Jul 1 2020

100 Days in Lockdown

For those who follow me on Instagram you’ll know that back on day 1 of lockdown in Northern Ireland I decided that it might be fun to do a daily post there and, thanks to Facebook global domination, share it their as well.

Here we are 100 days later and I’ve decided it’s a nice round number to stop at. I’ve enjoyed doing the posts but time to resume my more chaotic posting system. As you can plainly see I’m also trying to breath life into this blog. As usual I’ll get carried away and no doubt I’ll slow it down to a drip 💧

As I posted precious little here during lockdown I thought I’d add a gallery as well of some of the trees etc that I posted over the last 100 days.

Jun 29 2020

Gyoten Satsuki

New addition to the benches, a rather funky Satsuki Azalea variety Gyoten. Large pink frilly flowers of different shades of pink and some stripes here and there.

The tree came in from Japan this year from Akiyama San with the help of Peter Warren.

Needs a pot which will be tricky to source I think.

Apr 29 2020

Shine Bright Like A Diamond

In an attempt to get into a routine of posting on the blog again I thought I’d share this Rhododendron Blue Diamond here.

You’ll notice the one branch at the front without flowers. It’s a weak branch which gets weaker every year. There is a very thin live vein on it and I had removed the flowers from it for the last few years to try and strengthen it with no joy. Enough was enough. It had its chance so time to remove and redesign.

And then past peak with dead flowers showing.

The ideal time to remove the flowers and more importantly the little seed pods at their centre.

Structural pruning

After pruning and set for the post flowering flush. You’d hardly notice the front branch at the main apex gone. A few bits wired to fill the gap.

Below is how the tree came to me in 2002.

Jun 4 2018

Image

Accent: Sisyrinchium ‘Devon Skies’

May 26 2016

Mother and Daughter Hawthorn

This is my largest Hawthorn, really starting to take shape. It’s been a long road but I’m starting to be a little happier with it these days. This year saw it’s best flowering to date. Plans afoot for a new pot for next year. I think it’s the most protective mother ever 🙂

May 8 2015

Hawthorn

This one was repotted to do another root adjustment, it’s taking it a while to remove problem surface roots to allow it to fit in a final pot. This one’s temporary, one pot to go 🙂

Apr 25 2015

Gallery

Malus at it’s Best

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Jun 29 2014

Gallery

Macro Accent Flowers

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Jun 26 2014

Spirea in Flower

Jun 25 2014

Satsuki Flower Removal

The best was past for my Satsuki Azalea and it was time to remove the flowers to help conserve a little strength. It took a while but I got the all, just always make sure you get the seed pod too. These are the four flower types on this tree.