The July Balcony

The July Balcony

As I haven’t shown many of the plants on our balcony at home I thought I would do a blog on what has happened on it during this month of July which is practically over now.

Balcony seen from outside (Centre) on 1st July 2017:

Balcony as seen from street on 15th July 2017:

Balcony seen from outside (Centre) 22nd July 2017

Just 3 weeks separate the first & third photos! As you might expect during July quite a bit has happened, not only have the plants got bigger & flowered even more but there are many new plants on the balcony as well.

For example, as there is no room in the flat for my Amaryllis once the leaves reach their full size during the summer, I’ve been forced to put some out on the balcony, on some shelving I put up for them & then painted green:

This shelving I put up at the far end of the balcony from the door which is also the far end of our living room. There it doesn’t block out any meaningful amount of light.

Plants on the middle bar of the railings & on the floor:

Standard Marguerites from Dick on balcony 1st July 2017:

Fuchsias (Standards from Dick) on balcony 1st July 2017

At the far right you can see that 1 of the 4 standard Fuchsias Dick gave me didn’t survive its repotting & has since died! The other 3 are doing fine:

Fuchsia ‘Jollies Macon’ in pot on balcony 15th July 2017:

Another Fuchsia given to me by Dick (a friend from church).

Fuchsia ‘Lady Boothby’ in square tub on balcony 1st July 2017:

I’m much happier with this Fuchsia ‘Lady Boothby’ than at any other time since I was given a small plant & a few cutting from a member of another gardening forum some years ago.

Can you make out how much she has grown in just 3 weeks? In fact she has been growing at an average of an inch a day during July!!!

The original plant is still growing but has never made this amount of progress in one season. She shares a square tub with 4 other Fuchsia plants

I rooted them all last autumn & managed to keep them alive all winter. Then in late May I planted them all out in this tub. I didn’t know at the time of planting that the tallest one was ‘Lady Boothby’ even though I suspected it might be. I thought I would train it to become a standard 3 ft high. But after a few weeks I was convinced it must be ‘Lady Boothby’ when the original plant started growing & the leaves were identical & the form of growth the same. I then decided it wasn’t a good idea to train it as a standard after all. Now the plant is almost as tall as me!

Variegated Geranium ‘Black Prince’:

This particular Geranium came originally as a cutting from a GoY member who lived in Scotland. It roots very easily & therefore I’ve been able to root many cutting over the years & so keep it alive. I love the nearly black foliage & the pale pink flowers that contrast so well with the leaves!

Variegated Geraniums ‘Vancouver Centennial’:

I bought a plant of this Geranium in Sainsburys on a whim some years ago. Again it roots very easily & I’ve been able to root many cuttings from the original plant.

Variegated Geraniums Green & white:

I’m not 100% sure but I think I bought this Geranium at the same time as ‘Vancouver Centennial’. It also roots with a great deal of ease &, like the above Geraniums, I’m been able to root many cutting form the plant over the years I have had it.

All of these Geraniums are very floriferous indeed & I grow a few plants of them every year.

Begonias on balcony in hanging baskets:

This yellow Begonia is flowering even better now than when I took this photo! Even better than in pots on the balcony railings for 2 years!

Yellow Begonia in hanging basket on balcony 30th July 2017:

Trailing Begonia ‘Illumination Salmon-Pink’:

I’ve had this trailing Begonia for 3 years now (the same as the others, as I bought all the tubers 3 years ago) & it has spent 2 winters in a wicker hanging basket. There were 2 tubers in the basket which grew & flowered for 2 years but one hasn’t returned this year. The other one is this photo above.

I have another trailing Begonia ‘Illumination Apricot’ but it hasn’t begun to flower yet this year. Again I had 2 tubers but one died during the winter.

Wicker hanging basket with Fuchsia buds 1st July 2017:

Double Fuchsia Flowering in wicker hanging basket on balcony 30th July 2017:

The flowers opened a day or two ago.

