Spritzhenry's Inbox

hi spritz - not going to get into the battle of the sexes! as my other half needs quite a lot of insentive to be dragged away from football, or rudby, or boxing ect..... let alone anything heavy or wet ect..and i do cook all his meals and clean ect.....lol but i do have one little peice of advice, if you do chop it right back, like Andrew said, i bet your local florist would be overjoyed to take all of the leaves off your hands, as they don't compost very well and they are like gold dust in floristy!

Hi,
My lovely black violets have not stopped flowering yet. I cannot give the name because they appeared in my garden from nowhere.

Plus my 'Citrus' Nasturtium are still covered in flowers with plenty of buds still to open.

Our tulips are also bursting through the soil.

I know this is the south coast but...still!

In that case mapel, you can cook all my meals, clean my house and do the washing and ironing for me too. Us single chaps can be quite domesticated in between doing all the heavy work ;-)

Cold? Wet? Heavy? Sorry Andrew these words don't compute :o)

Hmmm - whatever happened to equality of the sexes? Seems like we men only get asked when it's cold/wet/heavy!!!
Seriously though, I removed one of similar size last autumn. The modus operandi I used was to first cut off all the leaves as near to their base as possible (this takes a long time in itself) but means you can then get at the rootball. Although not extensive, it will be heavy so dig around about 3/4 of it, then undercut it and rock the whole thing till it moves. Good luck.
If you leave it, you should know that 90% of the snails in your garden will use it as a hotel.

Teucrium is germander isn't it? I've heard they are difficult plants to deal with so sounds like a good swap to me

Errrrrr ......... tell your hubby you found out there is [ insert his favourite thing here] buried under the plant. Hand him spade and move out of the way ! Sit back, have a cuppa and plan what to plant there instead!
Well you never know it could work!!

Alternatively burn it down (like you can do with the pampas grass) and then just treat the root ball with herbicide or chop up and dig out!

I still like option 1!! lol

Beautiful bamboo. Wonderful noise too when the wind rustles it. The aurea against the niger would be a lovely combination

I know what you mean Spritz! Some plants although you understand their benefits just niggle as not being right

Not the nicest job in the garden! Long sleeves, gloves, chainmail if you can get it ;o )

Fabulous tree! I love these

I was just thinking what great branches it has, completely agree on the structure.

I have been a member of the RHS for several years but have never ordered seeds from them so I can't give you a definitive answer. But I would guess it depends on how big a crop of seed they have got of anything you want, how much demand for it there is and how soon you got your order in!

Oh droopy ones come along once in a while lol Bad choice of word on my part!! I've often found that the head seems too heavy for the stem, and the stem bends under the weight. So less 'droopy' and more nodding

good for you spritz, my mum is the same, she usally gets a dwaf holly tree - you know the varigated type, in a pot and decorates that, it then gets planted in the garden after - she hates the needles everywhere from a christmas tree and done away with her fake tree years ago - when me and my brother grew up. but this year she did invest in a fancy fibre optic tree with the lights already on, so it requires very little messing about with. my mum and dad like to go out for christmas dinner, i gues she has had years of cooking christmas dinner, and prefers to relax instead. but they have the invastion of all of us and all the grankids on boxing day to look forward to lol!

hi spritz, yes your house does look lovely, but like maple, we have gone all out with gold decorations angels, stars santas and raindeer etc... got to admit i do love it. i do also love the all green look, being a florist i get plenty of chance to play with holly and ivy berry ect.. but not really practical in the house with the little monster, for obvious reasons. merry christmas everyone!

How do you get it to stay so straight?? Any that I've ever had a go at have been droopy

Hi Spritz Your home looks lovely decorated for Christmas. No real greenery in our house I'm afraid but lots of decorations.I'm worse than the kids when it comes to the festive decor, even the fish tank has stars on it this year lol
A very merry Christmas to you and yours xx

Hi Spritz. Thought I'd let you know that our annual rudbeckia "Toto" is still in full swing, as well as 2 tall sunflowers, which we did not grow but appeared from some bought compost for containers. We are still also picking bell peppers in the cold greenhouse (but they lasted the same last year).

I'd have called polygala an alpine but the books tell me it is a shrub, albeit a miniature one (it is only a few inches tall). Although hardy, it's not too tolerant of excessive winter wet so I'm growing it under some trellis with a small clematis on it where it seems quite happy as it was planted four years ago

We had a really heavy fromst last night but I've just checked and the following have flowers on. Abutilon megapotanicum is still flowering, a couple of penstemons, potentilla alba (this is a herbaceous one that seems to flower three times per year!), daphne mezereum, clematis viticiella 'Venosa Violacea' (still!), rosa 'The Fairy' (although the few flowers left are pretty battered now), a cyclamen (I think it's repandum which is a mid spring flowerer), polygala chamaebuxus alba (usually in bloom in April), red campion and primroses

thanks spritz, we are all feeling a bit better today, would rather get it out of the way now than have it in a couple of weeks time. the only thing that is a bit of a shame is that 'little monster' has missed all her christmas parties from her play groups, and now that she is feeling better she is very board! and getting up to naughty tricks, and i dare not take her out in the subzero temps at the mo, as she also had a chest infection with her dose of flue! so we are still stuck indoors but i much prefer the naughty christmas tree vandelising, trying to unwrap her pressies when she thinks i'm not looking and endless artist impressions with her paints all over the place to the laying around with a high temp! lol - hopefully will get her out and about again next week, take her to see santa or something! lol

I have cut my rudbeckia 'Goldsturm' back early this year but last autumn it flowered at the nomal time and then in November started again!

hi Spritz i also have a few that are very early or very late not sure which. i have Geum 'Mrs J Bradshaw' still in full bloom, i also have a 'Doris' Pink (Dianthus) in flower, several geraniums still going strong (although they have now been moved to the greenhouse and pourch), and i have a climbing rose that has just finished flowering last week and still has buds on it - although after the cold weather these last few days i doubt the new buds will make it into full bloom. i do also have some violets which are in bud but none have opened yet. i also have some bellis daisy in full bloom although i think they do flower quite late anyway, don't they?

Isn't mother nature amazing!!!

Lovely colours and schemes to offset the grey season. Sue and I have recently winter planted our pots, but flowers are yet to come. I'll post pic's when they show.

Hi spritz, love the pics, and have cheered me up on windy and rainy day, added to which my daughter has been ill so have also been up all night! your bright pansies are a lovely sight, like you i have had to settle for pots and no baskets, ours is not a listed building tho - more i am not allowed as my dad recently had our house rendered for us (kind daddy!) i have some lovely pots of pansies which i have also planted some tulips and daffs in - maybe i'll include some photos too.

They are all lovely and cheery Spritz (and I like the yellow one!!) In French, pansies are pensées which means little thoughts - just "though" it was nice!

Hi spritz, what lovely cheerful pics. I tried to join my area Freecycle, but cannot seem to get access. You have shown, however, that it really works.

Hi spritz, I have just gone and joined my local freecycle group. Thanks for pointing it out.