Wet and Aggressive Corella challenges Magpie

Wet and Aggressive Corella challenges Magpie

Wednesday 17 October 2012

Greed sets in (again)

I should know better.  I do know better.  A little while ago a catalogue from a gardening company landed in my in-box.  Garden pornography pure and simple.  I know that I should delete them unopened.

But no, I just had to open it, and take a quick peek.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Here is my order.

One Button Plant - because I had never heard of it and it looked interesting.  A shade lover.


Ten mixed Calla lilies because they grow well here, and I couldn't resist...


A Double Whip Cobra Lily - because I don't have any and it looked interesting.


 An Echinops Star Frost - because I couldn't resist it.  It likes full sun and is drought hardy when established.


An Ethiopian Cobra Lily - because I don't have any.  Are you starting to see the pattern?


 A Hollyhock - the Watchman because I couldn't resist that dramatic colour.


Fifty Oriental liliums.  Goodness only knows where I will find room for them.  Some amazing colours, and the scent is incredible - for those of us who don't find that same scent poison.


A Pink Cobra Lily - to join the other two Cobra Lilies.  We have planted them fairly close together...


Three Russel Lupins because they make such a bright and cheery statement.


A Russian Hollyhock - for its glorious sunshiny colour and mass of flowers.


One Sonatini Hippeastrum - Viridi Rascal, because I couldn't resist the red and green stripes.


And ten Tuberous Begonias, because I cannot resist them.


All purchased by the very silly woman who has a mountain of weeding which needs doing and who finds bending down to weed or plant very difficult indeed.  Did I say very difficult.  Well nigh impossible.

They have arrived, and I have made a good start on the very difficult, well nigh impossible planting.  All that is left to go in are the Oriental liliums and the Calla Lilies.  Oh, and the Bellis Perennis and the Columbine I bought when we visited Tulip Top Gardens.  Not entirely sane.

107 comments:

  1. Blogger is being awkward again.

    I said: I'd be very happy to help, but the commute is a bit much!

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    1. dinahmow: It is a long commute. I would supply the wine though... And I am very tired of blogger and wordpress having hissy fits at each other.

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  2. That's quite the colourful order you received. All those flowers look lovely and once again, a reminder of times we wished we'd had here. Never mind. Happy gardening. Although, I'm now thinking about "Garden pornography". A bit of porn on the lawn...ignore me :)

    Gary

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    1. klahanie: Lots of colour, lots of scent, lots of work. Garden porn it is - things I know I should resist, and don't. Time and time again.

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  3. Oh, oh, oh! I wish I could say I'm sorry you succumbed, but I'm thinking of the delight I will have when all these come peeking out of the ground. Oh, you are BAD in the very BEST way! :-)

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    1. Djan: As you know I will post photo after photo after photo...

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  4. All fabulous choices I must say! I wish I was a gardener. I'll have to be satisfied with looking at all your photos when yours are mature! I do fancy that button plant, might have see if it will grow here in Canada!

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    1. Karen: Becoming a gardener snuck up on me. I liked looking at other people's gardens and started to wonder what I could do. The rest is, as they say, history.

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  5. What lovely, lovely choices! I am so envious. I wonder how long it will be before I can start planting things at our new house. Talk about a blank canvas!!

    I'm assuming you have a really big garden?




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    1. Alexia: Our garden is fairly big - but it is also bursting at the seems. Himself likes straight lines. I don't. He plant things in rows and I plant under, behind, between. The rows are there but no-one could tell. I envy you your blank canvas though. There are lots of things that the benefit of hindsight has told me I should do differently....

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  6. You must truly love gardening and flowers to be able to overcome your physical limitations to do it.

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    1. mybabyjohn/Delores: I do love my garden but stubborness has quite a lot to do with why I keep going. Something my father described as pig-headedness, which I have in spades.

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  7. What a wonderful set of colours EC.
    Those Lilies are amazing, but I couldn't be in the same room as them.

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    1. Roy: Welcome. I know that a lot of people have troubles with Oriental Lilies. Luckily, neither the skinny portion or I fall into that category.

