Well, it’s been a busy week for garden media, despite lockdown. The virtual Chelsea flower show has dominated the TV during the week. After giving my opinion earlier in the week the TV coverage has still been pretty dull. But it can’t have been easy to fill the number of hours they had assigned to it. Though, I still feel the 15+ hours of coverage could have been put to better use. 15 hours could give a good introduction to gardening but obviously, it isn’t easy making TV on lockdown. The online content has been much better though with some great slots from designers and growers without the fuss of show gardens. The Virtual Chelsea garden competition was inevitably won by people with stunning gardens, but many times the size of the average garden. But my tweet did make the RHS website.
1. Geranium Renardii
Renardii was one of the early purchases I made for the garden. This one has been a slow spreader. The Margery Fish advice of, “if in doubt, plant a geranium” is sound advice and they are all over my garden. I’ve seen it featured on several other peoples six on Saturday posts and they’ve lamented that it doesn’t flower as well as other hardy geraniums. Mine has a reasonable number but it probably isn’t as filled as other hardy geraniums.
Renardii leaves have an odd warty texture to them. A bit leathery but I rather like the look of them near my silver-leaved lychnis for the contrast.
2. Geranium x oxonianum
This little geranium was one of our wedding presents. It’s taken two seasons to establish well but I now have two plants that are filling out well and they are covered in the tiny veined flowers.
3 Allium karataviense
These were bought from a market stall a few years ago for 40p each. They ebbed and flowed in their vigour. They are a short variety with large ivory flower heads. They are quite a nice variety for pots with their low growing nature. These are dotted along the front of the borders.
4. Allium trifoliatum ‘Caméléon’
These are a Sarah Raven purchase. I bought them at the end of the season cheap. I think they might want to review the product details as by nor stretch of the imagination are these 30-45cm. More like 10-15cm. They are completely lost in the borders. You can see even the smallest forget-me-nots are taller. While very pretty they needed to be in a pot on their own as anything else will cover them. I’m going to try to carefully transplant them to the front garden where I might be able to put them in visible spots.
5. Geranium-Ingwersen’s variety
This was bought at the same time as the Renardii. This is spreading to claim more and more ground. It is a short ground hugger. The flowers aren’t as ornate as the other two featured this week but they flower in abundance. I think it’s probably time to divide some. Maybe place it under the Charles DeMills rose.
6. Allium-Tesco special
These alliums are grown in pots. Tescos has sold them for the last few years. I’ve bought them last minute usually when they’ve been reduced. There are two to a pot. They flower and stay looking good as flower heads for a time afterwards.
Hope you’re enjoying your weekends. Don’t forget to check the other six on Saturday blogs in the founder’s comments. We had a good burst of rain yesterday but this was followed by a day of sun and wind. It’s looking to be a bit colder but still winds around me so back to the watering. But now people are coming to our area for the beach we aren’t walking out as much as it’s getting too busy. Glad we’ve got the garden.
I’m going to sneak an extra plant in featured a few weeks back as it was such a lovely photo.
I have been slightly disappointed with my alliums this year (my first year with them). Some are tiny, some are more like pink bluebells and some haven’t flowered, just very scruffy leaves. Maybe the fact I have just learnt that they don’t like clay soil may be something to do with their performance! Anyway, your geraniums look good and the forget-me-nots are still performing well.
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I have my alliums in clay soil, though I have improved it a bit over the 3 years. Alliums flower fine for me but most gradually rot so I often plant them late autumn or winter so they’re not in the ground too long. Some come back. Some seed. But I have to top most up.
The forget-me-nots are starting to go over. So starting to pull up and shake the seeds around. Make room for the dahlias.
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We were talking earlier about geranium renardii and the close-up of your flower is very successful. It’s quite close to that of G. x. oxonianum but the leaves are not the same, arent’ they?
Nice choice this week and congratulations on your participation in the Virtual Chelsea Garden contest
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The Renardii flowers are a lot bigger than oxonianum, but the leaves are nothing alike. I reckon I should be able to divide them both out this year and maybe replace some of the more ordinary.
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Very pretty geraniums and that Tesco allium is very nice colour. I’ve not done the virtual Chelsea gardens yet. I’ll have a nose later. I saw the winner of the front and back gardens and decided mine never stood a chance!
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No. They were both massive gardens with more to offer than I could ever fit. That’s why I like the gardener’s world one as it has limitations on size.
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Oh, great capture with the bee. I can see why you wanted to include it. Love the alliums too especially the Tesco one, which has quite an unusual leaf, I think.
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Yes, the allium actually has quite nice leaves as alliums go. Quite nice thick straps.
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I do love a geranium, and there are so many to choose from. The bee picture is a winner!
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The geraniums are stalwarts of the garden. A few more to come over the next few weeks. But I think todays are some of my best. A lot of blurry bee photos before I got that one. They’ve been a lot easier today as their frozen with the wind and not moving once they get on a flower.
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I have taken millions, if not trillions, of blurry bee photos! Thank goodness for digital. 🙂
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Your bee kissing the bleeding heart is fabulous! My renardii had flowered better this year, maybe they take a long time to get established, but they are worth having for the leaves alone. Oxonianum on the other hand have far too many leaves and self-seed like crazy, I have composted several already this spring.
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I’ve never seen anything of the Chelsea Flower Show. Out of curiosity I looked online and found highlights of the 2019 show. Whoa. You are so right. Talk about FANCY! I’m sure I’ll be just as astounded with highlights of the virtual 2020 show.
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The people who go love it, but it’s not very family friendly and cost prohibitive. Not for me whereas some of the other RHS shows appeal more.
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The geraniums you feature are just lovely! I’m not even sure whether we can purchase them here or if they will tolerate the climate. I will investigate, as the details in the flowers are amazing, and I would love to have one growing here! The foliage of the Rinardii is nicely textured too. Thanks for the link to Chelsea. I will have a look at it a little later on.
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They can handle quite a range of temperatures but they spread easily so may not be allowed. Got a few more to come over the next few weeks.
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I’m looking forward to seeing them.
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I love violet Geranium 😍😍😍
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