Orange Nasturtium Flower

Nasturtium leaves and flowers can be eaten. They can be added to salads to provide a splash of colour and add a peppery taste.

Yellow Nasturtium Flower

How to grow nasturtiums is featured in my How to Grow Herbs For Cooking eBook.

How To Grow Herbs For Cooking eBook For Sale Only £3.00

How To Grow Herbs For Cooking eBook is now on sale for all you keen gardeners and cooking enthusiasts that want to produce a herb garden or grow your own herbs for cooking.

At a cost of only £3 the How To Grow Herbs For Cooking eBook will provide you with information about:

• how to grow herbs,
• sizes of herbs,
• growing herbs in containers,
• when to plant the herbs,
• best location for planting,
• suitable soil types,
• when to harvest,
• how to preserve herbs and
• their culinary uses.

The How To Grow Herbs For Cooking eBook also includes a set of 21 herb growing cards which can be individually printed off and taken into the garden for easy reference.

How To Grow Mint Instructions

Purple Aquilegia Flowering Spring 2009

I have a purple aquilegia and a pink aquilegia in my garden. The purple variety is flowering at the moment. The large plant I had last year has not grown so big this year although I do seem to have some hens that like to scratch around in the flower beds so maybe this has disturb the large aquilegia. The plant in the picture is from seeds that I scattered last year.

What flowers do you like to see at the Chelsea Flower Show?

Click on the book image below to visit Amazon.co.uk to find out more about this book or visit one of the Farming Friends Bookshops.

Bluebells

The months of April and May are the time of year to see bluebells growing in the woodlands of the UK.

Bluebells

Bluebells grow well at this time of year as the leaves have not fully formed on the trees so the spring bulbs get enough light to grow.

Have you seen bluebells growing, if so where?

I have sown the following flower seeds:

• Alyssum – Carpet Snow – Hardy Annual.
• Delphinium – Pacific Giants Mixed – Hardy Perennial.
• Lobelia – Crystal Place – Half Hardy Annual.
• Nasturtium – Tom Thumb Mixed – Hardy Annual.
• Dahlia – Dwarf Double Mixed – Half Hardy Perennial.
• Hollyhock – Double Mixed – Hardy Perennial.
• Lupin – Russell Hybrids Mixed – Hardy Perennial.
• Mesembryanthemum – Mixed – Half Hardy Annual.

I have never grown nasturtuim and looking forward to this and also dahlias from seed as I have never had any luck with dahlias from tubers.

What flowers are you sowing at the moment?

In fact it is the only colour my garden seems to have at the moment.

What is blooming in your garden at the moment and what colours are lighting up your garden?

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Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As The Garden Grows for more information.

If you would like to grow jasmine then Thompson and Morgan supply jasmine.

pink sweetpeasI love the colours and the scent of the sweetpeas. I am delighted to say that the one’s Lucy sent me are doing really well and the flowers are growing up the canes and greet any passers by with their pretty colours of pink and red.

Do you have any flowers that bring back memories for you?

If you want to grow sweetpeas then Thompson & Morgan supply sweetpea seeds.

My mum loves these so I wanted to have a go at growing them from seed. I must say that they have done really well and I now have a garden full of the sun loving beauties.

One of the attractions of mesembryanthemums is that the flower heads open out in the sunshine. I am pleased to say that they have started flowering and I look forward to watching the orange and red flower heads open up their smily faces as the sun shines this Summer.

If you want to grow mesembryanthemums then Thompson & Morgan supply mesembryanthemum seeds.

Fresh Flowers

This little vase of fresh flowers has fragrant hyacinths, petite white daffodils and an unknown delicate white flower. I placed this little posy of flowers in the vase on my kitchen table and the hyacinths produced a wonderful fragrance that filled the room.

The pretty vase of flowers, the lovely fragrance and the knowledge that these beautiful flowers were a free gift from our garden has inspired me to continue to look for flowers that I can cut for the house. In the Winter you can always order flowers by post to get the same outdoors feel when your garden isn’t in full bloom.

I dedicate this post and the pretty posy of flowers to Fiona @ The Cottage Smallholder who gave me the inspiration to cut fresh flowers from my garden.

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Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As The Garden Grows for more information.

1. Are they on a vine?
   Looks quite a bit like some clematis to me.

   Comment by Teresa – April 20, 2008 @ 2:44 am

2. It’s a variety of Cistus, but I’m not sure exactly which one. Could be cistus chinamadensis or cistus parviflorus, but there are so many ‘bushy rock-roses’ that’s difficult to ID from a small picture. They grow on stony dry hillsides around the Mediterranean and similar places, so great for dry borders in full sun mixed with herbs like lavender or bushy varieties of thyme.

   Best wishes
   celia

   Comment by Magic Cochin – April 20, 2008 @ 6:12 am

3. I’m going with some sort of clematis. When does it usually flower?

   Comment by Mark – April 20, 2008 @ 3:56 pm

4. I would definitely agree with Celia. I’ve been looking for Cistus for quite some time in the nurseries as they are pretty hard to find ’round here but this year there’s quite a few out there and I’ve just got a pink one like that the other day and it very much reminds me of your mystery plant.

   Cheers!
   Violet

   Comment by Viooltje – April 20, 2008 @ 7:10 pm

5. I vote for Clematis, too!

   Comment by TopVeg – April 20, 2008 @ 9:36 pm

6. I think it looks like a clematis. Cistus flowers are usually more like old-fashioned roses (rounder petals).

   Comment by susi – April 21, 2008 @ 5:30 pm

7. I know it’s not a rose, but the bloom reminds me a lot of Mutabilis. Google some photos of it – the shades are very similar.

   Comment by nikkipolani – April 22, 2008 @ 5:23 pm

I have never grown lilies from seed so I look forward to seeing the results. I have just read on Soilman’s site that his seeds have germinated. I am going to head out to the greenhouse now to see what is happening to mine – I’ll let you know.

Thanks Soilman for the lily seeds and the excellent growing instructions.

If you would like to grow lily seeds then Thompson and Morgan supply lily seeds.