Monday 15 November 2010

Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day – November 2010


Last week we had some unusually high winds, it’s blown all my fluffy seed heads off the Asters and also some of the fence has come out. The concrete posts are pretty much dead – which we knew already anyway. So we’ve got temporary measures in place and hope it’ll be ok over winter, and then it can be sorted in spring… All of them will have to be dug out and replaced I think, might as well do it all at once.

Of course it’ll be interesting for my climbers I have on the fence. Hopefully I can just take the wire down with them still clinging to it, and it’ll be ok.

Is it possible to dig them up temporarily and then replant??

Most of the colour in the garden is now centred around the decking close to the house…

Fragile Campanula is still on its second flush



A couple of Gaura Butterflies continue to wave in the breeze.

Scabious also continues to do well.

Lliatris seeds heads give some fluffy interest


Aster ‘Lady in Black’ is beginning to come to the end of her blooms, soon I’ll have more fluffy seed heads to photograph!

And for the star of the show! Finally!!!

It's a clear, frosty morning... Not quite what I had hoped for on my Birthday, it was lovely and warm on Saturday. Oh well, at least it's nice and sunny/blue skies.
I have an essay due for Thursday, so it'll have to be a quiet day for me, just going out this afternoon to pick up a new car. Ha, oh yes! Most people buy themselves little gifts such as an item of clothing... No, not me!

Please visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens to participate in Garden Blogger's Bloom Day.

37 comments:

Wally said...

Happy Birthday! Lovely photos.

Barbara said...

Love your fall collection - and Happy Birthday. What kind of car?

Anonymous said...

That is a pretty selection of blooms. Happy BD and Happy GBBD.

Meredith said...

Happy b-day, Liz! Congratulations on your new car. I'm sure it is well-deserved.

Your photos are lovely, as always. You've found a lot for November!

Cheryl said...

Hi Liz, sorry to hear about the fence. Such a nuisance.
I dug up a huge clematis today and put it in a large pot. I shall replant it in spring. I cannot see why you should not do that with the plants on the fence. It depends on the size I suppose, if they are triffid like plants you may have a problem.

Hoooray your cosmos bloomed. Better late than never.

Hope you enjoyed your special day and collected the new car.....what a birthday present, enjoy.

ShySongbird said...

Many, many Happy Birthday wishes to you Liz, I hope you have had a lovely day.

Lovely photos again, the combination of Cyclamen and Violas really is pretty.

When my neighbour replaced his fence I wasn't able to save my mature Honeysuckle which was growing up it :( but it may be easier when it is your own boundary fence and with less mature climbers.

Have fun with the new car birthday girl :)

Lona said...

Happy Birthday Liz!!! Your cosmos is lovely and I like the tiny flowers on your asters.

ShySongbird said...

Hi again Liz :) I forgot to say congrats on the Cosmos!

Helen/patientgardener said...

At this time of year the climbers will be dormant so should be OK to lift and move. If you dont know where they are to go then pot them up until the spring

scottweberpdx said...

I'm loving those Cyclamen...so beautiful. Those liatris seedheads are great too...that backlighting really shows them off to their best effect :-)

Curbstone Valley Farm said...

Happy Birthday Liz! Your garden has granted you some lovely birthday blooms. I was a little surprised to see Campanula at this time of year, but our native Campanula is quite strict about only blooming in the spring. I hope your climbers survive the fence redo!

Shirley said...

Wishing you a belated Happy Birthday, Liz!! Happy GBBD too :-D

Loved those cyclamen - v jealous there. They don't like my garden :-(

Hope your course is all you hoped it would be. Yeh... best to get the homework done before picking up... a new car!! Enjoy both :-D

Liz said...

Hi Mac,

Thank you very much! :)

I'm glad you liked the photos and thanks for visiting my blog.

Liz said...

Hi Barbara,

Thank you very much :)

I got a Honda Jazz, the aim was for something small and reliable, this'll do me nicely!

Liz said...

Hi GWGT,

Thank you very much for the wishes and visiting my blog.

Liz said...

Hi Meredith,

Thank you muchly, walking to the doctors this morning I saw quite a few plants still in bloom... Just not in my garden, I've still got work to do I think to ensure a longer period of interest :)

Liz said...

Hi Cheryl,

To be honest, we ought to have sorted the posts when we had the fence put in, but at the time it wasn't as obvious that they were not long for this world.
So it hasn't come as a complete surprise... I think what added to it was the gap in the hedge where these pannels are, all the others are ok and I think the Privet helped to buffer the wind, but we only have young Hawthorn where the damaged ones are, which offered little to no wind break.

Most of my climbers are still small, as they will have only been in at maximum 2.5 years. I'm most concerned about the Pyracantha actually, it's getting nice and big, and I'd hate to lose it.

The day was nice thanks, didn't do a great deal to be honest other than collect the car at around 2pm. My mum had the afternoon off and had to lead me home because I don't know the route!

Liz said...

Hi Jan,

Thank you so much Jan, and thank you very much for the birthday ecard too! Much appreciated :)

I hope the Cyclamen/Viola last a while yet, they're all on the decking so will get the best protection from any bad weather.

We should be able to replace the fence via my neighbour's garden. He's a cool character and will not mind, so I'm hoping minumum damage and trampling will occur. I'm tempted to remove the smaller climbers, but things like the Shrub rose and Pyracantha will be more difficult - both of which I'd be very upset if I lost them.

I had a little drive in the new car today, down to Halfords and B&Q, oh the highlife!
ha ha

Sadly I doubt the Cosmos will survive much longer, two frosts in a row... Not good.

