My website

[The Gardener]

Well, as nobody else seems to want to be first - I'll do the honours!  My website is called A Flower Arranger's Garden, and the URL is http://www.thegardener.btinternet.co.uk  Basically, it's a diary of what's happening in my garden each month, with lots of pictures of plants which are looking their best at the time and a description of the plant. There's a gallery of pictures of the garden, the water garden and the "new" garden (an extra bit we bought in 2003). Archives go back to 2000. There's also a flower arranging section with hints and tips for flower arranging, and a gallery of 200+ flower arrangements to browse.

[ideasguy]

Thanks for gettting the ball rolling, Chrissie.

Quite a few Ideas Genie users have web sites, so perhaps others will now follow suit.

[ideasguy]

Chrissie has posted the April 06 Garden Diary folk. Get along there and check it out.
http://www.thegardener.btinternet.co.uk/diaryapril06.html

I see a lovely photo of Brunnera 'Jack Frost' on that page. Those leaves are just so gorgeous.
Have you any photos taken from a little further back on the plant Chrissie?
I've always meant to buy 'Jack Frost' or Brunnera macrophylla 'Hadspen Cream'
Thanks for reminding me.

[The Gardener]

Yes George - here's a nice one............

[ideasguy]

The photo on your web site:
http://www.thegardener.btinternet.co.uk/diaryapril06.html
shows the little "forget-me-not" type flowers Chrissie, but the photo you've posted here shows just how exquisite the foliages is. Its a real beauty.
Hey, the photo is very very good quality!

I visited your web site today and caught up on the May and June 06 diary.
For our Master database, what colour would you enter for Arum italicum 'Chameleon'?

Trochodendron aralioides and Thermopsis caroliniana in May. Gosh, you have some unusual plants, Chrissie.
I wonder if any other members grow those?

Glad I reviewed that plant! I had it in the Master database as Trochodendrum. Just fixed it, so OK for next issue folk!

I note that you grew Thermopsis caroliniana from seed. Its listed in Chilterns Seeds catalog folk !!!

June:
Love those new clematis!I think if I had a choice of only one, I'd pick Crystal Fountain. Its just gorgeous!
I like that Senna didymobotrya  and for foliage Diphylleia cymosa looks real good.

Going back to March, those black Hellebore orientalis are really nice. Where/how did you sow the seeds? Outdoors?
I have no luck in growing Hellebores. I lie - my Hellebore corsicus self seeds in abundance. But, my H.niger and H.orientalis are real prudes.

Then I had a look at "About me" and saw your photo. Its nice to put a face to an email!
The last photo on that page showed you on one of your plant hunting trips, I recall?

Great photos Chrissie. Keep up the good work!

Edited to say - Hi IGC Members - take a minute to post a message on Chrissies guestbook. We all need encouragement!

[The Gardener]

I'd call the flowers of Arum italicum 'Chameleon' pale chartreuse I suppose! 

The seeds of Thermopsis did indeed come from Chiltern Seeds - I remember that now.  Because they don't have pictures in their catalogue, I read all the descriptions and picked out those which sounded interesting!  That was one of them! 

Growing Helleborus from seed is really easy, but the seed must be fresh.  What I did was to get a pot of well-drained compost (add some grit), put a layer of grit on the top, then sow the seeds into the grit.  (Everything germinates in grit - especially if it's on your drive or patio.........!) Add another light layer of grit, then water in well and put the pot somewhere out of the way where the birds or mice won't exhume the seeds.  Leave the pot out where it will get plenty of frost over winter, and the seeds should come up like grass in the spring.  My Helleborus orientalis tends to seed about in the garden.  I've got quite a lot of small seedlings around some of the larger plants.  I'm especially pleased with a greeny-yellow one which I collected seed of to grow on.  One of those flowered for the first time this year, and it's the same beautiful unusual colour as its parent.

The photo of me was taken at the Chelsea Flower Show last year where I was reporting for Floral Design Magazine.  So it wasn't really a plant hunting trip, more a work trip!  Went to Chelsea again this year, and to Hampton Court, where I bought some goodies.....  I bought Colocasia esculenta 'Black Magic' (lovely dark leaves), Butomus umbellatus 'Rosenrot' with much deeper pink flowers than the species, Aloe striatula, which is supposed to be hardy, but we shall see...... and finally, a super water plant which I'd never heard of before called Echinodorus macrophyllus.  It has big foliage (macrophyllus) and nice white flowers, and looks very tropical.  Not very hardy unfortunately, but I just had to have it.

[ideasguy]

Very interesting!!

You've convinced me - I'm going to give them a go again. They are such lovely plants, and theres a wide offering in the Helleborus orientais species to please any plant collector. I'll try that grit technique.

I hope you enjoyed your "work" at Chelsea 
Is the article on-line? Have you a link to the article?

OK. reply took a couple of days, until I found time to research your new plants!
Colocasia esculenta 'Black Magic' is a very interesting plant!
I spotted these huge leaves in a photo sent to by Wayne (an IG user from N Carolina, USA)
I asked what it was, and - its a variety of your plant.
Heres one of the photos from Wayne:

[The Gardener]

I'm afraid there's no article on Chelsea online at the moment.  The magazine I work for is only interested in the floral art, not the plants (!), so that's what I was there to photograph.  They will be putting some of the flower arrangements from Chelsea in future editions of the magazine.  There's a print edition and an online edition, but you have to subscribe before you can read!  www.floraldesignmagazine.com for more info.

I'm really jealous of Wayne's garden!  Those wonderful Colocasias, and the purple Ricinus communis, and all those wonderful coloured Coleus - oops, sorry, we have ro call them Solenostemon now!  I wonder if he has to bring them all in for the winter?

[ideasguy]

Ive sent an email to Wayne and invited him here, Chrissie. Hope he joins us!

How are you going to find space for all thiose plants??

I'll be returning to this thread as I check out your other new acquisitions. I only got to the second one 

I visited floraldesignmagazine. Gosh, Its got a lot of things going there!

I have to say Ive always been interested in flower arrangements. I was THE only man at one demo in a local hall. However, the demonstrator was a guy. I really enjoyed it, and scribbled notes the whole way through. There were some LOVELY and unusual flowers being used, so it was well worth the embarassment just to see those gorgeous things.

Do you find its mostly women in your associations?

[The Gardener]

In my experience, it's usually women in the audience at the smaller demonstrations in local clubs.  There are a few men at the larger demonstrations though.  However, there are a lot of men demonstrators, and even more men florists - and they're jolly talented too!