Filipendula

Ahead of me in the flowering stakes.

It's the weirdist year, I'm usually weeks behind you southern guys.

I have found in the past, I'm earlier to flower in Spring, then after my soil dries out, Northerners catch up and over take us in flowering. That's my theory.

Our bright pink one has been out for a couple of days now....

I brought some with me Dawn ,it,s growing I'm hoping it will flower The problem is it,s so dry here and very sandy ...

You will have to grow plants that like sandy soil Amy, there are quite a lot, how far are you from the sea?

About a mile Angela ,we also have Oulton Broad just at the end of the road approx 15 mins walk ,we get a lot of wind we're not use to that and sea gulls what a din they make I keep thinking it's alarms going off in cars and nobody is turning them off ,I suppose I'll get use to it one day , so far I've mainly bought Grass type plants any suggestions very welcome ...

Siris, yes that makes sense as our harsh winters delay early growth.
Amy, it sounds like you are in real seaside conditions.
Squawking magpies and jays annoy me here as they're usually up to no good.
Some hardy geraniums tolerate dry conditions don't they. Amy I remember you buying dry tolerant plants in the past then we had those very wet summers. Nice to see you back on again :-)

Well we are 5 mins from the sea, so we have the salt and the wind to contend with, most of the stuff we grow is totally unsuitable , especially roses!! butnthe soil is good, and quite heavy in places....with sandy soil you need to add lots of goodness, to beef it up, lots of muck!!
When we moved here the gulls never made any noise, and I was really disappointed, because I like to hear them! now they do, apparently it is the herring gulls that cry, so Peter says, you will get used to them....we found the sirens especially the ambulance took some getting used to, we never heard them where we used to live, but they seemed to be going all the time here, we never notice it now, what with the coast guard and the helicopters flying over, surprising how you do get used to noise!

Thanks Dawn It's nice to have a little more time, I know Geraniums do well Dawn there were banks of them here when we arrived also great clumps of Agapanthus which need splitting up the foliage was absolutely full of snails also several Camellias & Azaleas which are thriving ,they must have had a thing about bay trees I've counted 5 the problem with them is they are all shooting new growth up in the surrounding areas ..
I guess we must have the Herring gulls Angela that shouldn't be a surprise as Lowestoft next door was the biggest Herring fishing port in the country in its hay day bringing thousands of girls down from Scotland to cope with the catches ... You can see I've visited the museum Lol .
We are actually finding it quiet here were we lived previously we constantly had Tornado planes flying overhead from Marham exercising for duties ...
Our intention is to get the soil as healthy as possible ,we still have our shredder and compost bins it will take time PS Tony still has his air rifle so watch out sea gulls (Joke )

It’s all very interesting, all the different aspects of where we live.