Friday 15 November 2013

November splendour

November in the northern hemisphere is usually thought of as a time where we endure cold, rain, the occasional storm, perhaps frost or even snow – and for most people it is a definite end to the gardening year, if the trowels and secateurs haven’t been put away already. In my London garden I’ve certainly had my fair share of rain and the occasional storm, but my garden year never ends, I just change to a different gear. I put on layers of clothes and my insulated wellies and spend shorter time in the garden, and I work for the most, no sitting down enjoying the weather and the view – too cold!

The long-view of my garden doesn’t change much from month to month, my garden is still green and lush, although there are open spaces here and there where herbaceous plants now have died down. Soon, all these open spaces will be filled by early spring flowers before the herbaceous plants grow up again later in the spring. Next month I expect the first noses of daffodils and crocuses to stick up above the ground. My garden is a hive of activity, all year round and November is certainly no exception – November is the month for lots of pretty flowers!

But let’s nip out in my front garden first, I haven’t taken any photos here for a while, the greenest part of this photo is all the moss on the ground, thanks to all the rain we have had lately! The fuchsias are in full flower, they love the weather we have now, around 3-6 C (37-42 F) at night and 10-12 C (50-53 F) during the day.

These fuchsias are all so-called semi-hardy and will survive the winter here, nothing gets lifted and stored away in my garden. This is Fuchsia 'Velvet Crush'.

Fuchsia 'Velvet Crush'.

Back to my garden now, and the rest of my fuchsias, this huge container has had a bit of a sad life as it was originally intended as a hanging basket for my front garden but I never got around to put up the new bracket for it. The old one simply came off the wall one day in the spring, I think this new, big basket was too heavy for it, and although the new bracket can hang 40 kg I am not so sure how to hang it up on a brick wall without the same thing happening again. So the hanging basket has just been standing here on the ground, half tucked under my camellia where there was a space for it. The 3 fuchsias in the basket have grown enormously big here in deep shade and I can’t really appreciate the flowers when placed on the ground like this, so today....

....I moved it to my patio and placed it on an upturned terracotta pot. Much better! I have also discovered that the labels for these fuchsias were mixed up by the nursery so by elimination I have now been able to find out what these 3 fuchsias are actually called.

This is Fuchsia 'Deep Purple'.

This is Fuchsia 'Marcus Graham'.

And this is Fuchsia 'Snowburner'. 

I have taken cuttings of them all 3 today, all 3 are considered tender, they might survive the winter or they might not,  these 3 are new to me this year so I don’t know yet. To be sure the cuttings will survive I have taken them indoors and will keep them in my spare bedroom until next spring. I have never done that before as all my other fuchsia cuttings spend their life outside during the winter, not sure if these will like the warmth inside my house, but it’s either outside or inside – I have nowhere else to put them. I do everything in the garden by trial and error so this is just another experiment :-)

Here are some of the fuchsias in the ground, 'Annabel', I have 5 of these and although they are also considered tender and sold as annuals, these have spent the last 6 years here, all year round.

Fuchsia 'Annabel'.

Another so-called tender fuchsia, 'Bella Rosella' , fully opened it has huge flowers, here with just barely opened flowers.

And look at the zingy colours of Fuchsia 'Mrs Popple', a fully hardy fuchsia, which will grow to about 1m tall when fully grown.

OK, so fuchsias are at their best right now, but I do have other plants in flower too. Some of the roses have taken a break right now, but the rest are still going strong. This is ‘Crimson Cascade’, one of my absolute favourites in the garden.

And this is 'Mildred Scheel', just about to give me yet another huge flower.

My David Austin rose, 'Scepter'd Isle' is still flowering, although only a few at the time.

And the cream pot rose is in full flower as usual. I love this little trooper!

The fact that I have roses in flower in mid November might not be so surprising, but how about a Dicentra? The Dicentra  formosa 'Bacchanal' has been in constant flower since  May and is still producing new buds.