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  8. It all looks like good porn to me...it's little wonder you succumbed!! There more than fifty shades of everything there!

    You shall reap what you have sown, I'd say...and what vibrant gifts they'll be!

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    1. Lee: I have discovered over the years that by the time things are flowering the blood, sweat and tears which went into planting them is only a memory.

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  9. Just keep on going. You'll crowd out the weeds.

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    1. Joanne Noragon: Weeds is tricky little beggars. They take root in the tiniest of spaces and spread like wildfire. And their roots go to China.

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  10. Simply beautiful. I want a yard again.

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    1. Cindi Summerlin: For all my complaints I am very happy to have a garden.

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  11. Gosh, those are BEAUTIFUL flowers. The button plant is my favourite but those yellow Russian hollyhocks are as pretty as a summer day.
    Geez, EC - you get prettier birds AND prettier flowers? We already know your men are hot stuff (Russell Crowe). Plus you're way ahead of everyone else - practically in the future! Some countries get all the luck!!!!!

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    1. Cathy Oliffe-Webster: Are we in the future or in the past? Somedays I couldn't answer that question.

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  12. Not entirely sane but with a glorious flowering garden - should be your new tag!!

    Hope you body holds out while you plant all those glorious plants. Can't wait to see photos when they are all up and flowering. xxx

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    1. Kakka: I hope the body holds out as well. I had a day off today (well a day off gardening) and I have Lifeline tomorrow so it will be Friday before I next hit the garden. Full, I hope, of at least a little vim and vigour.

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  13. Garden porn! That is awesome. I will have to drop that expression casually in conversation, like man-eating chicken.

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    1. Riot Kitty: Perhaps you could make up a sentence which has garden porn AND a man-eating chicken in it?

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  14. LOL, you really tickled me with this post. I love all your selections, they're gorgeous! I couldn't possibly have resisted those temptations either, and your garden is going to be the envy of the neighborhood (and the blogosphere!) As for the weeding, I figure that every time you plant a flower, there's room for one less weed! :-)

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    1. Laloofah: I did resist some things from the catalogue. Really I did. And some of them I resisted reluctantly. And the every flower pushes out a weed theory is interesting. It may be the basis for me ordering yet more things.

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  15. Oh I adore your choices! You are just a lovely influence in my world. I'm grateful


    Aloha from Honolulu
    Comfort Spiral

    > < } } ( ° >

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  16. A little indulgence is good for the soul.

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    1. Windsmoke: This was a lot of indulgence. And a lot of hard work to go with it.

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  17. Looks like we are birds of a feather, viz my 300 tulips that I finally managed to get into the ground but unfortunately not the 200 anemones. No matter how I try to keep that little patch weeded, it has run away from me again and joined the 3-5' high "ornamental grasses" that are obliterating my roses, lilies and everything else. Just show me a catalogue and I go crazy and don't ever let me into a garden centre, I am a veritable glutton for punishment.
    I suppose other people are addicted to drink or gambling, we just happen to be addicted to gardens and plants.
    The best of British for your planting!

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    1. Arija: I try and stay away from garden centres. The catalogues get me at the source so to speak. And yes, glutton for punishment sums it up doesn't it?
      My father told me that if it grows well it is a weed. Certainly the weeds THRIVE in my lovingly prepared, fertilised and mulched soil.

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  18. It's an addiction but probably better for you than chocolate?

    My first thought - as a complete non-gardener - was 'Ooooh a 'button plant' - we have loads of those over here in Geneva'!

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    1. Kath Lockett: I am partial to chocolate as well. And red wine.
      Loads of button plants in Geneva? Live and learn. It is a smaller plant than I expected (as in smaller blooms) but is already looking quite happy in the garden.

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  19. Garden porn for sure! Beautiful colors. The cobra lilies look so much like the Jack In The Pulpets. But different colors. You are making me miss all my pretty flowers. Always forget just how many a person has until a person has to cut them back for the winter!! I didn't plant any bulbs this year as it was so dry and the ground is like cement. ut we did get over 3 inches of rain this past weekend so we won't go into winter dry.

