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Hi, introduction + question


Hello, everyone!

I have been lurking for a while, but have finally come around to introduce
myself properly.
I live in Stange, Norway in Norw. zone 4/5.

The house (and garden) are from 1932, and I'm sorry to say it has been badly
neglected over the last 5-10 years. This summer has been my first here, as
we moved in october last year and all I did then was throwing some bulbs
into the ground and plant a few herbs which I've brought from my previous
small garden before frost.

I had a goal this summer: To "clean up" the garden properly. From cutting
and thinning shrubs and such in spring, to weeding,
moving/replanting/dividing perennials... I am not near completion. The
garden consists of several areas:

- One area which can only be descibed as "wild, very wild" with a few dead
apple trees, one still alive, different fruit/berries like raspberry. I
managed to make a small strawberry patch (2,5x8m) last autumn but the weeds
have gotten the upper hand, so next year I'll lay down fiber cloth...

- I had sown some lettuce and tomatoes this year ( the latter will not
ripen, I think) and I'm planning a proper kitchen garden next year.

- There's an unkempt flowerbed around the house which I've literally have
dug into, I planted some poppy varieties (Siberian and oriental), a couple
of climbing roses (Flammentanz) and was happy to see quite a few lilium late
this summer. I've collected bulbils, and though it will take a couple of
years to see any result, I'm quite excited about it.

- I have a lot of trees, mostly birches, on the property. East and north
side of the house is very shady, some areas to the south too - we're
situated in a very "hilly" landscape, which slopes downwards from south-east
to north. I have a very small natural stream across the garden which I made
a small 3x2,8m pond in early this spring; thus getting "automatic
circulation". The bog area already had an old rhododendron which seems to be
doing nicely, it has a couple of huge ferns at the base of it.


- The rest of the garden is a rose bed, a couple of Rhododendrons, but
mostly weeds and some perennials. A few beautiful Dianthus, Astilbes,
siberian irises, campanulas, geums. A shady flower bed with "crazy
combinations" which I'm trying to clean up, *sigh*, there's 2 clematis
"president", some unknown roses, lily in the valley, dianthus etc which I
added some hostas to.

Well, I could go on and on, but I'll stop here - I am working on a homepage
about the garden, mostly to keep a sort of "diary" for myself, but when I'm
presenting it online, I'll let you know!

I'm wondering about something, though: When you have plants with various
coloured flowers (sown a "mixed collection"), like papaver rhoes "Shirley" -
If I mark the plants now when they are in bloom, and save the seeds from the
white or pink ones, can I expect the same colour as the mother plant from
the seedlings, or will the seeds I collect have mixed colours too??
I have places in my garden that would be nice to fill out with poppies, but
I don't want yellow or red poppies mixed with the pink/white/blue shades I
have there!!!

Best regards,
Iril

--------------------------------
Iril Kolle
Bjorkvang
2314 Espa
Norway
zone 4/5
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