If that didn’t surprise you, how about a Chaenomeles in flower in November?? This is 'Crimson and Gold', a bit seasonal confused I think!

OK, this one is not confused at all, my chrysanthemum is still looking gorgeous, despite all the rain we had had, all the buds have opened fully now.

The chrysanthemum was a present and came without a label, I don’t know the name of it.

There are other plants in my garden that are right on cue, the skimmias have put on their winter buds and are looking pretty. These buds stay red the whole winter until March or April when the buds open and reveal the white flowers. I actually think the buds look prettier than the flowers and with 6 months in bud you get a long display of colour. Behind the skimmias you can get a glimpse of one of my hydrangeas in a fading pink colour.

These flowers are long gone, but I don’t cut them off until the spring as I think they look pretty even like this.

The other 3 of my hydrangeas are still in flower, this is 'Pinky Winky', a newcomer in my garden this year.

‘Annabelle’ is also still producing new flowers although they are much smaller than in the summer.

And the pink mop head hydrangea is still producing new flowers, also much smaller but pretty still.

Here is another newcomer to my garden, Aster ageratoides 'Ashvi'. I got it in a plant swap and it will grow much bigger next year.

Speaking of bigger - my sunflower is now so tall that I can’t deadhead it anymore. I can’t even see the flowers, just the underside of them.

Even when standing on my stool and lifting my camera as high up as I can, I still can’t take a photo of them! Oh, well, they were really fun to have, most of it broke off in the storm we had a couple of weeks ago and only this stem is left. Soon this will die down too as it is an annual. I will guarantied have them next year too.

Another plant new this year were the Geranium 'Pink Chiffon'. I had 20 of them, spread over the front garden and here at the back. They are coming to an end now and will most likely die as soon as we get first frost. Some are still producing the odd flower.

Moving down to the woodland corner of my garden, the Lamium maculatum 'Beacon Silver' has run riot this autumn despite having had numerous haircuts. I have bark mulch in all my flower beds so it doesn’t root down, it kind of ‘float’ on top of the bark and is easy to control, I just snip off a piece here and there. Time for a another haircut I think!

I love those silvery leaves on this evergreen plant, and the flowers are pretty too.

Spread around the whole garden are numerous Primula vulgaris, they have been flowering continuously since September 2012 – that’s 15 months so far! Not sure why they didn’t take a break during the summer but I am not complaining, they look sweet and light up the darkest parts of the garden.

And so does the cyclamens, the first one has just started flowering but I have many more that will come into flower the next month or so.

And here is another primrose – originally bought just as a small plant but small plants usually grow bigger eventually. This spring I split it up and now I have 4. I have plans for these primroses....

I love this dark red colour, my camera can’t really capture the true colour, it is even deeper red in real life.

And finally, my clematises are still flowering too, despite not being deadheaded for months. I simply can’t reach into that bed anymore so I have just left them to it. That doesn’t seem to make much difference, there are numerous new buds still and only a prolonged frost will stop this flower display. This is Clematis texensis 'Gravetye Beauty'.

And this is Clematis 'Niobe', the leaves on this clematis have taken on an rather autumnal look, but it is still flowering and there are more buds. Well, I just love gardening in London – no abrupt stop, just a little slower pace before it all speeds up again in February!

Now you have seen some of the plants I have in flower right now, I can’t show you everything, that would simply be too many photos and a way too long post, but I can mention that the Dahlias, 'Mary Eveline', 'Striped Vulcan' and 'Sunshine' are all still in flower although perhaps in their last week or so - but I have showed them so many times here I am afraid people will get bored with more photos of them! I have two more fuchsias in flower, a red and white without a name and several 'Sir Matt Busby. The Geranium 'Ann Folkard' is still flowering, notoriously difficult to photograph, I don't have one decent photo of her! My lavender is still in flower, so is the Loropetalum chinense - it has been flowering on and off almost constantly since early spring. Several of the other roses have taken a short break but are still producing new buds and the Viburnum 'Farreri' is in full flower, way too early as usual, but I forgot to take a photo of it. That's it I think!

