Flowers on the Fifteenth

Carol of May Dreams Gardens suggested that on the 15th of each month people posted on what's in bloom at that moment. So here's my list. OK, it's the 16th, but I've still done better than last month.



It was hard to know which photos to pick, because in the last two or three weeks everything has just exploded into flower and I've currently got winter spring and summer flowers all blooming together. So I've decided to leave out the photos of the summer flowers - there'll be time for those later.


Starting with the winter flowers which are still going strong - the cyclamen have given a stupendous performance this year, and the primulas too - though they're now past their best ...



Of the spring flowers, the pansies are proliferating ....




And the wallflowers are filling the balcony with scent ...




I think this is some sort of sedum, which flowers just for a couple of weeks in April ...


The Myosotis (forget me nots) are flowering, but have disappointed me this year - last year's batch virtually took over the balcony, whereas this year only a couple of fairly puny plants came up. The Bellis are in flower too but have disappointed me for another reason- I was expecting a mixture of red and white, and they've all come up white ...






The stock and the honesty are out ...


The alyssum (white and purple varieties) is too ...


A few things which have come from garden centres are in full flower - Mesembrantheum, yellow Surfinia, Dimorphotheca, Impatiens New Guinea, Cineraria, Begonia and two types of red pelargonium - zonal and ivy leaved. And talking of pelargoniums, my salmon pelargonium is now in its fourteenth consecutive month of full flower. I don't think it's ever going to stop.




And of the things which I've grown from seed or cuttings, there's quite a lot which has just started flowering but is mainly still in bud - Antirrhinums, white Pelargoniums, purple Surfinia, and some daisies which I can't precisely identify.


These last few weeks have also seen the germination of some of the seeds which I planted since the end of February - Marigolds, Lobelia, Zinnias, white Surfinia, Impatiens, Campanula, Alyssum, Purple Loosestrife, Calendula, melons, Mirabilis Jalapa, Portulaca, Sunflowers, two mysteries because I forgot to label them, and one set which came from a packet of "oriental poppies" - but that can be the topic of another post.

Easter Monday Flower Market

Easter Monday is flower market day in Milan and the traditional start of the balcony gardening year.

The market is held in and around Piazza San Angelo, a small cobbled piazza in front of a church, and lasts all day, till about eight in the evening.

You can find everything from alpines to zinnias, with tomato plants and olive trees along the way, but the majority of the plants are the balcony "standards" - pelargoniums, petunias, begonias, impatiens ....

I go most years, along with the other two million inhabitants of Milan …

This year I was fairly restrained and bought only the two yellow surfinia which I went to find.

But that didn’t stop me browsing for an hour or so. And taking photos. Enjoy.

April Flowers

This is an experiment which failed rather. I wanted to see if I could make a video out of some photos that I took on the balcony yesterday. There's quite a lot of stuff in flower and it's starting to look great again. So after spending the morning messing around with the camera, I spent the afternoon learning how to use Windows Movie Maker. And it came out really, really well - on my computer. But to upload it to You Tube I've had to convert it to a specific file type and I don't know if it's that or You Tube itself, but it's come out all fuzzy - both in sound and video. Oh well - after all that work I've put it up anyway, but I'll post some of the photos another time - they're too nice to waste. If anyone knows what I did wrong, I'd love some advice.

March

March came in like a lamb, growled a bit and tried to persuade us it was a lion in the middle, and is now going out like a pussy cat. Milan missed most of the bad weather but much of Italy was hit by snow, hail, winds and so on with predictably disastrous results for agriculture. Here, temperatures dropped and we did have a bit of much needed rain (though not enough ) but nothing that isn’t normal for March.

