Geranium's Garden.

do you have Edward?

No - I almost did, but the GC that had pots labelled 'Edward' also had 'George' right next to him, and they looked identical. I think they must have labelled them wrong, so I didn't get a pot. I know he's available, though! Somewhere! ;D

I shall take a look tomorrow at where 'Katharine' is supposed to be and see if she's appeared yet.

Oooh yes, Lesley! I'm thrilled to bits that they're all coming into bloom all of a sudden - I looked in the back garden too, and there they are. ;D I added some more this afternoon, too, after a shopping trip. I planted 50 last autumn, and it wasn't enough, so I added some potfulls - or should that be 'potsfull'? ;D



I. ret. 'Katharine Hodgkin' - her third year in the garden - came into flower today. ;D

That is nice geranium, this far north we have not even got the snowdrops out yet.

Well - let's say it's on the way. ;D

For Christmas 2009, my husband bought me two huge pots for the garden. I chose them, of course! I'd always wanted to grow a Pieris, but the soil in the garden is neutral - so I ordered a Pieris 'Flaming Silver' and filled my square pot with ericaceous compost. I planted a Skimmia in the pot until the Pieris arrived, and surrounded it with white heather.



When I'd found the pots, I'd seen that there were three sizes of the square one - so I decided to be very extravagant and get the other two to make a group as a feature in a rather boring corner. I was lucky - I got the two at a big discount!

I planted the middle one up with Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens' and a lovely Hellebore called 'Winter Moonbeam', plus a few Galanthus elwesii to keep the black and white theme.



In the smallest pot I planted another Hellebore - H. lividus, with some more snowdrops and two Carex 'Jenneke'.



When the snowdrops finished flowering, I planted them in the garden. I left the hardy Hellebore in place, and it's flowering again now.




I added snowdrops to the pots today again. I had to take the H. lividus out as it didn't survive the cold weather last February, sadly. I put Fuchsia 'Hawkshead' in there for the summer, with white bacopa in all the pots. Today the fuchsia has gone into the coldframe and another Helleborus lividus has replaced it.



Here's the group of pots last January.



And what about the other huge pot OH gave me for Christmas last year? Well - it's right at the other end of the garden, up the steps by the gazebo. Again, I filled it with ericaceous compost and tracked down a Kalmia latifolia to go in it. For the summer, in went a Clematis 'Boulevard' and trailing plants to soften the edges.



The pot in full bloom in May.



Kalmia latifolia

I'll plant more trailing plants in it in May. I just hope the Kalmia survives - it's not looking too happy after the very cold weather.

Thanks, G. The RHS book says 'borderline', so as the last two winters have NOT been 'borderline', it agreed and died.