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    1. Teresa: We had drought for eight years and so much died, and what didn't die suffered badly. And I hear you about the ground being like cement. We planted spring flowering bulbs (more garden porn catalogues) and are now starting to put in summer blooming plants. And are hoping that we get some rain over summer - typically as well as vilely hot, our driest time.

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  20. I just remembered what a wit (Charles Dudley Warner, I think)said: What a man needs in gardening is a cast-iron back with a hinge in it.

    My riposte? What a woman needs in gardening is a man with a cast-iron back with a hinge in it.

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    1. dinahmow: Very true. Either would do, though I would prefer that mine was the back with the hinge in it. It would make so many things easier - like picking up the things my shaky hands throw to the floor.

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  21. Somewhere along the line, you were bitten hard by that gardening bug! These are all beautiful. I was surprised to see the lupins as a garden plant. We have those in my part of Canada, but most people don't have them in their gardens because they take over. Instead, they are used for planting along highways and overpass/underpass spaces because they fill in so well - and they are very easy on the eyes when they are blooming.

    I am learning so much from your gardens, via your great photos. They must be glorious to see in person.

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    1. jenny_o: Lupins invasive? Wow - what a climate you must have. Here they are pretty much annuals and if they survive this season I will be lucky to see them back next year.
      And yes, I do seem to have been bitten hard by the gardening bug. There are worse addictions though.

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    2. I did some quick digging and found that there are both annual and perennial varieties. Ours are perennials - I live in Nova Scotia, Canada and while our winters are milder than in much of Canada, we still have a history of snow and minus 25 degree Celsius in January and February!

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  22. So this means we won't see you much this spring because you'll be on your knees with your hands in the mud and your heart singing to your flowers. They're lovely, I especially like the Whipsit Whatsit Lily.

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    1. barbfroman: I hope to have planted them all by the time this weekend is over. And mud (or rain anyway) would be welcome. I loved the Whipsit Whatsit Lily myself and may never call it anything else now. Thank you - I think.

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  23. I love your selection, even the oriental lilies, because they are beautiful, it just means I can never visit you.
    I'm pleased to finally know the hollyhocks are called Watchman, I've just been calling them black hollyhocks.
    As for the button plant, I wonder if they'd do well in a largeish pot, in morning sun then shade for the rest of the day? I could put pots of things out in the concrete/bitumen backyard washing line area. It would go a long way towards satisfying my itch to get out there and plant stuff.
    The Echinops Star Frost looks a bit like a dandelion on steroids.

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    1. River: I had heard (on your blog)about black hollyhocks and just couldn't resist them. I think that the button plants (which are surprisingly small) would burn in full sun even for just the morning. The tuberose begonias might like it though? Or asiatic lilies which have no perfume.

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    2. I've just remembered I have black hollyhock seeds saved from last summer. I'll have to find a spot to plant them.

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  24. I don't think you are silly at all. You love beauty and I look forward to seeing blog photos of all of these when they are grown.

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    1. Lynn: Many, many photos will be posted. I am hoping they all survive.

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  25. Dear EC, if you can squeeze them all in, there is no possible reason to resist their appeal. In fact I feel so envious, remembering my large garden, to which I could always add a bit more here and there, and compare it with the incredibly tiny and overgrown patch in my present abode. Your selections all look beautiful.

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    1. persiflage: It will be a squeeze - any planting has to start very tentativesly to see what is beneath the soil before a fully fledged hole can be dug. I am however always amazed at how much can be squeezed in.

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  26. I love your "insanity".

    Actually, I think our passions are usually a healthy ingredient in our lives. Good for you!

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    1. Ron Dudley: I will have to remember to describe my obsessions as passions - it sounds so much better that way. Thank you.

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  27. Haha!!! I read this and had to send it to friends, because we've all done this!
    Now it'll be "What has to go in right now?" until everything is finally planted.
    I'm among those who can't breathe around lilies now. A shame because I love them. These are all beauties.
    Just think how lovely it's going to be!!!