With the result that the balcony has continued to advance towards spring. The wallflowers, bellis and stock are now coming out, and I even have a petunia in bloom – one of the ones that I grew from seed last year and which made it through the winter. Everything else is back in growth with buds already on some of the antirrhinums, geraniums, unknown daisy flowers and so on. And the seeds that I planted at the beginning of the month have started to germinate – I’ve got nasturtiums, sunflowers, convolvulus, marigolds, zinnias, campanula, alyssum and various other stuff bursting through all over the place. So we’re back in business. As I write the flat is vibrating with the sound of my husband putting up another trellis on the wall of the front balcony – as soon as it warms up just a bit more, I’ll put out the Mandevilla which has been overwintering happily in the front room since November.

March did come in like a lion in another respect though – it’s been an incredibly busy month and I’ve had time for nothing but work. Hence the sad lack of posts recently. But as it’s the last day of the month, I had no choice today but to get up a post on this month’s calendar item – Ramsons, or Bear’s Garlic (Allium Ursinum).

Ramson’s are a member of the onion family and grow well in loamy soil which is no more than slightly acid. They’re often found growing in large numbers in woodland – as in the picture from the calendar. The alternative name, Bear’s Garlic, comes from the fact that brown bears like to eat the bulbs and frequently dig up the plants to get at them. As do wild boars – I wonder if they grow down in Tuscany.

The leaves flowers and bulbs of ramsons are all edible, but most of the suggestions I’ve found involve using the young leaves – in salads, soups, or turned into a kind of pesto. Or even in ham sandwiches. Ramsons apparently help in cases of high blood pressure and guard against arteriosclerosis – they stop cholesterol accumulating in the arteries.

It looks to me like a plant that it would be fun to add to a kitchen garden, and I found the seeds for sale on this site. They should be planted in the autumn, and I may well give it a try this year. I’ve never come across the site before, so can’t vouch for how reputable it is, but it is mentioned in the book which I posted on earlier this year Curious Incidents in the Garden at Night-Time. It interested me because it sells a lot of wildflower mixtures aimed at attracting beneficial insects and wildlife. It's not the glossiest, slickest site I've ever come across, but the content looks good. If you’re outside the EU, check out their page on the phytosanitary certificate which will ensure that the seeds you buy will make it through customs.

The calendar warns, though, of mixing Ramsons up with Lily of the Valley or Colchicum if you find them in the wild. Both of these are deadly poisonous, but have leaves which look very similar. Won’t be a problem when they’re flowering, but don’t risk it if you’re not sure. Stick to the kitchen garden.

The First Butterfly

Out on the balcony on Sunday, I saw that a cocoon which had been hanging on the wall of the house all winter had hatched, and the butterfly was sitting on the French window surround drying her wings. The first butterfly of spring. Then later, while clearing out some hollyhocks which I'd not used for the containers, I found ...

... the first of the next generation. So it's time to get the caterpillarium going again - an old toybox of my son's which I fill with all the "extra" seedlings which for some reason I decide not to use. And I then transfer to there all the caterpillars which I find on the plants which I don't want to lose.

At the moment though, I've got it covered with fleece. On Sunday it was 21°C. Now, two days later, it's 7°, and they're predicting it may go as low as 1°. And just when all the seeds I planted over the last three weeks were starting to germinate ...

March Blooms

Gardening Blogging is a completely daft activity. You sit there all winter with time on your hands and nothing to write about, then when spring arrives and you've got loads to say, you've no time - you're too busy doing it.

Hence the silence over the past ten days or so. The good weather has continued with bright sunshine and temperatures of up to 25°C every day. My seeds are now almost all in, and the ones I got round to first are starting to germinate. Goodness knows where I'm going to put them as all the containers are full, but I suppose I'll have a bit of space when the biennials finish.

Carol of May Dreams Garden suggested that on the 15th of each month, people posted about what was currently in bloom. So here goes. I'm excluding a couple of things which I just got from the garden centre - everything listed here has been with me all winter :

The primroses and cyclamen that I've posted photos of before are still going strong. I'm particularly proud the cyclamen in the photo, which I grew from seed.

And the salmon pelargonium which didn't stop blooming all winter still hasn't. It's been blooming continuously for almost a year now.