Tomatoes:

Tomato ‘Moneymaker’ plants in corner of balcony 1st July 2017:

Tomatoes ‘Moneymaker’ underneath shelving in corner of balcony 1st July 2017:

Tomato ‘Moneymaker’ on balcony from inside 15th July 2017:

Tomato plants ‘Moneymaker’ on balcony 30th July 2017:

View of balcony railings from inside 30th July 2017:

With these last photos taken this evening I’ll finish this blog of our balcony during July 2017.

M(a)y flowers!

M(a)y flowers!

My Amaryllis were still giving me flowers right up till the end of May! Except for a ten day “rest” in which I had no open flowers, but I did have a few buds, they had been flowering continuously since the first day of the year!

An Amaryllis bud close up in our living-room window on New Year’s Day 2013:

But really the flowering season got underway in the first month of the New Year 2013! So they had been flowering for 6 months!

Five Amaryllis bulbs flowering in the living-room window 2 weeks later!:

This particular season started way back in August last year when I discovered two pots of bulbs that had started to produce flower buds! One of them had TWO bulbs producing a flower stem each.

The Amaryllis bulb with two buds beside our shed on Gerry’s allotment:

On 15th May I brought the last bulb with a bud into the living room. It turned out to be red with a white star marking.

Amaryllis in bud on living-room table:

I didn’t discover any more bulbs with flower buds – then! But they often surprise me producing them when I least expect them!

See what I mean?:

It should be remembered that I have at least 50 pots of Amaryllis bulbs all grown from my own seeds which I harvested & sowed about 8 years ago! None of the bulbs are named so I can only describe them by their colour.

Amaryllis Red with white star at the end of May:

Amaryllis white with red veining on living-room table:

Amaryllis on living-room table:

This is the very last photo of the very last Amaryllis to finish flowering:

On May 15th I started taking them down to the greenhouse on the allotment I share with my friend from church, Gerry. I had to carry them down as I don’t have a car. I made 3 trips taking 5 pots on each trip.

These all came from the kitchen windowsill. Now a LOT more light can get in!

There were still almost as many waiting (in the kitchen) for their turn to make the short journey back to the allotment where they will stay till the middle of October before making the return journey back to the windowsills of our flat!

Amaryllis in kitchen window from the outside:

There were another 10/12 on each of the windowsills of our 2 bedrooms to take down as well!

The photos from March are very much like they were later, in May, but with longer leaves & blocking out much more light! Therefore it was impossible to take pictures of them from inside!

Here they are in their temporary home till the middle of October:

Amaryllis beside our shed on the allotment:

Amaryllis behind the greenhouse down on the allotments:

Well that’s the last Amaryllis blog for this year – or is it …?

Hippy, hippy, Hippeastrums!

Hippy, hippy, Hippeastrums!

The Hippeastrum Olympics 2012

In case there is anybody who doesn’t know, Hippeastrum is the ‘Official/Botanical/Latin’ name for ‘Amaryllis’.

As it has been a v e r y long time since I last wrote a blog of these outstandingly beautiful flowers I thought the beginning of a new year would be a good time to update my blogs of these beauties!

December 2011:

Just as December was getting underway the last Amaryllis of the year began blooming:

At the beginning of the month the Red with white stripes Amaryllis opened for me:

Towards the middle of the month it stopped feeling so lonely as two more joined in:

At the far end of the month the pure red one just had to get a look in before the Old & New Years exchanged places with each other:

The Hippeastrum Olympics

The Gold Winner

The white with red veining Hippeastrum managed to achieve fame by being the very first of 2012! So it is awarded the Gold medal for winning the sprint by a nose:

The Pure Red one however practically tied with the white with red veining one for the Gold medal:

(well we are in an Olympic year!), but it had to settle for the Silver instead:

The Bronze medal goes to the slightly darker, smaller pure red which came in a few days later:

The Hippeastrum Olympics podium:

Here we have the three medal winners for the Hippeastrum Olympics of 2012:

Hippy, hippy, Hippeastrums!
Hippy, hippy, Hippeastrums!
Hippy, hippy, Hippeastrums!

Close up shots of our protagonists of these Hippy Olympics:

Well we won’t dwell on the rest of the field –
– there are no more competitors! (Yet!)

Hope you liked this light hearted play on the Olympic Games of 2012 to be held in London later this year as much as I enjoyed putting it together!