Garden

January 2015 GBBD

Sunil101.8K views

I’m completely disorganised when it comes to Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day and have missed all but two since I started this blog but as luck would have it, I had my phone camera with me when I was checking on the plants in the greenhouses last weekend and I took the opportunity to take a few snaps.

Being January and being a new garden that I haven’t had much time to work with yet, the pickings are slim, but there are still some entries. We start with a fully flowering Calla Lily in the greenhouse (does that count?).

The yo-yoing temperatures have blemished an otherwise pristine cream-white flower, as have the greenfly that have made their home in it. This flower took an age to open, though that’s not surprising really given the time of year. I’m really impressed with the growth the Calla Lilies put on last year, they’re now growing out of their pots. I think the secret is to keep the pot at least half-buried in water. Given the chronic drainage problems this new garden has, Calla lilies could become a major feature in it.

Next we have the delicate and delightful Erodium Pelargoniflorum:

This little gem is capable of self seeding everywhere. I planted a few seedlings into the lily pots and as they were in the patio pot collection, I’ve now got them coming up in many other pots too. Their seed pods dry and crisp, then spring and fling their seeds into the surroundings. They do form a freshly coloured evergreen mat of leaves that might be useful elsewhere as ground cover, depending on whether they can tolerate the shade from plants towering high above them.

Finally, I have a Viburnum Tinus:

Starry white-pink flowers and withered black berries at the same time. It does get heavily nibbled on and this is the prettiest I have seen it. I am in the middle of restoring the border this shrub is in so hopefully it’ll start looking and feeling better from this season on.

I don’t know how February is going to turn out in terms of flowers but if I don’t put a reminder in the diary then I just know I’m going to miss it.

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day is hosted on the 15th of each month by Carol at May Dreams Gardens. Visit her blog to see what other gardeners have in bloom this month.

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10 comments

Jean 17/01/2015 - 1:26 am
Erodium is not a plant I'm familiar with; it's lovely. My favorite perennial reference book lists two species (not the one you have in bloom), and it turns out that they are cold-hardy in my climate! (My source does note, however, that they are occasionally regarded as weeds because they self-sow so readily.) Yours certainly has flowers that look like Pelargonium, as its botanical name indicates.
Sunil 17/01/2015 - 3:54 pm
Hi Jean, it's lovely when it flowers on-masse in spring and there are hundreds of flowers, then it carries on intermittently through the summer. It's one of those plants that needs a full-time person if you want to keep up with the dead-heading. These prefer free-draining soil in full sun and will tolerate drought so that's why I keep them in pots as the garden conditions won't suit them at all.
Alain 17/01/2015 - 3:24 am
Hi Sunil, Your Viburnum Tinus looks magnificent. I have grown an Erodium and it did seed itself but I am not sure i still have it. If I do, I should put it in a more prominent place because they are rather small and, where I grow them, easily to missed.
Sunil 17/01/2015 - 3:56 pm
Hello Alain, mine spread very quickly if left unchecked, I would have thought that with your free-draining soil and thin sun these plants would do very well. They do nee to be out in the sun, I don't think they like being towered over by other plants and shaded out.
casa mariposa 17/01/2015 - 3:45 am
You are way ahead of me. I have a silk orchid that never fails to impress and some lovely flowered linens.
Sunil 17/01/2015 - 3:58 pm
Hello Tammy, I avoid silk/plastic/fake flowers like the plague. The only time I will consider one is for my Strelitzia, which will probably still be waiting to flower in a decade, hence a fake flower to save face, just as long as one doesn't look too closely at it!
gardeninacity 17/01/2015 - 5:00 pm
The Erodium is a really lovely flower, and a new one to me. For some reason it makes me think of Pelargonium.
Sunil 24/01/2015 - 9:37 am
Hello Jason, it's a drought-tolerant, sun-loving, evergreen, prolific self seeder with masses of pretty flowers in spring followed by sporadic flowering through the year. If the conditions are right and you put it in the ground, it's one of those things that you might never be able to get rid of, whether you like it or not!
aberdeen gardening 19/01/2015 - 11:08 am
Sunil, greenhouse or not, I am impressed with having a bloom on the Calla Lily. Always cheery to see Viburnum Tinus at this time of year, if I am not mistaken I think the form with a hint of pink in the blooms is a form named Eve Price
Sunil 24/01/2015 - 9:39 am
Hello Alistair, the Viburnum Tinus is one we inherited so there might be a label around it somewhere. The calla lilies were particularly good last year though they're going to have to be put into much bigger pots as they've completely outgrown the ones they're in at the moment.
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