Thank you to whoever thought of "Off Piste"
Maybe the next time one comes around the rose should be in full bloom, it has two open now but they are not in the right place for this picture.
Montana Apple Blossom, planted May 1988 - again by my Mam. The trunk is so thick and wide - just like the current owner ð
PS: It gets a haircut and shave every other year otherwise it would have taken the whole place over.
Excellent. In the Clematis Society we used to refer to montanas as "thugs", as they grow almost beyond control. But they recover well from severe pruning.
Best one I saw was my mother in law's Montana by her front door; it was enormous, when it got chewed down by her son's retriever. Within a year it was almost back to where it was before!
Paddy
I couldn't even grow one of them!!!!!!
Have one growing through a Laburnum tree, not one flower...really struggling....have others too, they don`t like us!!
Do you keep the roots cool?
If not shelter them - look on the net and it will tell you how? Oh and give them a feed of special Clematis - just the once and see if they will flower. Laburnum that took me back to my childhood, when we were told, we would die if we ate, what looked like pea pods. So beautiful and so deadly just like other plants.
I had to get rid of my large potted one as dogs don't do well either. Some of the prettiest things are poison.
I think it depends on the soil. Ours is rubbish, so we dig a huge hole 18 inches deep and wide. Then we fill half and half with compost and John Innes no 3. Moisten well and mix in some manure. Then, hope for the best!! Not foolproof, but it generally works ok.
Paddy
PS: Or, use pots ( big ones). It's easier than all that digging!
Yes, we have acid/neutral soil, lovely and fine too.....Pots have got huge hostas in, must divide them!....I say "we" I instruct and watch!!..ð
Must do that to my neighbours clematis growing along my fence. It's two foot deep and they havent cut it back for years. I lo e it but it's trying to smoother everything in my garden
Best time to do it is after it has finished flowering.
Good luck
Paddy
Will wait till its finished flowering then. I don't want to kill the thing just tame it a bit. YBB
I use an electric hedge cutter - just takes 10 minutes - whizz............
And today I received a later birthday pressie - an electric weeder and have had some fun........
Very tempting, we have a hedge trimmer in the shed! Prob wait till they go out, cut it fence level and declare I have no knowledge of it!! ð
Wait till all the flowers have dropped off................enjoy
I am so useless I can only name things like Daffy's, bluebells etc. But it is beautiful.
You're just like me! I live practically in a forest at this time of year but I can't tell what the trees are, what birds are nesting under my eves, what plants are planted all round the gardens!
Something was very missing in my education!
I have little pocket guides in my bag on walks, but I still don't remember. My walking friend must get fed up of me saying what's that tree/plant/flower/bird called again.
My mum was a landscape gardener so got lectured on a lot of plants when younger and still remember s lot but when we moved here was stumped by some things in the garden. It's all flowered st least once so know whats here now. Just need to buy a couple if camelias, some peonies and want to get sone lupins.
Your post revived a funny memory. Moved to a new house and thought the plants coming up throughout the back flower bed were iris. But wondered why no flowers appeared. All turned out to be wild onions. ð
I thought there were irises in this garden and I dont like them but jinasc said to let everything grow until I was sure what I had and they turned out to be gladioli which i love.z
At least it wasn't stinking nanny. ðĪŠððĪĢð
Wild garlic.
I needed that definition. ð
Stinking nanny is ragwort - not wild garlic
wildfooduk.com/edible-wild-...
Wild garlic is used here a lot at this time of year in cooking - Barlauch, yummy.
In Yorkshire it was wild garlic. I was going to add it was a colloquialism!
Ragwort is also known as Stinking Willie 
It seems wild garlic is known as Onion Stinkers in Somerset and Devil's Posy in Dorset. Stayed on a Caravan Club site in the Lakes once - the entire wood was carpeted with wild garlic. Poor OH!!!
ððĪĢð I presume he hates garlic.
He does - can smell it even when there isn't any in the house!!!
Mine too!!
Off-Piste but helpful
