Zebrina seeds... not sure what happened to my plants. they sure are pretty.
tcs,and i havent saved any ,its been raining,and I work.Iam hoping to get some seed saved.wont happen this wkend either,we wont be home AARRGG !!! I need an attiude ajustment of a sunny fall day =+ }
oh geez,I didnt say thank you,I told you I need sun =}
Very nice sunflower, You must have a lot of happy fat birds.
I missed my malva this year, it is the first in many it has not reseeded.
Much rain here yesterday and looks like all day again.
no photos outside ,and everyone sleeping inside
I have 2 of those
It was huge
Wow, huggergirl, you could stand under that during a cloudburst and not get very wet at all!
Little bursts of Aztec Red Verbena here and there. The purples have already stopped blooming.
Nice color, Are those perennial in your zone?
No, but some of the purples supposedly are. I like Aztec Red because the color is very intense.
This Phygelius didn't start blooming until sometime in August, I think. Now, it's really going strong.
Hope I didn't make anyone dizzy with that angle.....
went for a photo drive took a few fall shots,just down the road.
The sky was weird today there was a line gray clouds on one side and white w/blue peeking through.And it was as far as we could see east to west.never seen anything like it before
The only flowers that look good now =[
Looks like you still have a lot of color there
It is 40 ℉ outside at the moment, so is getting chilly on a night.
I took this yesterday as it is the lasts of the Delphiniums, sadly going over now, but they have been good all summer, so one cannot complain.
Regards from England.
Neil.
The Osteosperpums are still going strong, even with the cold nights.
Regards from England.
Neil.
I see lots of seed heads on your delphiniums, do they self sow for you?
Dear gardengus , yes they do. I took the first lot of seeds of them as other people like them, but this is the second lot of flowers so I leave them.
They do seed but not spreading everywhere all over the garden like the foxgloves do, they are a menace around here. for even if you buy known colours you still get wild ones from everywhere, growing everywhere.
So do the lupins.
Regards from England.
Neil.
I like your kind of menace, around here they (my menace) come with thorns and no pretty flowers.
Just noticed this thread.
BeaHive, do you have a name for that beautiful blue monkshood - and is it really that blue?
Dear gardengus, we do get bindweed which is a pest, so we are not immune to everything.
I am very lucky for having passed my seven year apprenticeship for the parks department and getting the R.H.S Master of Horticulture as well as others, they made us all redundant. Even though as a small (six of us), team, we had won a Silver and a Silver Gilt at the Chelsea Flower Show.
So I worked for myself, then went back to Chelsea and got my own one a Gold.
Then meeting a man over a pint of beer in a pub we got talking; he built and repaired garden statues, so I told him what I had been doing, he seemed very interested so agreed to meet next night.
We talked again tge following evening and he told me that the very private school in his village had a Gertrude Jekyll garden ib a bad state and they were willing to pay the right person to research the plants and restore it. You could have knocked me over with a feather.
So he set up a meeting with the board of Governors and I got the job.
It was amazing to see her original drawings and plans, and what it was supposed to look like, I had to visualise in my head.
The problem was a lot of the plants had gone out of commercial horticulture some hundred years ago, so it was trying to get hold of them. Luckily a lot of the Head gardeners on the local estates helped out, and after nearly a year I eventually got it finished. The Governors looked at it in November when it was done and wondered what they had paid for! The shrubs were Ok, but there was not much showing apart from the lavender.
The following summer the school contacted me and asked if I could do a weeks work on it as it was parents day, which is a very important event and they wanted to officially open the garden.
It had six large, square carp ponds set on a stone terrace with huge lions head over each one. The water was supposed to come out of the lions mouths to feed the carp ponds, but no one had ever seen it working. It was supposed to be have been done by Lutyens.
The statue man had been given the job of cleaning out the carp ponds and repairing the lions heads.
I went and worked hard for a week and got the garden pristine and it looked wonderful, so I was praying for sun the next day.
They had set a marquee up on a lawn around the corner to the garden, and all the parents were in their with their fine clothes on, and to my shock so were the Head gardeners from the local estates.
They were drinking Champagne, where I was not allowed in at the time but was brought some Champagne. Finally I was called in and introduced, and then asked after a ceremony to show eveyone around the garden. It was the Head gardeners I was worried about, what were they going to think.
They had a quick ceremony and then I was asked to take the guests around to the garden, as the people turned the corner, everyone went silent.
