GPE 2023 : Mago's Garden Com Post

 Ah, you're right on time for...

 

M A G O:

 

Where No Plant Has Gone Before

 

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I snapped some photographs last night [Hallowe'en, spookily enough - IDV]:

 

GPE 2023 : WOW, DINAH, YOU LOOK GLAM!!

My "garden" here is still very much in its beginning stage! says Dinah, as she's only recently moved house.  But I'll rake up a few things...

 

 D I N A H M O W

 

does

Beginnings and

Borrowed Views

 

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Because my "proper" garden is not yet established, I'm going to cheat with some of the borrowed view!  So there!

A native Eucalypt (nope! don't have the full name)

GPE 2023 : Mitzi Couldn't Give A Fig

 Ah, here you are!  Welcome to the sixth garden of the Infomaniac Garden Photos Event tour.  I hope you brought that bacon rind I mentioned in the previous post? 

 Right, strap in - here we go:

 

M I T Z I' S

 

Unnatural Beauty

 

☙❧

 

Hello Mr D, I hope I'm not too late for this year's garden extravaganza. Sadly I won't be able to reply to any comments as I'm going away tomorrow [Saturday 28th Oct - IDV], if you wouldn't mind letting the hoi polloi know, I would hate them to think of me as haughty.

Love Mitzi.

[Disregard the above: Mitzi's back off her hols now - IDV]

 

An upright fuchsia called Jubilee something or other, Jon will know. A cutting taken from the garden centre.

GPE 2023 : Mooning About with Maddie

On stage at the Infomaniac Garden Photos Event tonight are:

 

the Bootilicious Blooms

of

M A D D I E

 

T H E

M I S T R E S S   B O R G H E S E

 

☙❧

 This is my selection for this year.  I continue to be pleasantly surprised by how nice everything did considering I still don't know what I'm doing.  Some of the gardens are still things my father had done when he was alive.... but much of the garden is fairly new beds with a little bit of everything.

 

A few pictures from spring...

Columbines

 

GPE 2023 : Ms Scarlet is a Big Pink Bush Tease!

 Ah, how lovely to see you all again!  This time on the Infomaniac Garden Photos Event we have:

 

M S   S C A R L E T' S

Abundance of Blossom

(as well as her infamous Big Pink Bush, of course).  I will pass you over to Ms Scarlet to introduce her garden photos:

 

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 You will notice that Devon had an abundance of blossom in Springtime - Cherry blossom, and soooo much Hawthorn.

 I have included a tease of my big pink bush, along with a couple of pots of pansies. And then there are several arty photos of my hydrangeas.

 The hot spell in late September has given me a little crop of strawberries, which is very odd - the bonus being that I don't think there are any birds around to eat them if they ripen.

GPE 2023 : Jon's & Madam A's Stars of the Seasons

The Infomaniac Garden Photos Event is proud to present Jon's and Madam Arcati's:

 

Garden Festival

at

D O L O R E S

D E L A R G O

T O W E R S

 

☙❧

 

Rosa "Veilchenblau"

 

 After the horrors of the Great Freeze in December 2022, when we had more than a week of frosts down to -8C/-17.6F (during which we lost all the Pelargoniums, both Eucomis, all the upper growth on the Cordyline, some Fuchsias, some Aquilegias, some Dahlias, some ornamental Cyclamen and an Agapanthus), one might have hoped for an improvement - but hell, no. We had mizzly, grey, chilly weather for weeks and weeks, culminating in torrential rainstorms all through March and April, which meant that time spent in the garden was intermittent, but at least the Daffodils, Tulips, Ipheion, Snowdrops, Crocus, Violas, hardy Cyclamen, Forget-me-Nots and Aubretia were all there to cheer us up!

 As were the "stars" of the season:

GPE 2023 : Melanie explains the Birds and the... Bears?!?

 Our second stop on the Garden Photos Event tour is at ProximaBlue's (AKA Melanie Reynolds):

 

Plenty of Pitchers at

 

M E L A N I E'S

Garden Party

 

Plant Entries:

Pitcher Plant: I was so excited to get my first pitcher plant flower. It was a bit tricky to get a good picture of it though since it stands up so far from the rest of the plant.

GPE 2023 : Shiny Peenee

Welcome to the first stop on 2023's Infomaniac Garden Photos Event tour:

 

the Green Accented Apartment of

 

M R   P E E N E E

 

As with previous GPEs, I'll be taking a back seat and letting the gardener talk us through the subjects of their garden photos.  As long as they provided enough - or any - captions, that is.  Which Peenee did fortunately, so I'll pass you over to him: 

 

 After years of having a large, meandering garden, I moved into an apartment with absolutely no exterior space. I resisted potted plants inside because it just seemed sad after all that time fighting the good garden fight. But lately, I decided to take advantage of the big windows here and have taken on a few inside plants.

 

I've always liked asparagus ferns and this one has returned my feelings by thriving.

Go girl.

The Infomaniac Garden Photos Event 2023

 To those who made it through the Terrifying Triffidery pre-show relatively unscathed* - and to those who sensibly avoided it - welcome to the 13th annual Infomaniac Garden Photos Event!

