Did anyone watch Gardeners world this Friday.
They had a piece on Heleniums. I've never taken much notice of these before, but they were beautiful, I love daisy type flowers, and the colours of some of them were fantastic. Especially a new one (forgot name as per usual)
Isn't it strange how you can bypass some flowers without really looking at them.
I did that with crocosmia, I have one in my garden, never took much notice of it. then when I went to the garden centre, they had a display there (half price! ) of some beautiful ones, and I couldn't resist them, so I bought a couple. think they'd go nicely in a bed with these Heleniums, now ...hmmm... can I bribe hubby that we need another visit to the garden centre.
Only problem is ,he trails behind me going 'how much! ' ,'do you really need any more plants?', and other derisory comments..heathen!!...
The closest I can get to plants is at the DIY store, there he's like a kiddy in a sweet shop. Drifting up and down the aisles, gazing adoringly at all the tools and other boring bits and bobs. I dash to the garden bit, and try to sneak a few bits through before he comes out of his daydream ;-)
But these places hold limited selection,
Heleniums
Hi Sue,
Saw your post and if you love these I have loads of them-let me know.
You can e-mail me with your address.
Blessings, Ingrid
Hi Sue, I know I posted to you but it is not here so my feeble brain is not working [again] I was chuckling at your mail [with you] because the responses [hubbies] all seem the same..ie..."how much is it going to cost me"..[or] " do you really need it" and the famous line..."how big is it going to get" I was explainining that after all these years, who cares how big it gets...let someone else take care of it....cheers, you are in good company..marion
ps isn't amazing what we can afford when it comes to the mens items on their lists !!!!
do they have enough ??? and do they really need them !!! smile....
Around here they grow perennial sunflowers too - now that's another plant I never really thought about. In fact, I used to think of them as rather gangly and weedy... But here they grow well and look so happy and cheerful I may give them a go. I'm looking for things that can be used with a 'broad brush' lol
i never knew there was a perrenial sunflower , do they look like normal ones? Bet it's interesting checking out what sort of plants you can grow now. Do you check out other peoples gardens? What type of gardens do they have there?I don't seem to think of the French as being gardeners, probably a very wrong statement.
Marion, the old book title is very apt, 'men are from Mars, women from Venus' i love my hubby very much, and we really do get on well, but the way their mind works is so so different to ours.
Argue like mad when we do something together (i.e. DIY, decorating) but it's a funny argueing if you get my meaning, he'll tell me to do something, I'll say that's the wrong way to do it etc. We know each other too well!!...anybody from outside know us would think that we didn't get on. Not so.
then one will suddenly look at the other and grin.A bit like Laurel and Hardy really.
I found this link for the perennial sunflowers sue :)
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/447496/
I'll answer about the french gardens in a while - have just come in...
Thanks Philomel, it's really odd, but after I wrote asking about these, my sister popped round, and dropped off a load of old RHS magazines, and lo and behold, in there was an article on those and Heleniums.
Right on Sue, if I were there with you ...you could " give me six" that is a silly expression that I really do not understand except two people exchange hand slaps...sounds good tho doesn't it....[ the men do it a lot...have never heard women say that...wouldn't you know] another smile...
marion ps.....
[yes, that book.."men from Mars" etc., SHE knew what she was talking about [ I think it was a HIM] ?
The gardening here is quite different from the UK partly because of the soil and climate.
Most gardens are lawns with lots of specimen shrubs and trees, usually slightly exotic - crepe myrtle, tree hibiscus, indian bean, oleander - and usually neat and pretty well manicured.
Not many if any beds of herbaceous perennial plants as the soil is difficult to cultivate, by which I mean a pick-axe is necessary - literally.
Lots of people grow fruit and veg though, often with the aid of machinery.
One large difference is the street planting. All the villages take enormous pride in having well kept colourful displays of imaginative bedding and also there are trees and shrubs planted wherever possible. They line the streets and the roads everywhere. They are kept within bounds by pollarding, pleaching etc. The overall effect is of a well cared for and leafy countryside.
Sue, sometimes I think my life resembles the ''Keystone Cops " are you too young for that ???..you often see them on the very old movies,,,the ones that jump around a lot I think before Laurel and Hardy.... My hubby is now getting quite deaf but will not admit to it...so I have to repeat things constantly and shout [ excuse me...raise my voice a wee bit] our son recently sent a HIGH POWERED MEGAPHONE... dad is not amused [ I am] cannot wait to use it...he will not buy batteries for it..... I did see a programme on the gardening programme over here about the perenial sunflowers, I know hundreds of acres are devoted to them, but cannot quite remember where they were....I used to grow a lot of sunflowers for the birds [ especially the blue-jays] but have not been able to do that for the past 3 years or so....amazing colors and so many gigantic flowers on them, I love the deep burgandy ones especially...will check the website....m
Philomel I did notice the small towns and villages especially this year with the Anniversary celebrations in France [Normandy] and how very pretty they all looked, of course they would all be spruced up for the large numbers of people who attended the ceremonies...[ in the hundreds of thousands I shouldn't wonder]..I love the paintings by Claude Monet especially his gardens at Giverney, that particular bridge over the lake has been copied so many times over here..[ everyone wanted one] one of my favourites is the water-lilies too... have you visited the gardens? I know they are open to the public, and kept up very much like they were when he lived there...THey must have had the most gorgeous roses, way, way back...as they were painted so gloriously by the old masters.. I have always loved those paintings and have copies..I adored the old roses and still do...m
I remember the keystone cops, i used to think they were hysterical, there was one where the car came in half, something to do with a car-chase and tram-lines. A bit different to life today!
sunflowers is the one thing that did well on our allotment this year, i only stuck them in as an after thought.