Oh, and if you wonder about my new banner on the top, the Christmas photo, yes I agree, it is a bit early, but I made my Christmas card this week and sent it off to the printer yesterday, the photo is part of this year’s design so I thought I would include it here. The weeks speed off so quickly at this time of year so before we know it, it will be time for Christmas greetings anyway, I am just a bit early this year :-)

But right now it is Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day, when we all get to see what’s blooming in gardens all around the world, head over to our hostess Carol at May Dreams Gardens to have a look. Until next time, take care.

57 comments:

  1. Beautiful are the photos of your garden!
    Greetings from Holland, RW & SK

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  2. Your fuchsia look so wonderful. I plant fuchsia from stem cutting, I'm not sure it will stand on and bears shoots. I love your pink hydrangea, over all it's a great garden.

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    1. Fuchsias are really easy to grow from cuttings, as long as you don’t make the cuttings too big they should root fine.

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  3. I so much enjoyed seeing your beautiful and amazing garden
    Happy Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day!
    Lea

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  4. You still have lots going on a sort of ctoss over season.

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    1. My garden is quite sheltered so I get to enjoy many of the autumn flowers for quite long and the spring flowers start early.

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  5. Similar things going on in my east London garden Helene- it's lovely to see things still growing and flowering isn't it? A different story a few hundred metres away on the allotment where the frost has stripped things back for Winter. I like both!

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    1. Have you had frost on your allotment? I haven’t had any frost in my garden! Must be the flat open space that allowed for any frost. Next week we might get some night frost here in London everywhere though, for a few nights.

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  6. Oh, Helene, how wonderful are your fuchsias! I can't choose what I like, think the most beautiful is Fuchsia 'Velvet Crush'! Unfortunately they are not enough hardy for my garden... And I love the roses, you have a lot hardy varieties that are in bloom till now, or may be it depends of weather? Nice header, Helene, as all your cards!

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    1. I think Velvet Crush is my favourite too right now, although Bella Rosella is lovely too! My roses flower all year round until I cut them down in first week of February. Then they take about 8 weeks to start flowering again. The climate here in London is so mild so I don’t have to worry about hardy rose varieties, they all flower more or less all the time, but during the winter only very sparingly, a few flowers at the time. It’s lovely to have roses at Christmas – something I could only dream about when I was still living in Norway :-)

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  7. Happy gbbd! I have had the hardest time with fushias...sometimes I think its too hot..or I just don't have the talent...probably a bit of both...your red roses are breathtaking!

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    1. Thanks, my fuchsias don’t like too much sun, and they don’t really get into full splendour until it starts to get colder in the autumn so perhaps it is your climate more than you. You should definitely grow them in shade, I have many of mine in complete shade and they grow perfectly there. I have tried growing some in sun, but they didn’t do very well, we have blazingly hot summers here at times, like this summer and they just wilted. Try put them in between other plants in moist shade where you have a gap, you might find they thrive better.

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  8. What a fabulous array of plants you still have flowering Helene, what a difference a few hundred miles make. Your front garden has plenty of kerb appeal - I like what you've done there.
    Your Fuchsias are a real credit too you and of course your roses are amazing. I was successful in bring one of these geraniums through winter buy snipping of stems and had around 7 of them sitting in water (changing regularly) all winter. All rooted but only one survived being potted up and was lovely this year. I've tried again this year and if one lives, then not all is lost! Happy Bloom Day!

