The zombie army COVID-19 Gardening thread.

The zombie army COVID-19 Gardening thread.

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Harry Flashman

Original Poster:

19,386 posts

243 months

Saturday 15th April 2023
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Just fed my flowering tulips with tomato feed. Apparently this helps perennial varieties, especially the ones in pots.

Harry Flashman

Original Poster:

19,386 posts

243 months

Sunday 16th April 2023
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Hot pink tulips turning red with yellow bases. And huge!

Flowers. They cheer me up.


Harry Flashman

Original Poster:

19,386 posts

243 months

Sunday 16th April 2023
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Edited by Harry Flashman on Sunday 16th April 13:53

Harry Flashman

Original Poster:

19,386 posts

243 months

Monday 17th April 2023
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That's a good idea. I have things trained onto fences.

This weekend, some summer perennials beginning to poke their new growth through in the shade garden. Ferns and Astilbes. So ragged old fronds/stalks cut off, fertiliser applied, watered (helped by some rain) and then mulched with well-rotted manure.

Hoping that the Astilbe will perform a bit better this year. Flowering was poor in last summer's heat.

Harry Flashman

Original Poster:

19,386 posts

243 months

Saturday 22nd April 2023
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Ferns, after trimming and fertilizing, have gone bananas!



Tulips, again. The white ones are lovely, as the underside of the petals are white and pink stripes.



Critter! Cardinal beetle almost an inch long.


Harry Flashman

Original Poster:

19,386 posts

243 months

Saturday 22nd April 2023
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Flowers can become a casualty of small children, so we have a constant array of mini arrangements around the house as I harvest the damaged plants


Harry Flashman

Original Poster:

19,386 posts

243 months

Sunday 23rd April 2023
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Nice! So good seeing the progress, as you posted all of this as you started out on it...

Harry Flashman

Original Poster:

19,386 posts

243 months

Wednesday 26th April 2023
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Love that.

Harry Flashman

Original Poster:

19,386 posts

243 months

Thursday 27th April 2023
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Flashman Flowerfest goes into Phase 3 with later tulips and California lilac.



Having passers-by comment that the front of our house cheers them up is lovely! I love a bit of colour, me.





I've been feeding these container tulips high potassium tomorite, to get the blooms big, and will continue that as they set next year's bulbs, as apparently this encourages these Darwin hybrids to reflower well without lifting the bulbs. As frankly, who can be bothered to lift bulbs once you've planted them?

Harry Flashman

Original Poster:

19,386 posts

243 months

Thursday 27th April 2023
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Also, I need to repaint my windows. Black was a bad idea for south west facing aspects. High maintenance.

And also that my old Merc needs dusting off if we get some good weather.

But anyway, the tulips distract me from such jobs.

Harry Flashman

Original Poster:

19,386 posts

243 months

Thursday 27th April 2023
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Thanks chaps! I bought the two Ceanothus in the pic (that appear to be one) as foot high container specimens four years ago. Thriving!

Harry Flashman

Original Poster:

19,386 posts

243 months

Sunday 30th April 2023
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Lovely!

Have some of ours in the sunshine. They glow like jewels!


Harry Flashman

Original Poster:

19,386 posts

243 months

Wednesday 17th May 2023
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The Flowerfest is about to be kicked up a notch. Paid a lot more attention to rose pruning and fertilising this year. And good lord - our many roses, ramblers, climbers and shrubs, are dripping with buds. These plants really respond to a bit of care in the early part of the year.


Harry Flashman

Original Poster:

19,386 posts

243 months

Wednesday 17th May 2023
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Nice pics, folks! Sway, where are you? My California lilac seems to be ending it's blooming, and I am missing it already. We're in London...

I have moved my home study so no longer look out over it. New location has chives flowering in pots outside and a couple of big roses in view though!

Harry Flashman

Original Poster:

19,386 posts

243 months

Saturday 20th May 2023
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Looks like my focussing on the roses this year, and actually pruning/fertilising has had a mad effect.

Buds, everywhere.



And the first flowers.





As the apple and crabapple trees finish, the hawthorn gets going. I think I'm going to plant a pink variety this autumn.



And a few other bits poking through in beds and borders.



Lots of roses, alliums and clematis are about to burst. I hope the next few weeks will be good!

Harry Flashman

Original Poster:

19,386 posts

243 months

Sunday 21st May 2023
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Wow!


Harry Flashman

Original Poster:

19,386 posts

243 months

Monday 22nd May 2023
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Rose report. These flowers are the size of my hand!

The star jasmine in the pot on the left is about to flower. This corner of the patio smells amazing!




Harry Flashman

Original Poster:

19,386 posts

243 months

Tuesday 23rd May 2023
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SS9 said:
These look great Harry! How do you find growing jasmine in a pot? I'm thinking about doing the same on my patio but nervous about having something trained against a wall that I'll probably need to pot up from time to time.
Mine is totally rootbound. Which seems to mean that whilst it needs a lot of watering and feeding, it flowers loads and size is controlled. It grows a bit each year, but not much. So no real pruning required.

Buy the biggest pots you can though. A full barrel would be ideal. Means you will get more growth than flowers in the first couple of years, but no potting on. I would not want to do that job with these!

I underplant it with Heather, for a bit of extra colour. It's a bit hit and miss as the jasmine takes all the water and nutrients.

Edited by Harry Flashman on Tuesday 23 May 09:10

Harry Flashman

Original Poster:

19,386 posts

243 months

Wednesday 24th May 2023
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MrHappy said:
That’s nice, can never have too many ferns and hostas. I like the greenhouse as well.
This year's project is terms for shade garden areas. Have bought a load of cheap ones in 9cm pots, have potted them into bigger containers and will give them lots of love before planting them out this autumn.

I love the look of them in a shady corner. Also so satisfying to see the fiddleheads bursting out in spring.

I've got some tall ostrich ferns for the back of shady beds, with smaller Japanese painted ferns to go in front of them for contrast.

Harry Flashman

Original Poster:

19,386 posts

243 months

Saturday 27th May 2023
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Mum's garden in Surrey, and the rhododendrons are going ballistic!





As the purple ones fade, these pink ones emerge, followed by red and white. Just lovely.



Edited by Harry Flashman on Saturday 27th May 18:20