Keeping busy taking lots and lots of cuttings!
We’ve just about sorted the greenhouses, moving everything that needs overwintering into them, and cuttings are now on the windowsills in the house. I’ve taken some from tradescantias, spider plants and streptocarpus. Barry’s taken down bean wigwams and courgette plants are in the compost bin. Dahlias that were planted in the herbaceous border grew very tall and the flower to foliage ratio wasn’t that good – they were a bit floppy – so have been cut down. I’ll leave the tubers in the ground again and when they (hopefully) reappear
I’ll find them a new home elsewhere. The tubers I bought from Sarah Raven were amazing and I’ve already ordered more for next year. Mahonia ‘Charity’ is looking beautiful. It was pruned hard in spring and is laden with scented flowers. I really love it when the fatsia flowers, too. I had a wander round the garden and noticed ginkgo leaves had turned a beautiful yellow, there were a few flowers on the abutilon and clumps of Arum italicum ‘Pictum’ had popped up all over the place. I bought my first plant of this when I did my City and Guilds flower arranging course about 30 years ago.
It’s been a good year. The only crops that didn’t do that well were tomatoes, which got off to a bad start. We still had a good supply, but not enough to make lots of sauce to freeze. The bedding borders and baskets and pots looked lovely all summer. I have a couple of ideas of plant combinations for next year’s baskets and pots. I don’t have a clue as to why there weren’t as many flowers on the bottlebrush, itea and a couple of the hydrangeas as they were all treated the same as usual – maybe they just needed a rest. With Christmas just around the corner I’ve been thinking of the flower arrangements I like to make. Because of the work going on next door as regards our chimney, the loft had to be cleared a bit and I found some lovely baskets I’d forgotten about so I’ll use a couple for my arrangements. I have plenty of lovely evergreen foliage in the garden to use!