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    1. Thanks Angie, I still keep comparing what I can grow here in London to what I was used to grow in Norway, I am still amazed by that – I guess Scotland is somewhere in between the two. I have taken cuttings of the geraniums too, first time I have done it, it’s 4 weeks since I did it and they are still alive so fingers crossed they will survive. They have joined the fuchsia cuttings in my spare bedroom, looks like a nursery up there right now! I haven’t thought about putting them in water, I would have thought they would be difficult to keep alive in water, let me know how they get on next year. I have made small cuttings and potted in compost, just like I did with the fuchsias, I hope they will do well as they were so lovely this summer.
      Happy GBBD!

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  9. The photos are great, I love all the different flowers you show, Stella

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  10. Oh wow. It's beautiful Helene. But are the seasons mixed up or what?

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    1. Thanks, yes, some of my plants are a bit seasonal confused but most of the garden looks just like normal, I have a nicely sheltered garden and can keep my autumn flowers for very long, overlapping the spring bulbs often.

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  11. I am fond of your rose 'Crimson Cascade' and I envy your Clematis 'Gravetye Beauty' which won't grow in my garden, I tried it twice. You made again a lot of great photos, your Fuchsias are still wonderful. Nice you are like me busy in your garden all year round, we have to be outside every day for a while when we can.

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    1. Thanks Janneke, I get gardening withdrawal symptoms if I haven’t been out in the garden for a while! I just wrap up with warm clothes and there is always something to do out there, all year round. My clematis has had a round trip in the garden to different positions, and it definitely likes the place where it is growing now, I am glad I dug it up again – third time I think. I was worried it would be too shady for it where it is now, but I have never seen it as big and with as many flowers as it had this year, it just grew tall enough to get sun anyway.

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  12. Love your fuchsias! They are on my wish list. Maybe one day I'll have everything on my wish list! Wouldn't that be amazing! I also love your skimmia - guess I'll have to add it, too! And I really love your lamium. I've always heard this plant was invasive, but you seem to say good things about it. It's very pretty! Will it make my list or not? Only time will tell! :)

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    1. Maybe one day I will have everything on my wish list too! Probably not…I would need a very big garden then! If you want a nice non-invasive Lamium I can recommend one of the other I have, Lamium galeobdolon 'Hermann's Pride', it has the same lovely silvery leaves but yellow flowers and forms just a small mound that doesn’t spread. I don’t have a problem with 'Beacon Silver' as I have bark mulch in all my flower beds so the 'Beacon Silver' can’t send its roots down and spread that way. I just take a chunk here and there and snip off when it gets too big, very easy. Without any mulch it can be very invasive I have heard.

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  13. You know I love the Fuchsias ... and the Roses! And your Skimmias are still looking great. Those photos of the Sunflowers reaching up for the sky are so hopeful. Happy GBBD!

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    1. Thanks Beth, I am surprised the sunflowers are still standing, after all the battering they have endured. The stem is tied to the fence with several ropes but it would only take another windy day for it to come crashing down. It has been fun having them though, not long until I will sow seeds for next year’s sunflowers :-)
      Happy GBBD to you too!

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  14. Is it not great to have so many flowers in november Helene. Eventhough our spring was cold and late the last 2 month's let us forget about this spring. Lovely to see the fuchsia's and roses. The way you captured the red rose is stunning. I know how difficult it is to photograph the red roses.
    Have a wonderful sunday.
    Have a wonderful sunday.

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    1. I just love gardening in London, I am still amazed by the plants I can grow here and everything that survives the winter here! You are right about the red rose, I never get the true colour of it, my camera can’t capture that very deep red colour, almost black in some lights.

