Garden Diary: May – Garden Colour

This week I have mainly focused on creating colour in the living areas of the garden. aka, the terraces, pool and in the Gin garden. Although, if am honest, I have not had much time for ‘chillaxing’ in said Gin garden as there is always some area of the garden screaming for attention, especially as the bugs have just discovered the new restaurant – my flourishing vegetable garden.

I was delighted to discover that our little local garden centre (about 15km) away was open. In fact, unlike the UK,  it never closed through the state of emergency!  It is a one-man-band affair so the owner was certainly pleased to see us as I bought lots of trailing petunias and a couple of bags of the processed horse manure compost we like for the veggies.

The plants were more developed and pot-bound than I would have liked but there you go, if we don’t support these little businesses they will go bankrupt…

How are the garden centres coping in the UK or other areas of the world

1. GLORIOUS PETUNIAS

My purchase of petunias. The majority are trailing as I want them to hang down over the pots.

*

**

*

 

2. PASSIFLORA – PASSION FLOWER

Several years ago I took cuttings from a friend’s vigorous passion flower. IT was well established and did not seem to mind the strong winds and salt humidity. I had bought several from nurseries but none survived our micro-climate by the sea.

*

3. EUPHORBIA MILII – Crown of Thorns

This little plant has flowered almost continuously since I purchased it last year.

This is another from the same family but grows on a single stem.

*

4. SUCCULENTS – ICE PLANT

I have several ice plants ranging from yellow, pink and to white. I never wanted white but was assured by the garden centre they were pink. If you want a particular colour wait to see it in bloom before you buy. The picture of the pink were blurred  so will take some more when it stops raining, and upload those later.

5. HYDRANGEA Growing in a Pot

I took cuttings several years ago and much to my surprise I am rewarded by a beautiful display each year. In fairness, I do prune these within an inch of their life every winter, let them rest and feed with slow release fertiliser around Jan. This year it will need potting on to a larger pot.

6. HIBISCUS

All my hibiscus grow in pots. I feed regularly throughout the year and in return we are rewarded with a wonderful display of flowers.

*

*

*

*

That’s it for this week, fellow gardeners. Please check out Mr. P’s Blog for further Six on Saturday updates.

Related Posts: March in Bloom