Wednesday 5 June 2013

Garden things

OK, I like to garden.  My excuse is that the garden is part of the customer experience at the gîte, but the bottom line is that I do it because I like to.   So here's some pictures, and some thoughts that go with them.

This paeony has pretty, single fowers, and the colour goes well with the poppy Medallion behind it.   I have found an Iris that goes well with them both and I will move it to be next to them, later this year.


If I was a proper artist, I could do an impressionistic painting of this clump of blue and white iris, but since I'm not, a photo will have to do



According to all the seed packets, when you buy Pot Marigolds, you shoudn't let them set seed, because the flowers you get from subsequent generations are less good.  So what's wrong with this splash of colour, fourth generation at least?


This Iris, being purple, clashes a bit with its blue neighbours.  But it is a good match to the Wisteria, that I would have described as blue.  I will have to find a way to bring the two together, though the Wisteria is in gravel, against a wall.


I like perennial poppies too, and I tried to grow some from seed.  The first packet I bought, of special pink poppies, from Thompson & Morgan yielded no plants.  The second packet yielded this one.  A pretty coral pink, and worth the effort, perhaps, but this year I harvested my own poppy seed and, by contrast, got lots of seedlings.


Finally, the cats have got it sussed.  Enjoy the garden, with no effort.


7 comments:

Helen Devries said...

I gave up on Thomson and Morgan when in France...the germination rates were shocking. A far cry from when I used to buy from then years before in the U.K.

Do you remember buying marigolds labelled 'Art Shades'?

Steve said...

Gorgeous. You are an artist.

Mark In Mayenne said...

Thank you!

Mark In Mayenne said...

Helen: Well I'm glad it's not just me with the T&.M seeds. Of course I could be getting lousy germination rates with my own seeds, just starting with a lot more of them. But I don't think so.

Yes I think I remember Art Shades. There were all sorts of strange names.

James Higham said...

Harvested your own poppy seed - my goodness.

Mark In Mayenne said...

Perhaps I'd be doing myself more of a favour if I harvested the juice instead...

jane said...

just wonderful! You are the first man I know who has a passion for gardening! I'm envy of your wife...^^

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