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  15. Hi Helene
    Wow, what a novembre garden! You've got much more color in your garden than I've got. And I'm really a bit jealouse that you can leave the fuchsia outside :o). I always admire the fuchsia in UK, they get much bigger in your country than here in Switzerland... ehm, like many plants :o)... you really have got the better climate. However, you asked me about what kind of drill I'm using for the etageres. The drill is especially made for ceramics and glass and I got it from a DIY Shop. The drills are labeled for which material they are used and so I easily found the right one. I use a drill press, that makes it easier.
    Hey, maybe you can help me in another thing too: Hubby and I love to watch "Escape to the Country". Very ofte they show a range in the kitchen. Can you explain me, what that is? It just looks like a stove from my grandmother, where she cooked with fire. Does this come close?
    Have a lovely Sunday.
    xxx Alex

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    1. Hi Alex, yes I guessed I would need a special drill and drill bit for porcelain and ceramics.
      The range cookers come in a variety of fuel option and in the past you could even buy it for wood or coal, but they no longer produce that. Now you can buy for gas or electricity or biofuel, kerosene or diesel. Over here they are called AGA as they are produced by a company called AGA, originally Swedish but later on bought up by International companies. They typically have several ovens so you can bake and heat different things and cook on the top. They also give warmth to the kitchen so if you leave it on you don’t need any radiator in your kitchen. However, they use as much gas or electricity in a week as a normal cooker does in a year so not cheap to run! Here is more info for you.
      Have a great week!

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  16. Every time I think you can't demonstrate a greater variety of plants, you prove me wrong, and you do here. And the beauty. Ahhh, the beauty. Your time and care and talent pay off with stunning results. I love your willingless, no, eagerness, to experiment; taking cuttings and putting them in a spare bedroom is great; without trying you can never succeed.

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    1. Thanks for your kind words Lee, I do everything in my garden by trial and error and I have great fun! I promise you lots of flowers next month too, and even in January you won’t be disappointed, it never stops flowering in my garden :-)

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  17. You have masses still in flower Helene; as you say the most unlikely bloom is probably The Dicentra formosa 'Bacchanal', it must be very confused. london gardens have a very different climate than other parts of the country so you can over-winter many plants in the garden that you wouldn't be able to in, say, Kent. I replyed to your comment about Oleanders, thanks for leaving a comment on my post. Christina

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    1. Thanks Christina, I have read that Dientra formosa flowers for much longer than Dicentra spectabilis, but I didn’t expect it to still go on in November! Thanks for your reply about the oleanders, got a bit worried when you said they didn’t like to be wet over winter. I have mine in pots still as they are quite small, and I will be growing them in containers, with all the rain we get during the autumn and early winter it will be hard to keep the soil dry. Might have to put some rain covers on them!

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  18. You still have a garden full of colour Helene, I wish I could say the same. I no longer grow many fuchsias as the companion plant I used to use, impatiens, is no longer a viable proposition and the alternative begonias don't do as well in my conditions. The fuchsias I have, except for the odd bloom, pretty well stopped flowering a couple of weeks ago and they certainly won't survive the winter. I love the lamiums, and have grown several in the past but they have always been short lived other than Lamium orvala which goes from strength to strength. Great pictures as always.

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    1. Thanks Rick, I have most of my fuchsias in the flowerbeds, tucked in between other plants so it doesn’t show that the stems are bare until May/June and often without flowers until July/August or even later. The fuchsias I have in pots are great to use as fillers when other plants have died down in the autumn and since they can tolerate complete shade they can be tucked away until they display anything interesting, I just love them for their versatility!
      I have 3 varieties of Lamium and is very fond of L. galeobdolon 'Hermann's Pride' which is a non-invasive variety. It is a rather short lived too, but I keep taking cuttings to plant out new ones so I have a reserve going. I am pleasantly surprised about the L. maculatum 'Beacon Silver' though, was a bit sceptical after reading about it but thought it would work with my bark mulch and it certainly does, no problem at all, and I have now several good size cuttings going too. L. galeobdolon 'Florentinum' is new of this year so haven’t got much experience yet, I looked up Lamium orvala, looks very pretty, one for my wish list I think :-)

