Easy Hydrangea Pruning, Tulip Season, Pruning & Moving Roses & Highlights from the Barn Garden
Plus details of my next very special guest interview from the interiors and gardening world and the most fabulous pub in the South Downs.
There’s a lot of photos today, it’s only a 8 minute read, but it might be too long for Gmail. Click ‘view all’, or read it in your browser, or the app.
Are you totally flummoxed when it comes to pruning hydrangeas? Do you always forget which ones flower on old growth and which on new, sending you into gardening paralysis? How many times have you been pleased as punch with yourself, thinking you did the right thing, only to find you don’t have a single bloom come summer? Do not fear my friends, as I’m here to tell you all how easy it is. I’m going to demystify the whole thing and give you a really simple guide to keep. That and so much more is all coming up in today’s post.
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I’m writing this on a day that was supposed to be drearily wet and grey as a squirrel’s back, with gusts of 45 mph, but have awoken to a glimmer of hope-filled sunshine. Saturday is supposed to be fine, so maybe, amongst all the endless packing up of the barn, sorting my studio out and various filming I need to do, there might be a little time to get some of the jobs done in the garden.
Yesterday I was busy being my alter-ego Gladys the Chambermaid (she wears fishnets while she mops), cleaning and making beds at our holiday home ready for the next guests. My life is quite a bizarre one though: one minute I’m writing an article for a magazine, or attending a premier, the next I’m on the phone to architects discussing the size of steel girders and then I find myself with my hand down a loo scrubbing for England. There’s nothing more humbling than cleaning up after strangers. But, at least it’s never dull.
In the barn garden I’m rather behind as you might imagine. I have, however, done all my rose pruning. It really should be done in January and February before all the new shoots start to go crazy, but I know a lot of you didn’t get around to it with all the rain we’ve had this year.
My advice is get it done now if you haven’t already. It’s much better to prune than to not, even if it is late. If you’re not sure what to do, then I wrote an article about it, which you can find here.
All of the roses I planted last year are still very young, so I didn’t stick to all the rules of pruning for those, I just gave them a light trim, took out anything dead or dodgy, gave them a wink and a smile (always does to be cordial), plus a good dose of well-rotted manure.
But, I did have to dig up four inherited very established roses, one of which I showed on Instagram, they are: R. Queen Elizabeth (thank you Julia Reis for identifying that one), R. Rambling Rector, R. Veilchenblau, and finally the wonder that is Rosa Desdemona. I was thrilled to bits with myself for identifying the latter. I was as certain as I could ever be, and when I dug it up I found a David Austen label. Sure enough it read: Desdemona. Made my day!
Established roses don’t usually take kindly to being dug up, but they had to go, because otherwise they will be ruined by builders soon, you know tradesmen are plant-blind.
When we finally finish the last third of the garden closest to the barn, there will be a patio where these roses currently are, and maybe one day a splash pool too. So, I set about uprooting them all, by first pruning them back hard to around two feet, taking out anything dead or crossing. I dug very wide holes around them to try not to cut too many roots. I then used a fork to tease them out.
Because it had been so wet the soil was easy to dig, so they all came out quite readily, which I was surprised about. I have no idea where they are going to go at the moment, which isn’t ideal, but I potted them all up with new compost, and gave them a feed. Would you believe it, every single one has new shoots and is looking happy. Here’s hoping I can keep them that way until they go in the ground.
At Home With…
The first instalment of my guest post series went down a storm last month. Thank you to Greg Penn for being brave enough to be the first. You can read my jolly interview with him here.
The new series is a bit like me being invited into their home, making myself extremely comfortable on their sofa and delving deep into their life, you’re gonna love it!
The next very special guest is coming up this Thursday and I can’t wait to reveal who it is. A few clues: It’s a woman, she’s an author, loves her garden and is rather partial to a slice of cake. Any guesses?
Don’t be shy! Come and join us on the private chat
Every Friday at 5.30pm UK time paid subscribers have a weekly get together on our very own private chat right here. It’s called Post It and Smile, and the point is to show or tell us something that has made you happy that week. I start, and then it kicks off with all the fabulous people here. It’s a great way to make new friends with like-minded people and show us your garden, a room you’ve just painted, a place you’ve just visited, a movie you’ve watched, or even your sweet doggie. It’s become quite the thing and a great way to start the weekend.
Coming up for paid members further down is everything you need to know about hydrangea pruning, an update on all the tulips I planted, and whether the damn squirrels have eaten them all, a little walk around the barn garden and what I actually did this Saturday.
I write around eight articles a month, two of which are usually free for all, but if you’d like to become a full-time member then you can join us here: