Our Coal tits love fat balls and fat cakes too Philip. I love to watch all the birds in the garden feasting on those suet treats!!
Hi Sjoerd,..yes i am very pleased to have the Dunnock,..though only the one so far,..i notice it does not feed from the feeder,..at least so far,..it does feed from what ever falls to the ground while other birds are eating from the feeder,..i will leave a 'Fat Ball' on the ground in the future to help it out,..lol about the peanut butter,..never would have thought of that but i will give it a try.
Hi Eileen,..i moved the feeder closer to the house this week,..like you i love watching the antics,..oh and the Sparrows fighting,.. vicious little creatures towards each other. I found an old wooden curtain rail,..which comes in two parts that can be inserted one into the other,..it gives me eight foot of a pole to attach the bird feeder on top,..when i need to add more food i just lift up and off the one part,..the feeder is six foot off the ground well away from the cats Purple Alyssum in bloom now,..i notice some white bloom in it and hope it won't return to white. The first Geranium to bloom this year,..it was one of the geraniums that had a piece broke off when i was storing them in the shed over winter ( soil removed and just hanging from the ceiling),..so i potted it and kept it in soil within the greenhouse. The Avatar i use on the Internet is a view of part of the garden with the Yucca aloifolia 'Spanish Bayonet',..not the picture below but a similar one,..anyway two years ago the Yucca developed a hole in the bark,..which enlarged to about the size of a Grapefruit,..i was sure i was going to see the Yucca either fall down or die,..so i decided to dry out the hole and release a foam into the hole,..'Fix All' which hardens,..thinking this would prevent the Yucca from breaking and falling down,..also as this foam would harden and retain heat the the rot inside might stop,..today the Yucca is as healthy as before the hole appeared but i will file off the excess foam to make it more natural looking,..maybe paint it as well lol. The damaged area with foam still to be seen.
Your white geranium is gorgeous Philip. The last time I bought seeds to grow my own and they all turned out to be salmon pink!! Maybe I'll try again this year as I do like white flowers. I hope that foam works well for your yucca and that the rot has been stopped in its tracks. It would be a real shame to lose such a mature plant.
Hi Eileen, Isn't it amazing,..if you were looking for a packet of seeds for Geraniums,..all the same colour,..you might find it hard to come across them as its mostly 'Mixed' one finds,..still your Salmon Pink must have looked nice. Time flies so fast that i think it was the summer before last that i applied the foam to the Yucca so things are looking good,..i would have expected drastic results before now,..however fingers crossed. The Pieris japonica 'Mountain Fire',..in five of its colour changes before it returns to its evergreen colour. 31st March 2017. 6th April 2017. 12th April 2017. 21st April 2017. 26th April 2017.
I really like the colour changes that Pieris go through. I just hope mine survives as it's still looking pretty grim but, at least for now, it's holding in there.
Eileen,..here's hoping it perks up,..mine did start to droop last year and of course it was lack of water during the very warm weather,.. plus its in a dry area of the garden,..they can drink as much as the Hydrangea at times. The last plant to show signs of life in my garden during Spring is the Hibiscus 'Woodbridge',..boy did it hold back this Spring,..today it finally produced buds,..three days before Summer begins. This year i cut back on Hollyhocks and replaced most of them with Delphiniums though i lost one from slugs who ate the new shoots overnight,..i keep looking at the spot hoping the roots were not damaged,..if not then there is a chance the plant will recover. One Hollyhock which i didn't cut back last year because at the tip it produced a new set of leaves,..still retained those leaves up to this week,..there is no way this will survive at the tip of a three foot dry stem so i cut it off,..dipped it in rooting powder,..fingers crossed it will survive,..it deserves to.
Fingers crossed that your Hollyhocks survive and then thrive for you Philip. I think I'll trim off the damaged parts of the Pieris and see if it gives the rest of the plant a boost. I'll give it a good watering too and maybe some feed as I really don't want to lose it.
Eileen it would be a shame to lose it,..i grew a good cutting for my neighbor and it grew to a nice size,..when she died the new owners gave someone instructions to clear the garden,..they only have grass,..every plant i put in that garden over the years was dumped . My Hosta plants are coming along fine though not all like the one below,..some are at the baby stage. Erysimum Linifolium Variegatum 'Variegated Wallflower'
I've given up trying to grow hostas here as, no matter what I do, the slugs make short work of them. Even growing them in pots off the ground hasn't worked. Yours look really good so I hope the slugs leave them alone.
Hi Eileen,..well i did have the same problem with Hostas,..having a damp soil and many places for slugs to hide and breed they ravaged my Hostas,..now i use the copper band around each container,..though i am sure a band of copper wire would suffice as it also emits an electric charge when circled,..on top of this i spray Slug Clear once a week from early Spring,..i still find the odd slug or snail as the gardens on both sides of mine don't have anything done with them,..small,.. very small snails were the main offenders. ==================================================================================== Thank you Carolyn,..that's a nicely scented Wallflower,..i have two mature plants each about three foot high plus two babies coming along,..for the future. ==================================================================================== I managed to save seven plants from bits that broke off some Zantedeschia aethiopica 'Arum Lily' when i was working on another garden,..two are very big at this stage,..which is what i wished as they give that tropical look with the big leaves,..i hope they will flower this year,..nice plant but the sap is not friendly to pets or humans. Zantedeschia aethiopica 'Arum Lily',.......Biggest one is beside the greenhouse.
One lot of Bluebells,..another below someplace lol. Amaryllis 'Minerva',..blooming this past two days,..all my other Amaryllis bloom at Christmas. Bluebells in bloom. Aquilegia.
All my bluebells are out too and they put on a lovely show. Over here the Aquilegia are just beginning to come into bud so it's great to see yours already in full bloom. Do you know the name of the one in your last photograph as I've never seen one like it before?
Eileen i checked my video with all the Aquilegia blooms,..not there,..so this is a new one,..looking at it i believe its a cross between one of my Blue Aquilegia and a Nora Barlow,..the latter below,..picture from this time last year. I love the vivid colour on the Hebe below. The Crinodendron hookerianum 'Chilean Lantern Tree',..has started to show its Lanterns.