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    1. Austan: I am very lucky that I can cope with lilies because there are a number of other smells/perfumes that do me in. And yes, we only have 62 things left to squeeze in now. It can be done - it will be done.

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  28. If ever I get to visit you, may I bring a sleeping bag and sleep in your garden. "Garden pornography pure and simple" So true.

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    1. Susan Kane: Of course you may sleep in the garden - there are quite a number of things whose perfume is strongest at night. I have been known to wander around the garden in the small hours.

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  29. There's nothing wrong with making the world a lovelier place through gardening! My husband has been known to do a similar thing, ordering far more than we have room for. Or think we have room for. Somehow, we always find a place.

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    1. One Minnesota Writer: We have managed to squeeze in impossible numbers of things in the past. I keep thinking there has to be a finite number of plants the garden will hold - and hoping I/we haven't reached it.

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  30. Who can blame your weakness for flowers? Not I. They are beautiful!

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    1. Strayer: My bank balance (ouch) and my body can blame my weakness. They lost though.

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  31. "Garden pornography pure and simple"

    Hilarious! :)

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    1. Don QuiScottie: It is pornography. And I succumb. Every time.

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    2. no catholic guilt
      as they say in the US of A
      "ENJOY"

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    3. John Gray: I will enjoy it - after my body has forgotten the effort and after my bank balance has recovered.

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  32. oh, if Calla's grew here? i'd be just as addicted to the garden porn! for me? daffodils... always the daffodils!

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    1. daisyfae: Fortunately it isn't Callas or daffodils. We grow both. In profusion. And I will weaken again when the daffodil catalogues start to appear.

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  33. what an amazing explosion of beauty has arrived at your doorstep. I know what weeding is and I am very scared of it...just take it easy and ...put your husband to weed them :)when the time comes.. That's what I do...but I'm wicked :).

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    1. unikorna: The skinny portion likes to use poisons. I do not. So I have weeding responsibility. I have been pacing myself. Though tomorrow I want to get most (if not all) of the plants that are left in the ground.

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  34. That type of insanity fills me with joy. What wonderful choices you have made and I love that button plant. Not sure calla lilies would grow in Perth but do love them. Our garden is in need of some additions but like you the weeding is beyond me these days and MOH is the one who does the planting. It is just as well I don't receive garden catalogues 'cos I am sure the temptation would be too much and insanity would prevail although shortage of funds would perhaps curtail my spending somewhat. Your garden is indeed a wonderful place. xx

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    1. Mimsie: I hear you. Sadly money and gardening difficulties only moderate my behaviour a bit. A smallish bit. By the time things are blooming the pain is but a memory - so I order more.

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  35. Didn't you do well? You'll be glad you did when they're all blooming nicely!

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    1. Dsve King: They are lovely - and the ones I have planted so far seem to be settling in nicely.

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  36. Dear EC, good luck on the planting and the subsequent weeding! My knees simply refuse to touch the ground any more, but I have a wonderful bench on which I can easily sit and do the weeding and then stand and lift it to the right or left for more weeding.

    So many of these flowers you've ordered I've never seen before. The cobra lily is totally foreign to me, but quite lovely. And I so love lupines! I'm glad you added them to your list. Peace.

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    1. Dee: Lots of these plants were new to me as well - and others were favourites from long ago. Our garden beds are quite deep so that a bench would only help me for the very front of the bed. So I lean and wobble. Today I fell twice - but not from very high up. I have bruises and grass stains but no worse. If I had any pride left in this area it would also be bruised. But I haven't and it isn't.

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  37. Yum. I love those lupins, and the echinops. Never seen white wchinops, and I am going to try to find some for here in the states. You could have worse vices :^) Peace...

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    1. Linda: I thought the name Star Frost was so appropriate to the image. I have planted them near my Sea Holly which also has a prickly striking impact.

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  38. I'd say you got your hands full and you'll be busy for a very long while ;-)

    Gorgeous colours and showing your love for life BRAVO :-)

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    1. farawayinthesunshine: Surprisingly, I think the new plants will be in the ground by the end of this weekend. The weeding will take longer - but there is always weeding. Lots of weeding. I am trying (vainly) to rip out weeds before they set seed.

