Moan, moan, moan----get it off your chest or have a chat

[TheOnionMan]

The spring honeymoon is over... this being the earliest spring season I can remember, we've been without a frost in about 6 weeks, plants are WAY AHEAD of normal growth. They got whacked last night with a hard freeze.  Large clumps of Kirengoshoma palmata look as if they are yardsticks draped in black tissue paper.  Two yard-high seedlings of a Korean form of Magnolia sieboldii, shows some sad limpid foliage, but I suspect it'll recover.  Saruma henryi, which was in flower, looked like melted candlesticks this morning, but have begun to right themselves up.  And Magnolia 'Golden Gift', which I posted on this forum just a couple days ago, all petals browned (creating kind of an orange color )... although I'm sure no permanent damage other than a quick end to the floral display.  The Epimediums look fine... back to dabbing some pollen.

[johnw]

What rotten luck Mark. Hope everything recovers.  Glad to hear the Epimediums are okay, what a collection.

We are about 2-3 weeks ahead and no doubt we are not out of the woods yet.  There have been rhodos out for since 10 April here and the Magnolia stellatas and x loebneris about town are at peak. It will be a memorable freeze if it materializes here.

johnw

[angie]

Mark hope you didn't have to much damage with that late frost, here in Aberdeen we are always praying that we don't get a late frost as it causes so much damage, last year all my acer trees were looking lovely then we had a few days of hard frost, it was so depressing.
So far everything is looking lovely and fresh.

I have to go away for the weekend with my husband and friends. Going to Mallaig in the west coast of Scotland and I wish I wasn't everything in the garden is lovely. Its only for three days but l would rather stay here and enjoy my Trillium's. What a moan I am but I don't like golf
I wonder if there is any plant nurseries over there that I could sneak away to.
Angie

[TheOnionMan]

Mark hope you didn't have to much damage with that late frost, here in Aberdeen we are always praying that we don't get a late frost as it causes so much damage, last year all my acer trees were looking lovely then we had a few days of hard frost, it was so depressing.
So far everything is looking lovely and fresh.

Angie

The damage was more extensive than I first thought, it took a couple days to show evidence of damage on some plants.  Those magnolias with leaves out and more fully developed looked limp at first, but in a couple days they've turned black.  It is sad looking, although in the long run, I'm sure all will recover.  The plant that took it the hardest is Kirengoshoma palmata... funny enough, the day before the frost I took a photo of the plant, as I like the look of the foliage that shows whitish veining and glow to the newest terminal leaves.  So, here's the before and after.  I only have a small plant of the other species, K. koreana, it it wasn't touched by the frost.

Angie, I hope you're able to do some nearby nursery surfing while on your 3-day outing; I agree, I hate to be pulled away from the garden in spring when so much is going on... worth moaning about!

[angie]

Mark Kirengoshoma is such a lovely plant,  mine has yellow flowers and they are just like wax. I love it. Sometimes it has been blacked right to the ground but it always comes back for me.. a plant well worth having.

Enjoying all your posting, you have so much lovely plants to show us all and your Epimendiums are fantastic I only had the one but since i have been looking at your collection I have bought a few more, thanks to you.
Angie

[David Nicholson]

"They've arrived" I said.
"What have arrived and where?" she said.
"Self service tills down at the garden centre (correction: leisure and garden centre)" I said. "I just popped down to get some Sulphate of Potash, of course they didn't have it, no call for it the manager chappie said"
"I saw in the local paper they'd appointed a new manager seems he came from Marks and Spencers" she said.
"Bloody typical" I said. "Bloke does five years behind the knicker counter at Marks and qualifies to run a garden centre, no wonder they didn't have Sulphate of Potash. I could have bought a fleece jacket though in umpteen different colours, or a dinner service, or enough fish food to fuel Noah's Ark for a month, but stuff for gardeners-no".
"I said to the manager bloke-do I get the stuff any cheaper if I put it through the self service till myself?" No sir (or he may have meant cur!) he said. "Well I might just as well have one of your staff put stuff through the conventional till for me then"
"Why did you have to be so awkward?" she said.
"It's in my nature" I said. "The manager chappie said that customer wanted self service tills so I asked if he had stood at the door questioning them all. He said he hadn't but self service was the direction the retail sector was going in". "It might well be" I said. "But that doesn't mean I have to go along with it. I've refused to use the damned things at Tesco and I wont use them here as well. How many jobs have gone as a result of self service tills coming in"
"He didn't answer me though, just walked away" I said.
"I'm not really surprised" she said. "Are you going to do anything in the garden today, or will you just spend your time assessing the profitability of the retail industry?".
"If I'd been Prime Minister........................" I said.


   

[Michael J Campbell]

 

[TC]

I tried out the self service check out at my local Asda.  I put a bottle of Grenadine syrup through the scanner and the lights went on.  Assistant required to confirm sale.  I was told that alcohol could not be put through the self service.  I then pointed out that Grenadine is a non-alcoholic syrup so why was I stopped ?  At 68 am I too young to be trusted with non-alcoholic beverages.  All I got was a blank look and the catch-all explanation...." it's the computer"
B&Q are just as bad.  A packet of screws gave me the message -insufficient weight - assistant required.  Girl punches codes into machine and sale is made.
I now look at the check-out queues and if they are busy I go to the self service, look bewildered and some nice young girl assistant comes and helps the doddery old man who cannot understand modern technology - but he can do arithmetic ! 

[ChrisB]

I'm going to vote for David Nicholson on Thursday    Anybody but these politicians....  Sick of them getting their fingers caught in the public till....

[Anthony Darby]

I'm going to vote for David Nicholson on Thursday    Anybody but these politicians....  Sick of them getting their fingers caught in the public till....

David who?

[Lesley Cox]

I absolutely insist that in order to be permitted to remain a Forumist, David Nicholson be required to start and maintain regularly, a blog type thingy similar to the post above, and with lots of conversations between him and Mrs N, assorted shopkeepers, politicians and the local dogs and pubkeepers. It will confirm that we, as rock gardeners, are the only truly sane and sensible people on earth.

As an aside, we are able to put alcoholic bottles through the self service lines but they have to be approved by a lethergic girl who stands around picking at her fingernails for the remaining time as we shove though the bananas and washing powder.

[Ragged Robin]

Here, here, I just love the British humour in spite of the weird logic pervading today   

DAVID NICHOLSON for PM everything would be sorted in an orderly fashion and our interests would be fully satisfied with more hard earned money to spend on the growing economy we would wish for in our gardens 

[Anthony Darby]

I'm fed up with this long drawn out process. I despair when I see rich people, who's incomes have have sky rocketed, moaning about paying a wee bit of extra tax to maintain education and health at its current underfunded levels so they can have their house and yacht in Spain.

[ChrisB]

I'll second that Lesley 

[David Nicholson]

Glad you enjoyed the ramblings of a tortured soul folks