Over the last week the daffodils have all come out and are absolutely stupendous. I've moved the container to the spot in front of the French doors of the living room so that we can see them all the time. they're right underneath the bright red of the cyclamen. I know gardening books tut tut over combining red and yellow, but I love it. Especially in the spring.

Lots of stuff is almost there, with buds just starting to open. That includes wallflowers, stock, bellis, sedum, and some daisies that I don't know the name of.

And then there are the pansies ....

These little pansies must be amongst my favourite flowers. I have two or three containers on the balcony every winter, and love the way that in the spring they just seem to explode and become totally riotous. I love the mixture of different colours - and have sometimes had some of the best results from seeds taken from past plants where the colours have all got mixed up. They come out looking as if someone has gone crazy splashing paint all over them. Sadly, none of last year's seeds germinated so I had to start from scratch and bought these in the autumn. They go from deep bordeaux to this crazy orange and violet combination. If this lot get mixed up, next year's plants should be great fun.

Spring has Sprung

Spring arrived with the beginning of the month and we've had blue skies, bright sunshine and temperatures around 20°C - that's about 68°F - all week. The forsythia is out, and so are all the flowering trees, and the grass is full of little forget-me-nots and violets. The photo is one of the trees in the garden outside the front balcony, taken this morning.

I celebrated by spring cleaning both balconies and putting all the containers back into their summer positions. The perennials and bienniels are all back in growth, and the bulbs are pushing through. I didn't plant my daffodils till December, otherwise they'd probably be out by now- they're all in bud and almost ready. The bulbs include one tub which is going to be a surprise - I forgot to label it, can't remember what I put in there and so far can't recognise it from the shoots. Allium perhaps??? I know I meant to get some, but can't remember if I actually did. A new venture for me this year is some agapanthus. It's not done much so far - there are a couple of small shoots but nothing very exciting. Again, it went in late.

And then I got on with sowing all the annuals for the summer. For some of the more delicate ones, I'm a good month ahead of last year, but with such high temperatures it didn't seem worth holding back. Please, please don't let it change.

Around the web

Eliot got it wrong - February is the cruellest month, not April. Well, for gardeners in this part of the world anyway. Spring is so close, and temperatures are so mild. Surely, it would be OK to put the seeds in now? Surely it's time to take cuttings from the chrysanthemums? And wouldn't everything benefit from a bit of fertiliser now? I rush to my copy of The Gardening Year, hoping that last time I looked I missed something and it will tell me I can get going. But there is only this stern warning : ".... temperatures may reach 13°C (55°F), but it is always wise to ignore these false springs for the spell rarely persists and cold weather is sure to return."

Trying to tell myself that I'm in Italy not Britain doesn't work. I know there's occasionally been snow in March even here. But given how mild this winter has been ... I'm afraid it's stronger than I am, and I'm not sure I'm going to be able to hold out much longer.

In an attempt to distract myself, I thought I'd spend some time catching up with what other people have been doing. Big changes for Trillium, who's changed from being a weekend gardener into the owner of a small commercial nursery. Well, she says it's small but as she also said that "Three of the staff were in ... on Tuesday", it sounds pretty impressive to me. She's started a new blog to record her adventures.

Another interesting post came from John regarding an association which he's involved with called Thrive. Thrive works with disabled people, using gardening as therapy, and has a project going in Battersea Park. They need volunteers for various dates in the spring and summer - follow the link to John's site to find out when. I can't work out from their website what they do in other parts of the country, but John may know if you leave him a comment to ask.

A couple of people seem to have disappeared. Roy in Australia hasn't posted on either of his blogs since January - hope everything's OK, Roy. And Snappy moved house saying he'd be back as soon as he got the internet connected, and is still AWOL. Come back soon Snappy.

Carol of May Dreams Garden has managed to involve her nine year old niece Sophie not only in gardening but also in blogging. And nice posts she writes. The last one was about accidents in the garden. If you've done something daft while gardening, please leave a comment and give her a bit of encouragement to go on writing.