The sun was looking lovely on it, and they were taken aback. Then a million questions started, and did not stop.
Eventually one of the Governors got everyone onto the terrace with the carp ponds, so they were looking down on the garden, then the lions heads were turned on, a wonderful moment as people turned to look at this stunning sight.
Every year the school pays for the wife and I to go back for the weekend for parents day, which is nice.
Chelsea is insignificant to that.
Here is a picture of this years Chelsea flower show of the lupins as my wife normally only sees the wild ones, this won a Gold.
Regards from England.
Neil.
Neil,
What an amazing and wonderful story. Wish you could post some photos of your restored Gertrude Jekyll garden. I'll bet it was beautiful.
Neil,great story,the lupines are gorgous.I too would like to see photos.Iam a master gardner only in my dreams !!!!
Dear JudyinGA, I know it is a shame. The world we now live in is not the same, it is now not nice at all.
So the certain type of people who send their children to a school like this have to be extremely careful, so no photography or anything else is allowed anywhere, for obvious reasons.
So although the wife and I go once a year, we can only see it, not take any pictures of it.
No cameras and no mobile phones, and you get searched.
Regards.
Neil.
Neil,
My goodness. How odd. And how sad that the rest of the world can't enjoy the beauty of those gardens. Oh well. Such is life these days, as you commented.
Neil,
All I can say is WOW.
And thank you for sharing your story.
Dear all,
thank you for your comments, I do appreciate it, however I was just lucky to get the job.
It was a momentous occasion, and is something that remains ingrained in your mind forever, that I can assure you.
All the cold, wet and windy days of hard back breaking work, were forgotten on that one sunny day, when it was almost like, Jekyll herself was looking down and saying that is nice, I like it.
Her way of even matching petals with sepals was so sublime, it astonished me, totally!
It must be remembered when Jekyll had her house designed and built by lutyens, she did the gardens, but then had sixteen full time gardeners.
That is financially impractical these days even with machinery, which is not much use in a mixed border with a lot of herbaceous.
Although of course it saves time and money on hedges and other pruning of things, but you cannot use machinery for a lot of things in a Jekyll garden.
When I did it, a local estate Head gardener took me down the pub; he had some amazing pictures of his father as Head gardener on the estate, his Grandfather as Head gardener, and his great Grandfather on the same estate!
He told me that Jekyll had given three lavender plants to the estate; they had grown them and taken cuttings off them, for years and years, and they still did. So he offered me some, which I gladly accepted as Jekyll loved lavender. She had a way of combine it (not always), at the front of a border, so you were forced to brush up against it, of course the smell and colour was incredible.
He gave me one to keep which I treasure and grow cuttings off each year, as everyone always wants one!
Although you can now get one called Munstead Wood, which was Jekyll's house, I wonder if they are original, for my ones are.
It is known that other Jekyll gardens in disrepair exist, but I doubt in the current climate we will see one fully restored, as the cost is immense.
I started another Degree just recently; so beforehand I had to submit my C.V. and then go up with all my Certificates etc.
I was questioned about the Jekyll garden, as it had no address on it, so I told the senior lecturer the reason, but she would not accept it.
So I had to go home ring the school and explain it, they gave me a number to ring and I passed it on to her.
They sent her a nice letter and a picture of me with a glass of Champagne with the school Governor who I worked for, and had now retired.
She was intrigued and most envious of someone who had done a Jekyll garden, but despite her title they refused to let her see it.
So it is a crying shame that this wonderful place, is secluded to all but a few, but they have their reasons, and the rules are the rules.
Kind Regards to all from England.
Neil.
Neil, absolutly wonderful story ,Thank you again for sharing with us.and we are all envious of you !!!
Neil.... ditto what everyone else said... wonderful story...and too bad no pictures... but sometimes that is just the way it goes.
Welcome to the Cottage Garden forum!!
Dear tcs1366, thank you very much fir your comments, people have been most kind.
Here is a picture in my garden of the wife's little border.
Regards from England,
Neil.
This would make a pretty shade of lipstick.
Lori
Benbrook TX
Luscious! Such a vibrant color --
Neil, Wonderful story! How fantastic! Is there a plant list of that Jekyll garden? A favorite English cottage Cadgwith Cove, Cornwall...
I did a little search and came up with this..... http://www.gertrudejekyllgarden.co.uk/jekylldesign.htm
tcs ... thank you so much for the link. That is the most fascinating thing I've ever seen. WOW.