Sparrow Attack!

23 Jan '06 9:25 pm

No, I'm not going out with a blunderbuss!
But every spring when the yellow candleabra primroses come out in my hosta bed the feathered varmints delight in plucking all the flowers! My twelve month wait brings to joy for about 24 hours. Does anyone suffer the same? BTW, yellow is my favorite colour for these plants and appears to be the only colour the birds go for!

24 Jan '06 11:10 pm

Oh, yes, dear Michael! I do suffer the same in late Spring, when I give added golden yellow colour to our garden. But the plants who are regularly...deadheaded by birds (which ones??) are called French Marigolds or Tagets. The mostly strange thing is, though, that only these yellow blooming plants suffer, and not the rest of them, who are many: like, Coreopsis/Teeckseeds, Day Lilies, Rudbeckias, Geums, Heleniums, and Roses, of course... And, also, this strange phaenomenon takes place only in Spring! Which means, that we still have some more lovely tagets in our garden for the rest of the good season!

In another post you referred to the lovely Agapanthus plant. You said , that in your garden they are hibernating right now, completely disappeared. Could you, please, tell me, if certain among your hardy Agapanthus plants belong to the "Headbourn" variety (appart from Bressingham Blue)? And why you prefer the Bressingham Blue variety?Because, I'm going to order some soon, and since we have hardiness zone 6-5 here in Belgium, I want to order really hardy ones. I just read , that the Headbourn variety is the hardiest one. And that only the first two winters they should be protected against frost. And , also, that all the hardy Agapanthus have much more narrow long leaves, who disappear every winter.

I want to congratulate you now, for the fine hard work, with such excellent results , that have taken place in your garden!

Till next time, ...happy gardening thinking!

27 Jan '06 7:49 am

Liza,
I do not have an exact figure of the number of Hedbourne cultivars I have. Such details are of little interest to me personally. "I like what I like".

In my experience the deciduous agapanthus are generally hardier than the evergreen cultivars. Both survive in my location. However, do beware of covering the plants with frost fleece so the fleece touches the plant. This is not good, because the fleece acts like a single-skin tent and the plant may rot underneath.

Do use fleece if your situation demands but ensure that the fleece does not touch your plants - the secret is to let air pass over the plant to remove any moisture.

Bressingham is lovely dark blue cultivar. But try to incled 'Trude' in your collection if the opportunity arises.

Let your new/small Agapanthus remain in a pot for their first winter with you and keep them dry. When you do eventually plant them out for the summer remember to bulk up some soil around them for the winter AND, JUST AS IMPORTANT remove the soil towards the end of spring - otherwise they will be very slow starters.
Hope this helps and good luck

27 Jan '06 9:58 am

It has been one of the most excellent -- precise and descriptive! -- gardening advice I've received in my life!!

And I'm going to protect all my baby Agapanthus plants the first two winters with tiny wooden cubes of Cocoa Plant, which are airy and protective, and have helped me a lot with some other perennials, like Coreopsis and Penstemons.

A huge thank you!

( I finally ordered -- after my beforewritten letter-- some of Headbourn blue hybrids, some of Johannesburg -light blue ones, and some of Chatto's Campanulatus-blue. Unfortunatelly , I didn't find the Trude ones, nor the Bressingham ones.
A huge "Thank you!", again! )

30 Jan '06 6:45 am

Michael,
Your gardens are beautiful. I spent several hours (literally) on your website and was mezmerized.

We have sparrows by the thousands here every spring and they go about looking for anyplace they can find to nest. We have an old trick here in farm country for keeping sparrows out of barns, sheds, garages, awnings, etc. that works very well. Hang something very shiny and reflective above the area you want to keep them out of. Typically the farmers will use aluminum pie plates... which are a bit unsightly. I've used small mirrors, hung in groups and it was very effective, and looked so much better. Anything reflective should work.

Sparrow Attack!

Sparrow Attack!

The yellow attractions...

Agapanthus follow-up for Liza

Thank you, Michael!