A Few Changes ...

Good Morning!

Today's post is a little update on how things are looking and have changed around the garden. As you remember we saw our first Sweet Pea of 2014 last week and this week we were greeted by another in this beautiful painted petal design!

The Hanging Baskets that I planted up a few weeks ago are filling out and were hung out last week. Some are further on than others and here's a look at three of them.

I only bought one of these Surfinia 'Melissa' but I took cuttings from it and used the plants they produced in two other baskets. I also took another cutting this week which I am planning on using in a pot, I love the fresh pale green of the petals.

I sowed some Diascia seeds which were free with a magazine a month or so ago and after finding this teeny pot when sorting through my pots yesterday I planted it up with one of the seedlings.

The Orange Tree has come out of the conservatory for the Summer and has taken up residence is the most sheltered part on my patio I could find alongside another wigwam of Sweet Pea's.

The pot's of shrubs on the patio steps are coming along nicely and provide some all year round interest.

The 'Tickled Pink' Apple Tree has some baby apples emerging.

Finally I gave the shady spot between our conservatory and next doors a bit of a re-jig. There's an annoying gap between the fence and window that you can't really do anything with,  I blocked it off with some staging on an angle, filled it with some pots and then placed my Acer and Azalea in-front of it along with some more planted pots of bedding.

Thanks for stopping by,

HAPPY GROWING!

XXX

New Additions ...

Good Morning!

Last weekend I went out and I couldn't help but buy some more plants for the garden. I know what you are all thinking, where on earth are you going to put them?! Well this is where the saying 'Where there's a will there's a way' comes into play ...

I bought a selection of Bedding plants along with a Perennial Viola for one of my planted up tubs.

Which as you can see fits in with the Conifer and Lilli of the Valley perfectly.

I also bought this Callie Petunia - Peach which I had last year in one of my baskets. I had been looking for it everywhere the past month but didn't have any luck finding it until I saw one solitary pot amongst other colours on Saturday! I decided to give it it's own  little pot this year.

I also couldn't resist this Bedding Dahlia which was also amongst a mix of other Dahlia's just named as 'Mixed'. I love the mottled effect on the petals.

There was also this Gerbera which caught my eye, it doesn't photograph too well but it's a lovely mix of Pink & Creams.

The other 2 plants were a Red & Salmon Bullseye Geranium which you can see on the top shelf on each side.

Last but not least I brought home some Bush Fuschia's from work on Friday to add to my staging display. Madeleine Sweeney, Mieke Meursing, Carmel Blue & Patio Princess. These will be joined by three more varieties once the cuttings have become more established.

Here's a close-up of what is on the other piece of staging next to the new purchases. The bottom shelf is holding 2 of the Dianthus 'Crimson Rim' plants and a Lisianthus.

Thanks for stopping by,

HAPPY GROWING!

XXX

Mail Order Plants ...

Good Morning!

Today I thought I'd share with you a little bit about Mail Order Plants. Apart from getting plants from my place of work I also buy a few online. Now I know a lot of people are put off doing this due to the thought of how plants can be posted to you safely and kept in a good condition throughout the journey.

The best way I find not to worry about this too much is to always use a good and well - known retailer, this way you can usually count on the plants being well packaged and in a good condition. On the off chance that they don't arrive in  the best of health, in my experience I have always found that the retailers I use are happy to send out a replacement straight away or offer a refund.

TIP - ALWAYS plant your order immediately after it arrives, this will give your plants the best chance of success. If this isn't possible try to make sure you plant them within 24hours and keep them in a cool dark place for the meantime.

Here is what I received this week, the first parcel is from Thompson & Morgan and the second is from Crocus. I have used both companies many times and are usually my first port of call when it comes to online shopping!

From Thompson & Morgan I received one part of an order I placed last month. You can usually expect orders to be split as we all know that some plants germinate and grow quicker than others. I am still waiting on 3 other varieties to arrive and you can usually check how long they will be if you view your order history on the wesbite. To be honest though for myself I just think it all adds to the excitement if you know something is still on it's way! lol Back to what I received this week and these are 48 Petunia Plug plants, I chose them for the beautiful colour combination.

Click the photo to read more about them over on the retailers website.

As soon as I opened the packaging I filled some seed trays, made some holes and pricked them out into their new home!

This week I also invested in some more Greenhouse Staging. I already have two of these stands along one side of the GH and with space running out I thought it was best to buy two more for the opposite side! When it comes to Summer I shall simply put these against the former two on the other side in order to make space for the Tomato plants. If only I had space for a bigger GH! 

Well thanks for stopping by today, I hope you are all enjoying the weekend and managing to get things done yourselves. I shall be back on Tuesday to share with you what was in the other box!
HAPPY GROWING!

XXX