Well, that is different philomel, gardening with a pick axe! i shall look at my soil in a different light.
Sue, do you remember, it always seemed to be tram lines, cars racing crazily around..fire trucks driving dangerously and crazily,firemen doing the most stupid things, people hanging out of windows or getting hosed down with those fire hoses.. and everyone having a ''good time'' or so it seemed...
We found out when we first came to live in Calif. that Stan Laurel welcomed seeing anyone from his home town...we would have loved to have visited him but had a very hyper-active baby [ our oldest son] and though we would not want to put him through that..in later years someone ..may have been Michael Caine said he had heard the same thing about Stan Laurel...he found Stan Laurel in a phone book in Los Angeles and had had the most amazing visit with him...His daughter later on TV talking about her dad said he loved to have people visit him from his home town...we often wished we had gone to see him, apparantly he was a wonderful person...His family were trying to get all of his memorabilia together [ old films etc.,] for his fans, and a place to house them all...
thinking about Laurel and Hardy and keystone cops makes me think of rainy sat/sunday afternoons all sat in front of the t.v.. fire going, the cat curled up on dad's lap.
Tea being bought in on one of those trollies on wheels, toasting crumpets in front of the fire on a toasting fork that my brother had made at school metalwork.
What a shame you didn't get to visit them.
.....and of course the dear old Jerusalem Artichoke is the same family - Helianthus tuberosus I think.
http://images.google.com/images?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&q=Jerusalem+artichoke+flowers
All that lovely soup/or roast under the sunday joint and pretty flowers too ;)
I haven't been to Giverney yet Maria, but would love to go. I was closer with an easier journey when I lived in Kent LOL
tried growing those once, took me a while to wash the tubers to eat, not that they were very big to eat!
You managed to get rid of them after deciding they were not for you then?
They can be pretty tenacious I believe ;)
I love them. There are new cultivars that are not so nobbly that I've bought from Sainsbury's (to eat).
Might try some once the ground softens in the winter rain and I can hang up my pickaxe LOL
What lovely memories Sue, I can just picture it...you know what I miss those lovely tea-cakes, I remember mum toasting those in front of the fire, and yes, with an old toasting fork....very very special memories..
I was out this moring doing a spot of watering and noticing [again] the fantastic flower heads on our yuccas...we do not notice them much until they flower....I was looking at them this morning [ they are in our back on a slope] and thinking if I could take pictures then I could have shared...I do not know if they have any perfume [ never got close enough]..about a foot long above the plant..full of creamy white drooping flowers, not quite like bells but big fat giant snowdrops [almost] how can anything so ugly [?] produce something so lovely, in the Springtime the other ones will bloom and theirs spiked flowers are an orange/red....[aloes]
[ps many years ago we brought an old toasting fork back with us..I have two real old ones on our fireplace, and believe it or not the Captain of the plane, yes, took it away from us [it was in hand luggage] and kept it until we got to San Diego...that was 40 yrs ago...]
they called it a 'weapon' and back then the dreaded T's were not even known about.... cheers, marion
Have just thought of something else you might appreciate Sue. I have always delighted people over here [for some reason] with my ''English'' expressions..going back several years ago, I was talking about trollies [they are called tea-carts over here] I was referring to the ones on a plane, well, this brought hoots of laughter [didn't it always] and I had to "repeat" what I had said..maybe it reminded them of the San Francisco trolly's or something...I don't know..but I could always keep the crowd lively, while they had a good chuckle at my expence [ I never minded I probably would have laughed too..had I been in their place] THis has been interesting, having my feet in both camps as it were !!!!!!
Bye the bye...I am waiting on some new seeds from this Rare Seed Nursery..they are called
Puya alpesttris [Sapphire Tower]...have the most gorgeous blue/sapphire spiked flowers on top of them, should do wonderfully here amongst our aloes and yuccas....
I've grown a puya this year, Puya cilensis. It's supposed to be able to survive outside here in well-drained soil. I don't think the flowers are pretty on this one though.
Bet the pilot was hoping you'd forget the fork, so's he could take it home with him!
Someone said about growing them on the allotment philomel, but I was worried about them becoming invasive.
I think they only become invasive if you don't eat them.
They can be difficult to get rid of completely if you ever decided you didn't want them, but a patch doesn't easily get out of control as you can dig the tubers from round the edge for eating. Yum :)