gardener's world

Angelicab Try Mahonia spiky leaves, lovely yellow flowers in January and berries for the birds later on. Pyracantha very thorny and nice berries in Autumn.

Razor wire? Electric fencing. Land mines?

Well the more you do to deter the better I should have thought. Dog's are good as well. The point is burglars will choose the easiest place to break into so making their life as difficult as you possibly can heps I would have tnought

I am an avid gardener, have been for years. We had a recent break in to our home in Brighton! and the locksmiths are suggesting defensive plants! I have had a look on their site. The burglars broke in by climbing over the back garden fence and tearing part of a upvc window off to climb in!!

www.brightons-locksmiths.co.uk/

and sure enough there's an article about it, but do people on this forum think that thorny roses would be enough, I really would like to stop this from happening again!

Watching the latest Gardeners World I was astonished at the size of Griff Reese-Jones garden. What a sublime part of the UK he has, with an inlet(?) bordering it.

How much help do you think Monty and his wife have? Three acres is a lot to manage.

Anyone noticed Monty's dying his hair? I quite liked his wisps of greying hair.

I used to enjoy watching Chelsea when the GW team individually walked through the show. they used to walk up to a new or a favourite of theirs, stop, identified the plant and bingo! Immediately the name appeared on the TV screen. That doesn't happen now. As a gardening novice (4) years I need as much help as poss.

Does anyone have mistakes they've made over the years in their garden? Here's mine. My DH bought bulbs from a catalogue about 25 years ago. Horror! Both ends of the bulbs had wisps. I hedged my bets and planted 50 one way and 50 the other. I grew 50 plants but for the life of me I cannot remember the name.

Bizarrely enough, I have found Ebay to be a useful source of plants. Good nurseries often have a site there and the plants I have bought have been promptly delivered in excellent condition.

No luck with RHS Plantfinder.

Every link I click on just gives me a description but no supplier.

Perhaps he's extinct

The RHS website puts links to suppliers. Have they got it on there?

Have you tried googling the name, then add 'buy' after or before it? That's how I find anything I want to buy.

Anyone know where you can locate rare varieties of clematis. I've googled one that has DH's name but I can't find a nursery that sells it.

I love clematis and can't resist one if it is a delight, my garden is getting ridiculously full.

I really want 'the bride' now I've googled it. I love white clems, glowing in the evening light.

I have a lovely clematis called 'the Bride' which, as you can imagine, is pure white and very prolific. I managed to kill a blue clematis alpina by over-pruning it. I'm looking for a new one to replace it. It's such a shame that it died, because many years ago, I found it on B&Q's casualty bench, looking very sick. I nursed it back to full health and it gave me great pleasure until I unwittingly did for it. RIP!

Never heard of the Winter Beauty clematis, I will have to look it up.We have about six different clematis, and my fave of them all is the NellyMoser, also The President. the NellyMoser is out in flower just now and looks stunning about fifty large flowers in bloom.

It was a beautiful programme this week and I bet Rachel de Thame was upset leaving behind her old garden as she said she has a new garden to buy plants for, that's the problem, loving it and then leaving it.

Does anyone have the Clamatis Winter Beauty? I have wanted one for a good while now and might buy one this time but does anyone have one and how is it for growing/spreading/climbing? It looks gorgeous and will give some flowers over the winter period.

Quite right I know I should Merlot it's just me being impatient. It would definitely give better results.

I wouldn't plant them straight out if they're thimble sized. They need a helping hand to get going and you'll be disappointed with the slow growth to begin with. Why not pot them up, give them some protection and then plant them out when you can see some signs of strong growth.

Mine are the same thing when from T and M. I've got Ameria,(Thrift), Digitalis, Echinacea, Coreopsis, Verbena Bonarensis, and, Scabiosa, all thimble sized
I am going to plant them straight out, mix some compost into the soil as I plant, and throw some growmore around and hope for the best.
J52 I bought 4 half dead summer pansy plants last August for a hanging basket and they have flowered continuously ever since.
I must be doing something right!!

I always look for the 'sad' bedding plant strips in the DIY stores. No one bothers to look after them and often a couple have died, but they can be as little as 50p!

I pot them on straight away and nurture them! I once got 6 sage plants for 10p! DH refuses to go through the check out with me! X

You can pot them on before planting them out if you want to give them a head start, caz.

I bought some from T and M a couple of years ago, Caz and couldn't believe how tiny they were, but I planted them up and got great results. Mine were lavender, yellow allyssum, vinca minor, aubretia, aquilegia and verbascum. The lavender is still small but everything else has spread or has started sprouting again over a larger area.

Do you remember the adverts for ready meals, they looked enormous, shame the plate was tiny. Plug plants are similar, you get the package and think, they can't all be in there, they are

I have just bought 36 perennial plug plants on-line, trying to keep the budget down. My they are tiny!!
I didn't realise just how small they would be, they are minute, more suitable for Tom Thumb's garden. It will be several years I should think before they mature enough to make any impact

Showing such a lot of plants was to me, Heaven!Because I love gardening I am always keen to see even more plants that I would like.We buy them small, which keeps the price down and also sow seed and bulbs, and always seem to have room for just one more.

I'm with you there Caz, much prefer the practical hands on programs.

Yes, I watched Gardener's World, wouldn't miss it, but I find these TV visits to flower shows quite difficult to enjoy.
They seem to try and cram so much in and it becomes a bit confusing, so much colour, and plants and names of plants and camera views everywhere. Obviously the best way to enjoy these shows is to visit them, which is not always an option. I do appreciate that they are an attempt to bring a flavour of the shows to those of us that cannot attend.