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  39. Not entirely sane, but a very pretty order, my lady!

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    1. John Wiswell: Thank you. And in the context of only doing the 'sensible' thing, I think sanity is over rated.

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  40. Wow wow wow - such stunning flowers! Enjoy.

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  41. Nope, not sane at all. But I suppose being a plant collector is ultimately better than being a cat collector (I'm thinking of the woman I once knew who had 80 cats...).

    The only thing around here I've ever heard referred to as a Cobra Lily is the carnivorous domed pitcher plants that are native to here, called Darlingtonias. Do not start collecting carnivores! If you could see my porch, you'd understand why. They unleash compulsions to acquire, and then before you know it, your garden is filled with the sound of struggling insects. (Which, admittedly, can be useful depending upon who tries to come to the door...)

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    1. Paper Chipmunk (aka Ellen): We had carnivorous plants for a while but the climate was not kind to them (we were living in one of the parts of Oz which lurched from one extreme to the other).
      Eighty cats is perhaps a little obsessive - says the woman who finds moderation in anything let alone in all things difficult.

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  42. Oh my, your garden is going to look amazing!

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  43. See, this is another way I save money living in an apartment. We have a place called "White Flower Farm" that is the US garden pornography. I could not resist. EVER. I miss it. I get the catalog and I STILL Turn down the corners. My sin was tree peonies because they were so ridiculously showy and live to be over 100 years old. The blossoms are SIX INCHES in diameter. I had four of them ... at the cost of about $45 each!

    I learned my lesson because the new owners ripped them ALL OUT and put in a fence. Yeah. Right. I learned? No,I miss my garden, but I do like living vicariously through yours! GORGEOUS

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    1. JeannatteLS: I adore peonies but have not had any real success. As a result I have drooled at tree peonies, but passed them by. Some day. Some of our lilies last year had a dozen blooms to a stem, with each bloom about four inches. Joy.
      A pox on anybody who could replace tree peonies with a fence. I suspect that when we leave here much of the garden will be ripped out. Probably because it is not easy care. Their choice - I just don't want to see it happen.

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  44. Those are all going to be wonderful, bulbs to enjoy again and again. You must have some good soil. How I do miss my gardens in California, but not the weeding. I tried to get young teenage boys to help with the weeding but alas I at 55 or more could work circles around them and then they would occasionally pull out a rare plant thinking it was a weed.

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  45. I just found you via Linda Starr. Those are great selections. I live in the USA in southern New England. Photos from below-the equator blogs help pass our winter non-garden months. That's a beautiful selection of flowers you have planted. Red Beetle (a new pest) attacked and destroyed most of my lilliums this summer. I look forward to exploring your blog.

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    1. smartcat: Welcome and thank you. Gardening is one of my obsessions.

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  46. This Cobra Lilies are very interesting, but I'm not sure wheter I would like to have something like this in my garden. They are too similar to a real snake :)))

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    1. Ken.G: The cobra lilies do look like snakes - which I suppose is where the name comes from. We have snakes here in Oz, some of them very poisonous, but no cobras. Thankfully - I don't do snakes well. How is your mother? And you?

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    2. We're fine, mom is better. Thank You very much :)))

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    3. Ken.G: I am so happy for you both.

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  47. 'Three Russel Lupins' my favorite :) Beautiful post :)

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    1. WildBlack: Thank you. I really liked them all - and will post photos as they grow.

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  48. GORGEOUS GORGEOUS GORGEOUS flowers!!!! It is splendid that you make room for so many beautiful colors and shapes. Lucky birds and bees and other insects to whom you provide food and a home!

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    1. Nicole Haller-Wilson: Thank you. I don't quite know how I make the room - but I do.

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  49. Sounds like you need to order with planting included or a pack of volunteers who love to garden.
    Be well and happy :)

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    1. Pam:): I did say I am not entirely sane didn't I? If someone else is doing the planting for me, I don't think I have the right to tell them where things should be put...

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  50. Ahhh... a person after my own heart... I shall send you another catalogue, of flowers for drought ridden gardens...

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