Joy of Pears....

One of the great things about the garden is the three cordon pears next to the greenhouse. They have a pleasing dark bark in the winter, white blossom and attractive leaves. And we have the pears! Unlike the apples where the big tree gives us lots of rather tasteless fruit and the cordons give us one or two apples if we are lucky, the pears do really well. I'm starting to pick them now and after a day or two indoors they are ready for eating and are truly wonderful! Something else I found you can make out of pears...is the second picture of a leaf turning colour..put it through some digital transformations and you have a very pretty picture.

Quick, cheap and easy..and ORANGE

It's suddenly become very grey in England and so these almost virulent orange blooms are most welcome. I mistakenly thought these liked dry stoney places and they didn't make much of a show until the rains came. When we have frosts they will turn overnight into a mush but the seeds are cheap so I'll get some more for next year. They make great plants for bare patches and when you decide exactly what you want in a space it's not so much of a heartache to pull them up. The white butterflies like them too!

10 years on..flowers at last!

At last I have reflowered Cyclamen rohlfsianum! I have had flowering sized plants, some even bought it flower, but never managed to coax a flower from it myself. Last year I increased the minimum temperature in the greenhouse to 5C. But probably the main thing was to give more water during the summer rest and when starting to grow. For two years previously I had buds but they aborted, I assumed because I had over watered. Now it seems I had underwatered. maybe a little too much water this time as the flowers are obscured by the leaves. Still, I have three plants in flower right now. The next challenge is to get seedlings into flower, I read that if you have one in a pot they sulk, however until a few years back I only ever got one to germinate at any one sowing.

Michaelmas Daisy

The traditional Michaelmas daisy photographed in the late afternoon sun. I love these plants and luckily here they seem to be free of mildrew, it's just to windy for the fungus perhaps.