Pruning, and getting over the fear of it
Why most people prune too timidly, where to actually make the cut, and the three plants I'd leave well alone this month.
A Little Bird project
Flowers of Tawa
A garden in Tawa, photographed through the year — and a podcast rambling about what's growing in it.
Tawa is windy, the soil is clay, and the garden still manages to be full of flowers. This page is where I keep track of it — what’s out this month, photographs as things open, and The Garden Ramble, a podcast recorded while wandering around with a mug of tea.
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In bloom · September
What's flowering right now
Updated as the garden changes. Anything marked in bloom now is out this month.
Hellebore
Helleborus orientalis
Nodding under the deciduous shrubs — best viewed by lifting a flower.
In bloom now
Camellia
Camellia japonica
The old hedge camellia; drops petals like confetti.
In bloom now
Daffodil
Narcissus
Naturalised in the lawn — mowing waits until the leaves yellow.
In bloom now
Magnolia
Magnolia soulangeana
Buds furring up now.
In bloom now
Bearded iris
Iris germanica
Lilac and deep purple; rhizomes baking in the sun.
November, December
Lavender
Lavandula angustifolia
Loud with bees by December.
November, December, January, February
Dahlia
Dahlia
Dark purple 'Thomas Edison' is the pick of them.
January, February, March, April
Japanese anemone
Anemone hupehensis
Spreads happily — a gift to anyone who asks.
February, March, April
Gallery
Flowers of the garden
Photographs from the Tawa garden — some grown from seed, some inherited, all a bit windswept.
Bearded iris
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Bearded irisIris germanica
Hellebore
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HelleboreHelleborus orientalis
Lavender
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LavenderLavandula angustifolia
Dahlia 'Thomas Edison'
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Dahlia 'Thomas Edison'Dahlia
Magnolia
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MagnoliaMagnolia soulangeana
Japanese anemone
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Japanese anemoneAnemone hupehensis
Drop photos into assets/img/flowers/ and list them below to add them to the gallery.
The Garden Ramble
Podcast
The Garden Ramble
A slow, unscripted wander around the garden — what's flowering, what's failed, what I'd do differently. Recorded outdoors, birds and all.
Episodes
Everything I killed in my first year
A wander past the failures — the wrong plant in the wrong place, drowned pots, and what the garden was trying to tell me.
Starting a garden in the wind
Tawa's microclimate, shelter planting, and the first things I'd put in the ground on a windy site.
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