Spring has arrived in my garden!
By geraniumdad
18 comments
Well, Spring has finally arrived here in Kingston upon Hull and not before time!
I have been out in the garden doing some pruning and tidying, grass cutting and edge strimming, fence painting and trellis erecting and I feel great!!
Anyway, my raised beds are starting to look much better after the harsh winter weather, and flowers are popping out all over the place. Here are a few of the best ones, starting with some of my Aubrieta.
This one is Aubrieta glabrescens. It is a very low growing plant with small, leathery, glossy green, leaves.
This next one is either Aubrieta pinardii or A. canescens: I can’t remember!. It has pinkish flowers with very hairy, soft felty, grey-green leaves. Like most Aubrietas, it is mound forming.
The next photos show some of my Aubrieta seedlings and the colour variation you can get. There can be quite a bit of variation in leaf shape and size as well. Some of the leaves are quite rough to the touch.
This photo is my Geranium renardii. The crinkly leaves are very unusual. The white bits on the compost surface are a biodegradeable cat repellant that mostly keeps the furry critters out of the borders and the blue-green bits you may see are biodegradeable, bird, animal and person friendly slug and snail pellets. These break down in the soil into iron and feed the plants.
This is one of my Geranium phaeum plants. This one has lovely deep red-brown flowers which should make an appearance sometime in the next few weeks.
This is a great Geranium with a fab name that everyone should grow:
Geranium wlassovianum. The newly emerging leaves have a yellow-pink tinge and are really soft and delicate looking.
This is one of my saxifrages. I have published a photo of this before but I thought this looked good, especially as it was moved when my raised beds were re-vamped late last year.
And finally, as you may know, I like my bugs and creepy crawlies (well most of them!) and one of my hobbies is breeding stick insects: unusual ones, not the common Indian ones eveyone knows about.
This is one of my female Myrionoides species stick insects. It comes from Malaysia and eats firethorn, privet and lilac. The colours are amazing and even if you are not into bugs, some of these in the garden would be a great talking point! Anyway, eggs will hopefully be coming soon.
Until the next time, Happy gardening one and all!!!!
30 Mar, 2011
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Comments
I really like the saxifrage as well: I am not a fan of yellow but the colour is really soft and shows up well against the blue slate without clashing too much.
What did you think of the stick insect? The head is a much lighter and brighter green than reat of the body and the legs are wine red with sky blue stripes!
30 Mar, 2011
sorry i hadnt looked really closely ~ he is a beauty ~ i love the green but his legs look as if he is playing for the villa!! ~ or westham!!??
30 Mar, 2011
Thanks for the lovely comments as always! I am feeling on top of the world at the moment, and looking forward to this coming year.
30 Mar, 2011
i am really glad to hear that ~ i noticed that bit in your blog ~ good for you!!
do you have any instructions for feeling on top of the world ~ i could do with some!!!??
i wondered what you avatar/icon was till i saw the photo then i worked it out. ~ its all so clear ~ nice shot!!
30 Mar, 2011
You have a lovely garden Gdad. all looking very neat!
30 Mar, 2011
I have both of those Geraniums I have three of the Phaeum's they are one of my favourite hardy Geranium's.I like the aubrietia some lovely colour's there.
30 Mar, 2011
Hi Gdad - your plants look really healthy and flourishing - a testament to all your loving care no doubt. I particularly like the geranium phaeum with the darker rings on some of the leaves - what colour flower does it produce ?
30 Mar, 2011
Love all those aubrietas and other rockery plants :o)
31 Mar, 2011
Your rockery is looking very healthy with all the plants bursting into bloom, GDad.
Your stick insect lives in your garden then? He is much better looking/handsome than the dull browny/grey ones our kids had in their school days.
Pleased you are feeling on top of everything....keep that smile going :)
31 Mar, 2011
I love that insect :) It must be a fascinating hobby to breed them.
Enjoy the spring !
31 Mar, 2011
looking great :):) We used to have stick insects in the science class for pupils to look at - best thing about the lessons - like to see a few more pictures of your insects too :):):)
31 Mar, 2011
eeeeeeek,sorry dont like them stick insects,my son has one called nymphadora(big black thing)dont mind yours realy but my sons scares the bajeebas out of me,the garden looks nice,glad its warmer for you
31 Mar, 2011
Lovely spring blog Geraniumdad - love the colours in the aubretia. It is good to see life coming back into our gardens. Sunny and windy here today, hope you are not getting too blown about with it. It does make you feel much better when the sun shines I agree - I feel great also.
31 Mar, 2011
Lovely photo`s G,dad, its good to see our gardens looking cheerful again, it does lift ones spirits, a tonic to our systems,lol, I only like your insect from a picture, I`m a right scaredycat with anything like that......
31 Mar, 2011
I quite like stick insects used to look after my friends daughters when they went on holiday, and we have a very long privet hedge so plenty of grub!!! i love the aubretia must get some of that too.....list growing longer lol
31 Mar, 2011
Thanks for all the comments!
The Phaeum has deep brown/red flowers: should be out in next few weeks.
Unfortunately, the stick insect dosen't live outside: it would be great if they did though! Most stick insects are harmless, though I do keep some that can spray an irritating fluid if annoyed but they have neverdone that to me and they are handled regularly.
If the moderators will allow, I will get some of my insects and other creepy crawlies in a blog in the near future!
31 Mar, 2011
Great pictures, love aubretia! Like the photo of stick insect but like lincslass don't think I could cope with it on my arm! :-)
1 Apr, 2011
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im amazed those aubretia are out so much already when you are so far north ~ they look really good. but my favourite is that saxifrage in the rock ~ gorgeous.
30 Mar, 2011