 This year the totally non-binding and entirely voluntary theme is wildlife and we have quite a few creepy-crawlies in amongst the foliage and flora for you to cast your eyes upon - as well as one or two rather larger specimens! 

 But before we begin, a big thank you to everyone who has submitted photos - and to those who have yet to do so but will do in the next few days (there's bound to be at least one - maybe two?) - without you, there would be no Garden Photos Event. 

 And big thanks also to The Very Mistress for allowing me to continue with the GPE in her stead.

 Speaking of, the first garden photo that was submitted this year - which does include wildlife - was from The Very Mistress herself: 

 

 And here's what she had to say about it:

GPE 2023 : Terrifying Triffidery

Hello, and welcome to the Infomaniac Garden Photos Event's Hallowe'en show:

 

Terrifying Triffidery!

 

 As with previous years, please make your way around the various specimens and, if the mood strikes you, try and guess what each triffid mutated from and which of the Blogorati propagated it.  Not everyone who's taking part in the main event submitted a triffid, so to make things a bit easier for you, those who did are listed on the poster above-

 Which I spent the best part of yesterday making!

 You'd never have guessed he watched Psycho recently, would you?  Anyway, as I was saying, not everyone submitted a triffid, and some of those who did sent in more than one, so you may have your work cut out for you.  The Host has labelled each specimen, so you just need to mention the number in the comments when making your guess rather than trying to describe the hideous things.  And don't get too close to the triffids during your inspections lest we have to cut you out of them!  Speaking of:

 Due to some missing limbs - and indeed whole persons - during last year's show, Health & Safety have insisted on the employment of some sort of security guard-cum-triffid wrangler.  So, I made some enquiries and garnered the services of Gavin the Gardener who, according to Peenee's pictorial review, has some experience with triffids. 

 Don't let his beautiful, vacant face give you pause - just look at those monstrous arms: they are almost as terrifying as the triffids!  With my own eye I have witnessed Gavin grapple a triffid of great girth to its exhaustion, whereupon it promptly covered the poor young man with some sort of thick, sticky excreta.  I assure you, he is well up to the task at hand.

 

 Now, before you set off on the tour, here's a musical accompaniment in the form of Bright Light x2 with "Down to One" which first caught my ear and eye at Jon's.

 If you stay behind the velvet ropes and don't dilly-dally at the exhibits, I'm sure the song's video won't be prophetic...

☙❧

T #1 : Overseeing the proceedings is this long-eared owl.

At least, I think that's what it is?

Garden Photos Event Final Warning

 

the House of

I N F O M A N I A C

Garden Photos Event

 

opens on 1st November,

but not before we've hosed down and cleared up after Hallowe'en's

Terrifying Triffidery

So, for those of you taking part, please email me your photos by Saturday 28th October* (my blog's email address is in my Blogger profile on top of the Sideboard on the right there).  Everyone is welcome, from Infomaniac Bitches of yore, to newcomers, friends-of-friends, and lurkers.  More information can be found in the previous post, but if you have any questions, please ask away in the comments.

Oh, for fu-  Ignore Bitey, look at the lovely blue cornflowers.

☙❧

* But, because I am a soft touch, as long as some of you send in your photos by then, the rest of you lallygaggers can have a bit longer.  But not much longer, mind!  I have things to do, and I don't want to be curating photos all the way through November.

(I'll leave it up to you to decide who's going to be in my good books by getting their photos in on time, and who will earn under-my-breath mutterings and a spectacular eye roll come 29th October.  Or later.  Almost certainly later.)

 

See you all next week!

Garden Photos Event Countdown

 

D A N G E R !

the House of

I N F O M A N I A C

Garden Photos Event

 

WILL DETONATE GO OFF IN T-MINUS 10 MINUTES 30 DAYS!

 

 

 Or something less dramatic.

 

 So, anyway, yes, it'll soon be Garden Photos Event time so I hope you've all been taking photos of how your expansive grounds | bijou courtyard | overgrown wilderness | rampant houseplants | tasteful city garden | impenetrable jungle | potted paradise [delete as applicable] has grown over the year, as I'll want your carefully curated selections - along with verbose or terse captions - in my in-box by Saturday 28th October, please.  

 If you've managed to capture on film any visting non-domestic fauna (however big or small) to your garden please include those photos as well, as the (entirely voluntary) theme this year is Wildlife.  More information about this can be found in the previous GPE reminder, here.

 And remember also to include a photo or two of a particularly spooky plant in your collection - or, failing that, a rather more mundane plant which has been snapped at an odd angle/close-up/while drunk - for the GPE preview Terrifying Triffidery on the 31st.

 This blog's gmail address for sending your photos & captions into is in my profile on top of the Sideboard over there.  Or, if you have the Host's personal hotmail address, you can use that instead.

 

 Right.  Let's have a look at some photos from Allotment Device to get you in the mood, shall we?  

 

Some of the various allotment visitors/permanent residents

(and, yes, the common black diving beetle is in a bath)