PICTURE-A-PLANT – MAY

VIRTUAL “PICTURE A PLANT”  SHOW 2020 – MAY

Mum in a Million rose, Girdwood Road
Osteospermum  (Angela Abbott)

We are inviting SGCARA area residents to take a picture of a favourite ‘plant’ in your garden, your balcony pot, window box, house plant, or perhaps a tree viewed from your window that gives particular pleasure and lifts your spirits.  Please email your photo(s) to the SGCARA committee at:        admin@sgcara.org.uk

We will be posting plants for each month to the website throughout the summer so please continue to send to us.  Thank you.


N.B. Photos are received in all shapes and sizes, apologies if they do not appear the same size.

May is a wonderful month for flowers, blossom and new plant-growth, so do email your photos soon so we can create a ‘May’ section of ‘Picture-a-Plant by the end of the month!

Summer’s on its way

As bulbs fade and herbaceous borders grow in leaps and bounds, it is now clear that summer is approaching. Sowing and planting out bedding can begin, depending on regional weather variations, and you can take softwood cuttings. It’s also time to get back into the lawn mowing regime, as the lawn will be loving the warmer temperatures this month brings

TOP 10 GARDENING JOBS FOR MAY

  1. Watch out for late frosts. Protect tender plants
  2. Earth up potatoes, and promptly plant any still remaining
  3. Plant out summer bedding plants at the end of the month (except in cold areas
  4. Water early and late to get the most out of your water, recycle water when possible
  5. Regularly hoe of weeds

6. Open greenhouse vents and doors on warm days
7. Mow lawns weekly
8. Check for nesting birds before clipping hedges
9. Lift and divide clumps of overcrowded daffodils and other spring-flowering bulbs
10. Watch out for viburnum beetle and lily beetle grubs

ARCADIAN PLACE

Chives in flower (Gillian Martin)

COMBEMARTIN ROAD

Bush Rose (Gillian Farnsworth)

GIRDWOOD ROAD

A rose from my garden. It is a David Austin one – Gertrude Jekyll. It’s only 2 years old and already spectacular. My son sent it to me as a birthday present. It has an amazing perfume! I hope you like it. (Annette Derry)
Rhododenron and climbing rose. (Sue Tostee)
Water feature and Geranium
Camelia, last days of flowers
A pigeon in a flowering cherry tree
Osteospermum  (Angela Abbott)
I don’t have a garden, so during the Lockdown it’s given me great pleasure on my daily walk to see and appreciate the many lovely front gardens in our area, rather than just hurrying by. It’s also been an opportunity to work on my photography skills; I attach a photo of a rose from Girdwood Road. (Peter Jennett, Skeena Hill)
Orchid.
‘Mum in a Million’ rose

SKEENA HILL

Marsh marigolds growing in our garden pond. Having been out of the UK for 3 months, we were thrilled to find these blooming on our return, and nature reassuringly following the seasons despite our CV19 worries. (Julia & Stuart Raeburn)
Rubber plant in our ‘garden’ room. This started as a spindly stem back in my (not-yet) husband’s flat in the 1970s. It is now four feet tall, and clearly happy to have lived in Skeena Hill for nearly 40 years! (Julia & Stuart Raeburn)
A quiet corner in Skeena Hill (David Steele)
A good year for Iris (David Steele)

SUTHERLAND GROVE

This lovely old rose in my front garden in Sutherland Grove, flowers once between May and June and has a fabulous scent. (Carol Tomkins)
Yellow rose (Peter Ravenhill)
Peony (Peter Ravenhill)
Distinctive tree (Peter West)
The roses to the right glory in the name of the ‘Rambling Rector’! Gorgeous at this time of year. (Peter Ravenhill)