This is the journal of my endeavours to grow a range of fruit, veg and flowers from seed, grow organically, and my attempts to create a personal paradise with 1/2 acre of maintained gardens and 1/2 acre wild meadows. Northern Ireland's average daily high temperatures are 18 °C (64 °F) in July and 6 °C (43 °F) in January. Soil type: Clay

Thursday 24 March 2011

Spring is in the Air

I wanted to share with you some of the beautiful colour on display at Belfast Botanic Gardens...

Left: Isn't it amazing the long daffodils can be grown in small 14cm (6") pots. I think these are the longest daffodils I've ever seen.

(click on the photos to enlarge)
By chance I went into the giant glass house and to my amazement there was this superb flower display. It was like a decadent dessert!
Goes to show what can be done with pots, a green house and TLC.
All the plants look so healthy... and I thought, 'why can't I do this'.
Outside beautiful trees are starting to blossom.
This magnolia tree is beautiful. (Disclaimer: I'm not known for my plant identification skills)
I'm starting to spot more bees out and about.
The gardeners at Botanic Gardens spend quite a bit of time on the rose beds. The above bed has recently gone from above.... to the look below...
They seem to be mulching quite high and right over the base of the roses, a learning point for me.
And from above to...
...well mulched.
This has reminded me, I need to mulch.

12 comments:

  1. wow! When Spring springs it really springs doesn't it! Lovely photos.

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  2. What a wonderful visit. Those are the tallest daffodils ever! And, what fabulous displays of color! I love that magnolia. It looks like it could be a magnolia stellata or magnolia x loebneri.

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  3. Hi Kelly,
    Thank you for the beautiful pictures from the flowers. Also for they of the roses. So I have learned too how to care about the roses!!!
    Thank you.
    Kindly regards, Elly

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  4. What a lovely display of flowers spring is here to stay a while

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  5. Those flowers and their colors were stunning! Who would think that the little twiggy stems of roses will soon get leaves, bush out, bloom and it will be amazing! Please show photos of them in the summer when in bloom!

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  6. The reason why their indoor display is better than yours is that they have more money, more time, and more staff! Do you live near the Botanic Gardens?

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  7. Fab photos, something we can just aspire to?!I know these municipal gardens are big and colourful but we can usually learn something to take home and apply to a smaller patch!

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  8. What a beautiful display! I need to mulch, too - haven't gotten around to it. But, thankfully, I"m just about through weeding!

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  9. It's good to pick up botanic garden tips. Having said that, the plotholder next to me at the allotment site is something senior at our botanic garden, and I think he may find gardening life more...interesting without a team at his disposal.

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  10. Good point Mark. I work near Botanic Gardens so I pop over for a walk occassionally. Have befriended one of the gardeners. I like seeing how they tend to things. Always something new to learn.

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  11. Oh, and something I found unusual is that many of the gardeners are female! Often in parks it seems to be mostly male workers. Good to see more women.

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  12. What a pretty tour! I don't think I've seen daffodils that tall before. I read on another blog recently that mulching over the roses graft promotes basal root growth on the grafted rose. I'm going to try mulching like that on my roses this year and see if it makes a difference.

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