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  19. Hallo Helene,
    deine Bilder zeigen eine Vielfalt von blĂŒhenden Pflanzen.
    Das Klima hier ist viel kÀlter und die Stauden sind schon abgestorben.
    Aber Fuchsien blĂŒhen noch wie bei euch. Am kommenden Mittwoch kommen sie ins Haus weil es dann Frost geben soll.
    Ich wĂŒnsche dir in deinem schönen Garten noch viele milde Novembertage
    Gruß, Anette

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    1. Hallo Anette
      Wir bekommen eine kalte Periode in dieser Woche auch, und manche sagen, es wird fĂŒr viele Wochen dauern - ich hoffe nicht! Aber meine Fuchsien wahrscheinlich OK sein ein paar Stunden in der Nacht Frost, sind sie sehr robust. Ich hoffe, der Schnee bleibt weg fĂŒr dir fĂŒr eine lange Zeit und wĂŒnschen Ihnen eine gute Woche.

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  20. You have so many lovely flowers still in bloom! I really want to try some hardy fuchsias! And I am sad that my climate is too warm for skimmias; I love both their evergreen foliage and their flowers. Gardening is a year-round pursuit here, too, though it does drop off briefly in winter. But there is always something to do!

    You asked about the maturity of my persimmon trees. Both of my trees were about six feet tall and an inch in diameter when I bought them, and they produced fruit the first year after they were in the ground, or pot in the case of my Fuyu. My guess is that they were about five years old when I bought them. They don't need a lot of fertilizer. I used fish emulsion in the spring. They are quite low maintenance for fruit trees. They do appreciate being consistently watered, especially during the heat of summer. They both are in full sun.

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    1. Thanks, I did some more checking about the persimmon trees, the ones I first found were only tiny specimens in 1 L pots, no wonder it would take 7 years to proper fruiting. But I also read that although fully hardy here in Britain, the persimmon trees require a baking hot summer, 3-4 months of 30C for the fruit to mature. We never have that, ever! This summer has been the best in decades and we had about 8 weeks of 25-30C, sometimes a bit more, but then it dropped to low 20s. I feel it is a bit of a con when nurseries sell trees like this over here with the promise of exotic fruit, when they surely would know we would wait forever for any fruit at all. Of course you can have the tree for its lovely autumn leaves, but that’s not really why you would have a persimmon trees…
      Oh, well, I think I will stick to my fuchsias, they are much better suited to my climate!

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  21. You have a beautiful garden, love all your flowers, they are beautiful. I grow a few of David Austins roses but I like the bourbon roses more for their fragrance. We have had several hard freeze already so all of our flowers are gone now.

    Michael
    Sunset and Icicles

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    1. Hi Michael, and welcome to my blog. I still haven’t had any frost in my garden, but it seems it will turn up this week, not sure how much will die as many of the plants I have left will survive the winter. The clematises and dahlias will die down, and the rest of the daylily leaves will go, but the rest will probably stay.

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  22. Hi Helene, your blooms are so beautiful and the plants look so healthy, it would be a pity if they will soon succumb to frost and winter. A farflung thought, it is better that typhoons hit the tropics because if it hits the temperate climates, it would be much difficult to survive after the storm, when the dwellings are flattened. I can imagine the difficulty of surviving the cold without comforts of covers and heaters! OMG!

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    1. Hi, most of my plants will survive the winter, I have many evergreen plants so my garden is green here and there all year round. And soon the spring bulbs are sticking up from the ground so winter is not long here in London, even if we get frost and prolonged cold weather.

      I am not sure I would wish storms and typhoons on anyone, but here in Northern Europe our houses and other buildings are built to last the kind of storms we get. We might get the odd roof coming off, and most of the damage is made by falling trees and power lines. We never see the kind of devastation here in UK as the Philippines’ typhoon made, where whole villages were flattened, however, we have other nature catastrophes, just as devastating for people when it happens, but mostly with minimal loss of life, and that’s flooding which happens every year here, often during the winter. It can take up to a year to dry out and repair the houses for water damage and the people will have to move somewhere else in the mean time.

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  23. Before reading your blog, I had no idea that London was so …well….tropical! You are lucky to have so much still in bloom and what we consider spring bulbs, coming up next month already!! Everything is still very lovely Helene. And thanks for taking us a tour of the front. Also very pretty.
    Your new Christmas header is delightful - yup! Christmas fast approaches! You better not pout, you'd better not cry :)

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    1. Thanks Astrid, not very tropical here today with 5 C (41 F) degrees in the afternoon. Brr! But everything is still alive and well, even though the dahlias are looking a bit limp – another few cold nights and I think they will be heading for the compost bin.

      Christmas preparations are going well, all the presents are bought and wrapped, just got a few more cards to write. I am having yet another operation, probably mid December, still waiting to get a confirmed date - so need to get everything ready before then.

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  24. So many flowers that you would think it was the tropics! I would love to be able to grow fuchsias outside. A little more climate change and maybe I will try.

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    1. Thanks Carolyn, with a careful selection of plants I can have flowers all year round in my garden, every week of the year. I was out in the garden for a couple of hours today, with lots of clothes on as although it was sunny it wasn’t exactly tropical out there. All the fuchsias still look lovely and I found my Geranium 'Ann Folkard' with lots of new flowers. All the hellebores are on their way up - always something to enjoy in my garden :-)

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  25. Hi Helene, I simply love your fuchsias! You have so many in so wonderful colors, my favorite is 'Deep Purple', though. It truly amazes me how many plants are still blooming for you at this time of the year. Your garden must be very well protected. Two other plants that I really like are the hydrangea 'Annabelle' and the Aster ageratoides 'Ashvi'. I am very much into white flowering plants right now and would love to see these two in my own garden. Your photography is really outstanding! Thanks for a very enjoyable post!
    Christina

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    1. Thanks! I am also into white flowering plants right now, so much so that I have created a whole part of a bed with them! Some flowers early in the year and some very late so there should be white flowers almost the whole year. Can’t wait for my new white oriental poppies to flower next spring :-)

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  26. I am envious that you have so many flowers and so much greenery Helene. Here the trees are bare and the garden is shades of grey and brown. It seems that your window boxes at the front are quite modest in size and yet the fuchsia are doing well and have lots of flowers. Perhaps they like to be somewhat potbound? The Fuchsia 'Velvet Crush' is just beautiful! I brought fuchsia cuttings in for the first time this year and am hoping I can keep them going as you have done with some of yours.

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    1. Jennifer, I think 'Velvet Crush' is an absolutely gorgeous fuchsia and I hope my cuttings will do well. I don’t think the fuchsias mind being in the window boxes as they are quite small plants, some fuchsias grow very tall, but these grow to only about 12” or so.

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  27. Wow, you have a lot going on in the garden still! I didn't know that some fuchsias would survive the winter. I haven't grown fuchsias before, but they are so gorgeous! I just love your lamium. The leaves are so pretty! Plants obviously like your garden! I wish more things were in bloom here, though I don't really have that many plants planted anyway yet, so I can't complain :)

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    1. I think getting fuchsias to survive is a matter of how much frost you have, we hardly have any, although last winter we had frost over several days without damage at all to any of my plants. Mature plants do better than young plants, I think that makes a bit difference. But there are lots of hardy fuchsias you can grow where you live now that won’t have to be lifted, just do a search and you will find lots of really beautiful ones – they do usually have smaller flowers though - Mrs Popple is one you can grow.

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  28. Splendour is right! You have lots of lovely things to look at. I think my climate is similar to yours as the garden definitely doesn't stop in winter, just slows down a bit. Right now however everything is growing at top speed and I just can't keep up! I'm spending every spare minute out there... lucky it's a hobby not a chore!

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    1. And my garden is definitely a hobby too, never feels like a chore! Funny we can compare gardens, at the opposite sides of the world – would have been lovely to see your garden for real :-)

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