Carol is one of the few people who've managed to go on blogging more or less daily right through the winter. She's great at thinking of topics for posts, and earlier this month came up with the idea of asking everyone to post a list of what was in bloom in their garden on the 15th of each month. I missed it this month (though I'll be joining in next) but can't resist posting this pic of my salmon pelargonium which has not stopped blooming once all through the winter. As you can see, it now needs dead-heading, but there are still new blooms on the way.

February

My calendar this month features flax – linum usitatissimum . My first ever contact with this plant was in the form of the seeds – usually known as linseed. I always fed them to my horses - a cupful mixed into their other food keeps their coats healthy and shiny. So I knew it well. But for quite a while I never realised that linseed and flax were the same thing, and so I never really associated it with the plant which produces linen.

Nor did I realise that it might do my hair some good too. Then, a couple of years ago I asked my hairdresser what I could do about my hair, which at the time was horribly dry and straw-like. “Try this spray” she said, “it’s linseed oil”.

And now the calendar. I put off reading it for a while, as it was full of frighteningly long words. If you know a bit of German, you’ll know that it’s a language which uses compounds a lot, and can often chain four or five words in order to express a concept for which English has an individual word. So when I got to the bit where it described the medicinal uses I was confronted with Magenschleimhautentzundung (stomach-mucus-membrane-inflammation) which I guess is gastritis, and Nasennebenhohlenentzendung (nose-near-cavity-inflammation) – sinusitis, I presume. But please don’t quote me - my dictionary failed me miserably and I really am guessing.

I have to admit I gave up on the German and went to the web to see if there were any recommendations. As last month, the best site seemed to be Purple Sage which suggested that linseed was a good remedy for constipation. But, the same as the calendar, it warned that you must drink at least two glasses of water with the seeds as they need to swell in order to have effect. Both sources also warned that only ripe seeds must ever be used as the immature seeds contain traces of prussic acid and are poisonous. As ever, make sure you buy it from a reputable source.

Back on the balcony – I took the covers off this morning. We’re having daytime temperatures between 9 and 15 degrees, and the fleece was a bit of an exaggeration. It does, howver, seem to have protected the flower buds on my stock - they look fine. I shall keep an eye on the weather forecast as there’s still time for the temperature to drop, but for the moment spring is in the air. When I went out this morning, I saw that the grass in one of the squares near here was full of daisies in flower. And my bulbs are starting to push through as well. The forsythia, though, which is usually the first sign of spring, is still only just forming buds, so I’ll reserve judgement for a bit ….

Cover Up

A couple of weeks ago I was talking about how we were having temperatures of 18°C. Well, within a couple of days they were warning that a big freeze was on it's way, and forecasting snow and sub zero temperatures. So I immediately rushed out, tucked everything next to the walls of the house and covered it all with fleece.

We did have cold weather one day - I think it dropped to -1° and for about three minutes a sort of sleety snow came down before it turned back into rain. But then the temperature went back up to about 6 or 7° and has stayed there ever since. I'm in two minds whether to uncover everything again or not. This is, of course what the balcony usually looks like in the winter. It's usually covered up from about mid December until mid or late February, or even later. It's not impossible that we have snow in March. I think I'll wait a bit and see. When I put the fleece on I noticed that the flower buds were already well formed on my stock - I hope I won't lose them all.

If you thought you were in the wrong place when you came into the blog, you're not - in a desperate attempt to avoid work one day, I changed the template. I lost my What flower are you? button, which I got from Hanna's site, and had to go back and do it again (click on the button if you want to try the quiz yourself). And lo and behold, I'm no longer a daisy - I've turned into an echinea. Not sure why. I had a second look at the questions, tweaked a bit just in case I'd been flattering myself before, but no - I always came out as an echinacea. A pity, as I rather identified with my daisy, but the colour fits quite nicely into the sidebar ...