There are only about 3 allium plants left from the 10 pots of sprouting bulbs I planted 3 years ago, which did really well in the first year. This is partly due to other plants overwhelming them – fair enough. Also, I let the plants go to seed, because the seed heads look very attractive. A gardener at the National Botanic Garden said they will become weaker if you don’t dead head. The solution is to plant fresh each year. I’ll try planting some bulbs myself in pots or troughs this summer, and plant them out next spring.

I’ve fed these pots with tomato fertiliser. When the foliage has died down I could

1. Lift the bulbs, dry them, and store them in the garage.
2. Plant herbs or alpines over the bulbs and display as normal.
3. Stack the pots with planks between the rows.

I haven’t got room to just leave them where they are.

The wisteria is producing no flowers yet, but it’s shape is much better.

The euphorbia is big, and will need to be cut back soon. See what I did last year.

The acer was the plant most affected by the recent high winds. Will it recover this year?

The bay looks much better now I’ve cut quite a bit off the top.

The cistus in F2 has flopped right over, but is flowering well.

I have two yellow flowered brugmansias which have been in these pots for 3 or 4 years. They needed watering at least twice a day last summer. They’ve been kept in the garage since last autumn, and lightly watered occasionally.

The RHS recommended root pruning.

They came out of their (plastic) pots easily, and I sawed off the fine roots around the edges and the bottom. The soil and roots cut off half filled the pot, which was perhaps a bit more severe than I intended. We’ll see what happens

The large pink lacecap in B2 against the E fence was very heavily pruned. The idea is to make it appear to grow up the fence.

‘Bluebird’ got a bit tall last year. Hopefully, I’ve cut it low enough this year.

The white mophead in F3 was unproblematic.

I’ll cut it back harder in future years when it’s a bit stronger

This is grown for the silvery bloom which develops on the stems over winter. The stems from the year before last were brown and uninteresting. I cut everything right back. I’ll try to train it sideways a bit more this year.

There are three plants right at the front. (Actually four, but the closest two are effectively one.) They’re too big and too uniform, although I love their flowers and their toughness.

I’ve tried to treat the three clumps in three different ways.

The one in the middle has been cut to the ground, and some plants from the National Botanic Garden planted around it on 30th March – possibly temporarily.

The other two have been cut back to a better size. The one on the left has also had about a third of the thick old stems cut to the ground.

These Cardoons have grown a lot since being planted last summer, particularly in B1, so I lifted one and put it in a pot in the front.

5 Apr 19: It took a bit of a hit, but is looking fine in the pot. I’ll think about planting it out somewhere at the front.

Ladders adequate, if rather wobbly. I’d rather not rest the top of the ladder against the gutter. This shouldn’t be necessary in the future if I do this cutting back every year. It’s hard to tell which way the stems are growing, so there may be some orphaned stems.

19 May 19

Could this rather bare (of flowers) patch, just where I had the ladder, be due to this late cutting back? Get both clematis monata out of the eaves after they’ve flowered this year.