Liz said...

Hi Lona,

Thanks! I think the Cosmos will be dead soon, we've had two moderate frosts in a row... Thankfully the Cosmos is relatively close to the house, so the frost hasn't been so hard.

Liz said...

Hi Helen,

Thanks very much for the advice on the climbers... I'm thinking I'll dig them out just before the fence posts are done so they're only out of the ground a day or two, otherwise I'll pot them temporarily as you suggested.

Liz said...

Hi Scott,

Cheers for comment, I'm glad you enjoyed the photos - even if there were very few!

Liz said...

Hi CV,

I'm not sure which type of Campanula I have as it didn't come with any tag, but I thin it's 'blue waterfall' due to its growth habit. I'm not complaining that it's flowering again, even if it is a brute in the Spring when it first starts growing and threatens to take over the world.

I've found a couple of babies around the garden too, at this stage it's a case of - the more the merrier!

Liz said...

Hi Shirl,

Thank you very much! Shame to hear Cyclamen don't like your garden... I wonder why? I thought they were generally quite hardy/happy plants!

I've been a little lazy with the coursework over the past couple of days... Whoops. I do only have around 400 words left to do though, so I'm not worrying right now.

Rosie Nixon Fluerty said...

Liz I always love seeing your photos and the bokehs are amazing in some of your shots. I think autumnal sunshine creates wonderful effects with the camera.

I can't wait for my lady in black to get bigger. I planted mine next to a black sambucus near the back of the border so I hope I don't have to move her. I never got fluffy seedheads from my asters this year as the frost got to them first.

Those cyclamen and white violas look so pretty together.

Ginny said...

A belated happy birthday. And congrats on the new car :)
Your blooms are lovely, especially the star of the show!

Liz said...

Hi Rosie,

I've been having difficulty with the light at the moment and can't help but wonder whether it's this 50mm macro lens which isn't handling it as well as the 100mm macro. It repeatedly blows out the yellows and red Cyclamens... Oh well.

'Lady in Black' will get very large, or at least very bushy! I was shocked at the growth of mine, I had expected the usual tall thin Asters, not this bushy shrubby plant :)

Liz said...

Hi Ginny,

Thank you very much, for once the day was actually nice too. Usually it's horrible or clear with blue skies and freezing, but yesterday just to please me the sun was actually quite nice. And when I popped out in the car today it was telling me it's 13C! Hard to believe actually, when it wasn't expected to get over 6/7.

I'm tempted to cut some of the Cosmos flowers and have them in vases in the house... I don't tend to get to see them now thanks to the cooler weather.

VW said...

Mmm, the pansies and cyclamen are heavenly. Enjoy your cosmos! And you remarked on my blog that I was lucky to have so many flowers blooming - uh, I've got nothing. All pictures from now until March are from the archives!

Esther Montgomery said...

Oh, the cyclamen, the cyclamen! Mine are long over.

Happy Birthday!

Esther

P.S. Does this mean you get a new car every year?

Janet/Plantaliscious said...

You have an amazing number of flowers still blooming away, and you are way north of me! Will have to try Gaura next year. What is the lovely yellow flower at the top?

Liz said...

Hi VW,

Whoops, well I think most of us will be resorting to archive photos quite soon... I know I've got some Butterfly photos I never posted which are waiting to be used in the middle of deep, dark Winter :)

Liz said...

Hi Esther,

Shame to hear your Cyclamen have finished, do you have the ornamental type like these or the 'wild' ones? These will normally last out most of the Winter and into Spring if they aren't hit by too much snow like last year.

Sadly no I don't get a new car every year... I guess I could always buy myself lots of very cheap couple of hundred pound cars... Nah. I'll stick to just the one.

Liz said...

Hi Janet,

I hadn't realised I was lucky with my blooms! We still have them with us, I'm not sure if the Cosmos has survived, I haven't really seen daylight for a few days thanks to being at Uni until late. I have a block week next week too, which will be an absolute killer!

The yellow flower is Bidens, you tend to see it in those council flower arrangements around Towns/Cities - often in the large tub type things... At least we do up here!

debsgarden said...

I hope you had a wonderful birthday and found the perfect car! Your blooms are lovely; and it's nice that the last ones are near your house where they are easy to enjoy. I love gaura!

Pam's English Garden said...

Dear Liz, Congratulations on your birthday and on your new car! You know you deserve the car, don't you? I was in England last week for the wind storm ... wasn't it awful?! I love your Cyclamen. Here in PA I just grow them as house plants. Enjoy the car. Pam x

Liz said...

Hi Debs,

Thank you very much for the birthday wishes, it's much appreciated.

I really need to do some work with plants in the rest of the garden, I plan on getting a Mahonia with a gift Cheryl gave me, although I am no fan of them I feel it's much needed especially for any late Bees.
In the December 'Garden's Illustrated' there is an article on Winter flowering Clematis, I think I'll get one too... Just to add a little bit of interest to the rest of the garden, even if I do rarely see it or go outside anymore.
As strange as it sounds I'm actually looking forward to winter, when it's (usually) more dry because at the moment with the fog and drizzle it's really depressing and grey, I just don't want to go outside to take photos.

Liz said...

Hi Pam,

Thank you very much :)

Did you enjoy your visit to your mum? Sadly you did pick a bad time, with the high winds and I hear there's a chance of snow towards the end of next week... No surprise really, as it's not uncommon to get a sprinkling of snow in late November. I just hope it doesn't stay - I have a presentation on Friday! Eeek. When it snows I can barely get off my road, I'm on a steep hill and end up trapped because it's lethal trying to walk/drive.