Starved of gardening talk

Callistemon - I've just realised that your username means a plant.
I could be wrong, but I think there were some growing in our part of SW France. Or something similar.

Thanks BradfordLass for the link.

I did think that the flowering trees were Callistemon then realised that the flowers were a different shape.
They were in flower at the beginning of October, so could they have been Rata not Pohutukaw?

If you want garden chat and advice, have you tried the BBC Gardeners world forum which is an off shoot of the BBC gardeners world forums.
It is really helpful.

What I see in my garden right now is all I ger at present is the view of my rather soggy flower beds

We trimmed back the old leaves on the Hellibores yesterday so now we can see the flowers

The weather is mild, at the moment and some summer flowering plants in my garden are still in full leaf. But I’d warn against too drastic pruning at the moment. The Beast from the East didn’t arrive until March and devastated some plants.
On a positive note, it is lovely to see the bulbs coming up and the birds busy looking for nesting sites.
The blue tits are hopping in and out of the nesting boxes.

Eliane It can take longer than a year for Pohutukaw seeds to germinate, quite often 2-3 years. I hope you haven't thrown the old ones away.

They also grow very well near the sea, so obviously love a bit of sand near their roots.

This may help

projectcrimson.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/How-to-Grow-Brochure-updated-2015.pdf

They can grow enormous in the righ conditions but I suspect maybe the cooler climate of the UK will curb that.

Thanks Callistemon, I'll give that a go and hope they take. We visited an island near Auckland while there one Christmas and it was covered in them. Beautiful! I would love one in my garden.

Ellianne
Use potting mix, cover very thinly.
Keep the seeds damp to wet (but not swimming) at a temperature of 18-20C in a 'tent' of polythene. Water at least once daily. I suppose you could use a propagator.
When they come through, remove polythene, reduce watering but use a seaweed fertiliser.
Transplant when they get 4-5 leaves.

Good luck!

Our clematis buds are breaking- time to do the pruning perhaps.

The robin on the allotment is always nearby when I am over there mulching or picking winter kale. His red breast really stands out, and he comes so close when I'm digging.

As soon as I move away he is there having a rootle around!

Always lovely to see him and I greet him like an old friend.

I know longer have a garden and was delighted to see a container on my balcony with daffodil bulb tips sprouting through

ps also @Flossie - what a lovely garden, I wish ours was as neat as that.

I noticed a few white things in our small back garden today - Some primulas, and the buds of a white hellebore.
www.springhillnursery.com/product/mollys-white-hellebore
It cheered me up!

Good evening to several of those of you in NZ. I sewed some (tiny) Pohutukawa seeds last year from the Isles of Scilly but no luck germinating. I have a few left to try again. Any tips?

Lovely FlossieTurner

mcem I'm pleased you asked about the plum tree because I told DH who said he was going to prune it today to try to shape it better.

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I had a complete garden make-over 3 years ago. I wanted an easy to maintain garden that I could enjoy all year. As our living room is all glass at the back we look at it constantly. This is it in winter and spring

Thank you callistemon. Will head to the website now!

I planted the usual crocus in the autumn and they are just starting to poke through. Something was digging them up so I had to put netting on top.
I see my roses and aquifolium are not looking healthy. I think I shall have to replace them. I love browsing around the garden centre, so I'm glad of an excuse!

My local Homebase has big bags of daffodils for 50 p. I spent a couple of hours yesterday planting them out. Will be interesting to see if and when they flower. Worth a £1 for the afternoons exercise in the winter sun. Did a little bit of sweeping up leaves, deadheading etc. Weather forecast for today is good too so am tempted to go back and buy another couple of bags.

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It summer here, supposedly although only cool 65 degrees today, not what we expect at this time of year.

Mid-December is usually the time when everything flourishes and despite wind, rain and the fall-out from the Australian fires, the roses along my deck have done well.

They are Crepuscule, a lovely fragrant apricot-pink. Twining in among them is a climbing double geranium in vibrant cerise.

Because of the unseasonable cool, the tomatoes are only just in flower but I'm hoping the weather will improve (February is usually our hottest month except in El Nino years) and that will give them a boost.

Both tomatoes and roses love a good watering with Epsom Salts, about a cupful to 2-3 litres, every couple of months.

Other than that, I have a yellow Banksia Rose under my kitchen window, red and white pelargonium at the opposite side, a fig tree and anothe rose whose name I cannot remember but is a blueish pink and very, very fragrant.

The rest of my garden is in pots: Jasmine, rhubarb, some silver beet and potatoes but I fear as my eyes get worse, all this will have to go.
It's been hard work this year so I have to grasp the nettle (how's that for a gardening idiom? ) and accept that it's getting beyond me.

The roses and the geraniums will stay but I shall give the others to good homes where they will be looked after.
I gave away my precious Kowhai tree in Spring but to a lady who loves her garden. It's repaid her by flowering profusely, bless it.

I live right next to native bush which grows up to my windows, so I can enjoy greenery all the time. Very few NZ species lose their leaves adn of course there are birds in the bush....not in my hand !

I have a large hebe which needs pruning, so I am itching to get in the garden and tackle it.
Lots of bulbs peeking above the soil but everywhere here is so wet. Broad beans, planted in November are up and two tiny tree peonies I rescued show signs of survival. The birds are singing in the morning so not long now to longer days and more gardening.

We moved 4 months ago to a garden without plants apart from straggly trees and tussocks grass. It is exciting, if daunting, to plan my new garden. I brought a lot of plants with me but I can’t start work until the tree surgeon has done his stuff and we have built some raised beds. Bought a very nice phormium half price though!

I enjoyed dead heading yesterday in the evening sun until 8.30 listening to Bell Birds and Tui's. I do not relish the thought of returning to the northern hemisphere. We are surrounded by agapanthus, roses and butterflies etc. Wonderful.

RHS website says to prune plum trees in spring/early summer to avoid silver leaf disease.

I can't do a link on here but it was the first site to come up on Google.

Our winter flowering jasmine is looking lovely and some primroses and cyclamen I planted around the garden are flowering too.

The roses have buds so I need to get out there and give them a drastic prune.

We have a fairly new plum tree (2 years old?) mcem and DH has trimmed it gently because it was getting very leggy and a bit lopsided with one branch out to the side, but we're not really sure what to do for the best. It's still tall and leggy.