The rain finally cleared up around 4pm - as the nights are drawing in and decent light in the garden goes at around 6pm - whatever I was going to do was going to be minimal. I had a good look around and decided after seeing buds forming on the Camellias, Rhododendrons and the Magnolia Stellata I took the opporchancity (opportunity and chance) to give the lime haters a wee feed and mulch . I have around half a bag of Ericaceous Compost leftover from summer plantings. This should be enough to do the job.
One of the first ever gardening tips I ever received was to ensure that Camellias are kept watered from August onwards. The plants are starting to form their buds and the main cause of bud drop at flowering time is caused by drought.
A few of the forming Camellia buds today.....
Of course, the Magnolia Stellata was new in the garden Spring 2012. Unfortunately, I didn't take as much care with it as I should have done and all the buds were lost to frost. It was planted in my side garden late spring - this will allow shelter from the morning sun, thus reducing the chance of frost affecting the buds again. I was so excited when I spotted some of these today....
The Rhoddies, Azaleas and Pieris had a feed too. One of my Azaleas took me by surprise a couple of weeks back - it produced a few late/early flowers.
ALeucothoe are a great plant for adding colour in the winter - in the autumn their leaves take on beautiful red colours....
Leucothoe keiskei 'Royal Ruby'
Another Leucothoe keiskei 'Royal Ruby'
Leucothoe 'Red Lips'
Thanks for stopping by!
