January 2017

your iris are a lot further on than mine Scotsgran. Lovely blog and lovely photos.
I'll be interested to see how the seed for the geranium varieties do, lets hope they will come true for you.

Nice to see some life in the garden.

Sbg I moved the red plant to see if I could find a name and the plant came away in my hand. I thin k it has been attacked by something but as I do not know which pot it came from I started looking through old photos. That is definitely not G. 'Midnight reiter'. I will add a photo of the real one taken in 2016, in flower. I have found a photo of it and the leaves are completely different. Looking at both Geraniums on stock photos on line G. 'Jesters Jacket 'looks to be correct. I cr when I sowed these but it was probably 2015.
Thank you Linda it certainly is good to see bright colours on dull days. SRGC Early Bulb Day is on Saturday 18th February. if you can make it, it is a great day out. There will be a display of bulbs in flower and lots of trade stalls as well as a members sale table. There will also be talks throughout the day. it is held in a hall directly across the road from the train station. It will be good to see a few goy members there.

that sounds like typical vine weevil damage to me SG. knock out the compost and see if you can see the little devils.

Ha ha.....how lovely , the little Primrose self seed between the paving.Ant=sthe pale Iris is splendid.
We are usually a very mild area down here so have lots of unseasonal flowers most years but, not this year. It has been a proper winter with lots of hard frosts for a change

That is what I'm afraid of Sbg. I had a quick look earlier to see if I could pinpoint the likely pot from which it had escaped. I have been too busy to do more. I was up at the crack of dawn to make a pie to take to the Pie Day at the SRGC meeting in Dunblane. Some enterprising member suggested it as an alternative to going out for an annual Christmas meal. They have been doing it for several years but this was my first experience. We were very well fed and we had 3 talks by members showing photos of gardens which they had visited.
Paul the pale Iris is Katharine Hodgkin. She is a great favourite with many of our members. I think the weather has changed quite a lot these past few years and we really have not had a proper snowfall for some time.

Is the Midnight Reiter from your own seed Scotsgran? I've found it a bit disappointing - mine gets straggly and though its gorgeous for a short time after that it does nothing much. Just wondering if yours does better?

Stera, a Canadian member, of GOY, sent me the seeds. http://www.growsonyou.com/bowl_you/
He takes a particular interest in geraniums and erodiums. Midnight reiter needs to be cut back after flowering to encourage new growth but it is deciduous. I dk if that helps but if not why not contact bowl you and see if he can help. I have not been growing mine very long and have not had any problems so far.

Must confess I hadn't tried cutting it back. I'll try t remember to do it this year, as even without flowers it's lovely as long as it stays compact. How nice to have got yours from Bowlyou - he certainly does have an amazing collection.