Peony Flowers

[iloveshopping]

The slugs will eat your delphiniums pretty damn quick. Coffee grounds do not work. Raspberry bushes have roots that pop up everywhere so you will be continually pulling them up. Bluebells multiply like mad, I have just about managed to get rid of the last ones in my border. Snowdrops are tempremental, so you may or may not see them again. You have nothing evergreen so the garden will be bare and brown I'm the winter. You will eventually sort something out. I resorted to a local garden designer for my front garden in the end and I'm happy with the low maintenance solution. She did 3 designs and I chose one.

 

[Autumn]

I don't mind Julie however most of the arrangements she brings look crap, having seen a peony shop at the garden centre, unless you prepared to spend well over £50 they look cheap and tacky sorry.

Ps. Was nice to see she bought her son on air today , As Qvc decided to exclude sons in this event today

 

[Weathergirl]

The slugs will eat your delphiniums pretty damn quick. Coffee grounds do not work. Raspberry bushes have roots that pop up everywhere so you will be continually pulling them up. Bluebells multiply like mad, I have just about managed to get rid of the last ones in my border. Snowdrops are tempremental, so you may or may not see them again. You have nothing evergreen so the garden will be bare and brown I'm the winter. You will eventually sort something out. I resorted to a local garden designer for my front garden in the end and I'm happy with the low maintenance solution. She did 3 designs and I chose one.

I read about slugs online and will try my best to defend them!

I hope the bluebells multiply as they are gorgeous. I have only dug 1/3 of the border so far so any ideas welcome. I am after male and female varigated (sp) holly and some hydrangea-as a friend so loves them. I will even treat the soil to keep them blue. My husband wants some fern. But that still leaves a lot to get and this is getting expensive. I want our garden to have everything we love in it if we can.

 

[loveallthingsitalian]

WG great to hear about your new garden. It will be a continual battle and lots will fail but the ones which survive will leave you feeling like a contender for Chelsea! Speaking as one who never learns try to be patient and give things room to grow rather than filling it all from day one as you will spend a lot of time pulling things out when they are too big and have spoilt the shape of those beside them.

I have spent all weekend trying to get it in shape after the winter. Ache all over but feeling good and starting to throw off the winter blues.

Sweet pea are my favourites (in fact I would love a totally scented garden) for summer colour and smell.

I tried Delphiniums but had to give up as we are quite windy here and I couldn't win over than coupled with the slugs.

 

[Queen Bee]

I can't be doing with the flaaars woman and last night meehol was nearly up her backside. He was as ridiculous as her. They are fake flowers for gods sake!

my mum has a bunch of them that she bought last year, they don't look like anything special to me and yes they look real from down the hall but get close to them and you see straight off they are fake. I would hate the same arrangement to be in my room for months/years so i'd rather have nothing than a bunch of them.

 

[neelia]

i have loads of PF and I am delighted with them. There seems to be a variation in quality though judging from the reviews I have read in the past. The one I have have been the ones with excellent reviews - Maybe they make more effort re quality with TSVs.

 

[rainbowdottie]

Well I surprised myself and bought the TSV on auto delivery.I didnt expect to do that lol.I love the first 3 drops - particularly the summer and autumn drops and I shall probably cancel it after autumn as I wasnt totally in love with the christmas offering (dont particularly want another white drop - I would have loved a red offering or berries for christmas)

I have always been totally against fake flowers - I buy myself fresh flowers every week for about a fiver so for £20 a month thats an expense,I can live with.I did add up that 3 drops will cost me £120 so thats a bit eye watering.........however I'm having a problem with my fresh flowers!!!!!! The only place I really have for flowers are on my kitchen table.I love lilies the most.My dh moans all the time the smell is overpowering.my ds1 moans that when he moves them or slides them across the table,the pollen goes all over him,My ds2 hates flowers altogether - he hates the whole picture - the flowers are "dead" the water is "old" - hes totally convinced himself he can smell old water all the time.I even had a beautiful orchid that offended my ds2 when he was eating as all the roots were putting him off his food......so bu$$er the lot of them....I'm going fake!!!!

I did buy a peony tsv a couple of years back - a white orchid.I liked it but wasn't blown away - it wasn't anything I couldn't buy in "next" as an example.I didnt think it was worth the wait or the £££ paid.However I do say that everyone who comes to my house thinks its real.they even have to touch it.I did think to be able to justify this price of the TSV on autodelivery,I wont be able to buy any other flowers and would I be fed up - luckily in a way,I dont have that many places suitable for flowers in my house - but I do have to say I'm rather looking forward to receiving them!!

 

[grovesy]

Well as much as love my garden and flowers, I don't do flowers in the house. I get rhinitis so the dust they would attract is as bad for me.

 

[amn]

I'm not against fakes and have had Flores from Peony and Bloom in the past which have all been lovely, but I was looking at some peony displays in a shop last week and thought they seemed a bit tatty looking, I don't know if they've taken a downward turn in quality or they were just particularly bobbins ones. The ones I had a while ago were in a goldfish bowl type thing with foliage and removable / changeable flowers and it was really quite nice. I did, however, make the mistake of doing what they said you could do as an alternative - add some real water and ring the changes with real flowers - which within a week had made the pretendy water in the bottom of the bowl go a horrid dirty brown colour which looked disgusting and I had to throw the whole thing away. I've never bothered since.

 

[Crinkly]

I have bought one thing from Peony, but (generalising dreadfully from that one purchase!) the quality was nothing like as good as http://www.bloom.uk.com which has the most amazing things.

I've got a 15 year old, crimson triple bulb amarylis in a birch twig bowl. Fake. Stunning. Wows new visitors every time. I vacuum it and run it under the tap occasionally, and it is still perfect.

I'm not keen on fresh flowers (or 'real' xmas trees). It's murder. And watching them die miserably in the corner of a room is just sadism. I love house plants, and my place is full of spider plants (with great-grand babies), multiplying clivia, 11 year old phalaenopsis with 5 flower stalks and dividing peace lilies, but I won't have cut flowers, or anything doomed to a slow death in a vase.

 

[Crinkly]

Sorry folks, can't get the Bloom link to work.

 

[iloveshopping]

http://www.bloom.uk.com/
Very nice but some are pricey

 

[alter ego]

Crinkly - I always feel bad when fresh-cuts die. too. I prefer pots for this reason but am not very good at growing them so they look tatty. I can't bear to just throw them out so the house is full of alive-but-don't look-like-it flowers and this drives OH nuts! I wish I was green-fingered.

WG - we grow blueberries in pots and get a good crop every year. We keep them in pots as they need a different soil pH to most other garden plants. I happily water the garden with the hose, but the blueberries get watered from the butt. I was also told to get at least two different varieties. I'd love a garden overwhelmed by bluebells, but have not been lucky with them or lily-of-the-valley, though I've just tried them again. I will have another go at bluebells as I FINALLY have snowdrops - first ones this year!

I can't believe my anenomes have flowered throughout the winter and are currently giving a lovely display. My nasturtium that had started to wind its way around the base of the house only died last month! Anyone else had they plants last longer because of the mild weather this year?

ETA: we used nematodes against the slugs last year as we have a dog so didn't want to put pellets down, but needed to get rid of them because lungworm is rife in our area. They were very successful, but expensive.

 

[Weathergirl]

Thanks Alter Ego -nice to see your take on our flower choices. My daughter likes eating blueberries so we really planted it for her. We have a water butt too and surprise surprise it is full to brimming so we have been using that. The bluebells and Delphiniums have already grown and perked up really well.

 

[Crinkly]

Crinkly - I always feel bad when fresh-cuts die. too. I prefer pots for this reason but am not very good at growing them so they look tatty. I can't bear to just throw them out so the house is full of alive-but-don't look-like-it flowers and this drives OH nuts! I wish I was green-fingered.

Aha, Grasshopper, let me initiate you into one of the secrets of the universe -self watering plant pots

I kid you not.

Get thee to Amazon, search under 'self watering plant pot' and prepare to weep for joy.

They are 2 to 3 times the cost of a normal house plant planter, but they are worth their weight in gold. The brands I have are Lechuza, Ebertsanker (sp?) and Schumm. You can fill the water chamber with water and a splash of houseplant food and go tittupping off on your hols for 2 weeks. When you get back, the wee plants are healthier than ever. They are brilliant.

I was stunned to have a peace lily that had been sulking for 2 years, then I put it in one of these pots and the little darling has tripled in size and gleams with health.

I'm slowly repotting all my house plants into these gems - and simultaneously being smothered by jungle-like new foliage and lush blooms, in every room. Love it.

Oh, and blueberries definitely need rain water, or very soft water. I have killed 2 plants with hard water, and won't be trying again :mysmilie_51: