Long Mizzle Garden

 Hello m' stormy teacups, Seems like I've been working too hard lately. As my old kindly boss used to say each day at elevenses "Let's get our priorities right and put the kettle on" ...and get out into the garden! (I added that last bit) Long Mizzle is recovering from Storm Aurore. She whipped up the English Channel with a reported tornado and 60 mph winds. At one point, the Trachycarpus Palm was bent right over, the leaves almost touching the ground. A tree surgeon friend of ours tells us these were some of the only trees to survive the hurricane of 1987 (the one Michael Fish famously dismissed), on the estate he manages in Sussex. The lower leaves get incredibly scraggly looking, so I trimmed them off. Soon our ladder will be too short to manage this though.  Spot the new addition to the upper terrace? Give us the netball and move aside kids, watch and learn!   We were lucky -  the only damage really was some battered sunflowers and one toppled Aeonium pot. ...

 Hello m' spicy pasties, We spent last Saturday morning wandering through a triangular shaped field of Dahlias. Such was the assault of colour, it is amazing we ever made it out! If Dahlias were scented, I am certain we would simply have lay down and gone to sleep, like Dorothy in the poppy field, from the Wizard of Oz.  This is the National Dahlia Collection's first year at its new Cornwall base. Where previously it was down Longrock way (Penzance ), it has now arrived at Kehelland Trust, near Camborne.  It must have been quite a feat moving all 1700 cultivars! Thank goodness for the hard work by Louise Danks, her nice chatty dad and all the volunteers involved. I really could have taken a photo of every single bloom, so I had to restrain myself. Not all the plants are labelled yet, but where they are, the names are clearly written in white pen on a slate tile. Some I have tried to identify myself, so please do comment if you recognise any.   Dahlia - unknown D...

 Hello m' fiery crusts, With each growing season, it is fun to try something different at Long Mizzle. This year I thought I'd have a dabble with dry flowers. Technically all flowers can be dried, but some fare better than others. If hung upside down, nicely spaced in a warm, dimly lit place, they are more likely to retain their colour and shape.  As I am yet to erect a proper drying rack (or slung twig more like), some have started to festoon the living room druid tree - turned skeletor lamp shade.  Above: Statice (Limonium sinuatum) The Statice was very easy to grow, with lovely sturdy fluted stems and indigo flowers. The mutant molluscs seemed to leave it alone. I wish the same could be said of the Strawflowers - many young plants succumbed to the munching marauders. Aren't the papery flowers wonderful though !? Above: Strawflowers (Limonium sinuatum) In addition to the Cornflowers (Centaurea cyanus) and Love-in-a-mist (Nigella damascena), which self seed freely here, ...