August 31st to September 6th
Weather: The first week of autumn is breezy and drier than of late – not especially warm though
Pat Hunter leads the way with a selection of handsome Dahlias and other late summer blooms
As summer yields to autumn, berries are appearing among the flowers in Preston Harrison’s garden
Judith Edmonds returns to the gallery with a very late flowering Lily
Liz Hall has a fine display of Cleome this week
August 24th to August 30th
Weather: A cool and showery week – not very summery
Liz Hall has some exotic late summer blooms to show
Kate van Heel has some fine late summer offerings
Judith Ladley loves her pots!
An old friend returns to the Hackett’s garden
August 17th to August 23th
Weather: The heatwave has gone – leaving a week of sunshine and heavy showers
Kathy Howard has treated herself to a macro lens attachment for her mobile phone. Recently, she took it down the road to Joyce and John Kenny’s garden – Woodroyd – and created some beautiful close-up images
Next a double header from Denise Dyson – the first set are from her own garden, the second batch were taken during a visit to Joan Grimshaw
And here is the second set. Denise says, “I had a cup of tea with Joan Grimshaw in her lovely newly-made garden and took the attached photos“
Judith Ladley has also been garden visiting. These pictures are from Duncan Townend’s garden in Rothwell
Sue Gray has tamed that tricky Wild Swan
Our day trip to John Massey’s garden was one of the many summer treats that had to be cancelled this year, but Pat Hunter has glimpsed that earthly paradise from the far bank of the Staffs & Worcester Canal. Hopefully we’ll get to the other side next summer!
Terry Benton is anticipating some fine pears this autumn
Excitement was caused in the Hackett garden this week by the first flower on Codonopsis grey-wilsonii. This delicate climber is named after Christopher Grey-Wilson – some of us heard him speak a couple of years ago at the East Yorkshire lecture day at Bishop Burton.
August 10th to August 16th
Weather: Finally a really warm week, but blighted by thunder storms
Diane Rawnsley returns. She has had to go back to work, which means less time in her wonderful garden, and fewer submissions to the gallery. Looks like the garden is still thriving though!
Liz Hall shows us how her garden has changed since it was filmed in June. I see that Rosa ‘Schoolgirl’ is still going strong!
Pat Gore’s garden is rich in summer fruits as well as flowers
Phlox and Hydrangea are among the plants featured in Preston Harrison’s submission this week
Kate van Heel’s pictures include a Begonia with remarkable foliage
Maggie Sugden has been to Breezy Knees! If anyone has any pictures from that nursery, or other local ones, it would be nice to see them in the Gallery
Terry Benton is focussing on some old favourites that came with his Wiltshire home
Pat Hunter is first to respond to the call for pictures of gardens we visit, in addition to our own. These images are from a visit to Stone House Cottage near Kidderminster. She says: “This is a true plantslady’s garden, so much I have never seen, but quite a bit I know would never grow here.The towers were all built by her partner(some now have seen better days). You can go up one which gives a good overview of the garden.There are a couple of colour themed areas as well as an orchard, shade borders a plenty, raised beds, obviously lots to clothe the walls. It is a plantsperson’s delight!”
The Hackett garden is also enjoying some proper summer sun at last
August 3rd to August 9th
Weather: Another cool start, slowly giving way to some quite hot weather – a repeat of last week!
Saturday’s planned visit to gardens in Kirklees was scuppered by a sudden government lockdown on that area, which specifically forbade meeting in other people’s gardens. To show us what we missed, Joyce Kenny and Ann Lowe have sent some pictures of their gardens, so all their hard titivation toil wasn’t completely wasted! Joyce goes first
And here are some views of Ann Lowe’s garden, near Honley
Lovely to welcome Frances King to the Lockdown Gallery for the very first time!
A welcome return to the Gallery for Judith Edmonds with some Hemerocallis
And Kate van Heel is back too! Her Dreaming Swan is no ugly duckling
Pat Hunter shows that there are some very interesting shades of orange to be found
Sue Gray’s garden offers some less common Crocosmias
The Hackett garden becomes decidedly jungly at this time of year. Perhaps I should buy a machete.
Dierama – one gardener’s experience
by Pat Hunter
Dierama are evergreen perennials which grow from corms and belong to the Iris family. They originate from southern Africa, there are 45 species and are commonly known as Angel’s fishing rods or wand flowers. Dierama are flowering in my garden in early July.
I had tried growing these from plants bought at nurseries for several years with no success. I had tried several different situations in the garden but come the following year no Dierama could be found.
I changed tack and decided to try growing from seed. I bought seed from Plantworld seeds (a true sweetie shop for seeds). This was a great success. I had a great germination rate and decided to plant them out in the vegetable plot. As these were increasing in size well, I decided to get some seeds of other varieties, these also germinated and grew.
After having several years of a fantastic display on the edge of the veg plot I decided to move a clump to the front edge of the border, a larger variety over the pond and a clump over the rill. There were still a lot left over, I have brought some to HPS auction in the past. This year, the clump at the front of the border I decided to reduce in size (too much time on my hands). Dieramas are not quick to recover, I was told by fellow hardy planters.
The corms lay down a new corm on top of the last one, year on year. I stripped down all the growth in the first picture to 3 or 4 clumps and replanted on the 10th April.
I presumed I would lose any flowers this year, and on June 10th (one month on) this is the result.
Dieramas in the garden now are so numerous that they decide where they will grow as can be seen below
Finally on the subject of the clump that was split and replanted, on the 11th July I have 2 flower stalks with plenty of flowers.
A few pictures of the varieties around the garden now
Most are seedling crosses now, hence no species given.
This picture shows the variety of heights of the seedlings left in the vegetable plot
And finally, for the observant, the seedling that decided where it wants to grow is now flowering.
The conclusion, then, is to grow from seed and let them get on with it.
