Dear Charleen, it is great to have you here and Charley of course! Thank goodness for Cherie directing you this way, she is kind to us.
I have tree mailed you a couple of times and thank you for replying. We are in a drought here and losing shrubs all the time. It is hard to keep up with the tree ferns at the moment. They say that if it does not rain soon they will stop the water from the houses and we will have to get water in buckets from pipes in the road at certain times of day!
Not good at all.

Neil.
+ Phoenix.

That sounds horrid.

Absolutely horrible. Glad I don't live in England right now..................... Sorry Neil. I am spoiled. I want water at the turn of the fact handle Even more in my toilets. I would be really bent out of shape to say the least.

Bless your hearts,Neil. It is so bad to be dry. I hope your ferns can stay cool and moist enough to keep going. Can you use bathwater on them????
i am so glad I got Cherie to "Herd" me back HOME to visit you all my friends.....

Dear Charleen and Charley, everyone is at this address as we use this for plants etc. and cubits for general chat. http://cubits.org/Neil/thread/...
You can also get on this by clicking on my signature where it says British Gardening & Gardens.
Off to save some dishwater for the tree ferns!

Neil.
+ Phoenix.

Thank you, Dear Neil. I'm going over there...

What the drought has done to us!
My 7 feet tall Bottlebrush is now dead. This palm has had it.

This was a Clematis, but not now! What a lot of plants in the garden look like.

I have struggled to keep the tree ferns and Sarah's Japanese maples alive, but for how long now is anyone's guess.
One of my small tree ferns has new fronds coming out which has pleased me.


Neil.

I hope the ferns make it!! Sorry about your other plants....

my heart goes out to you and your plants. We may lose oour blooms yet. Prediction of hard freezes tonight tomorrow and friday.

So Neil, you are restricted from watering? So sad... I hope you don't lose any more!

Dear Brenda, they have reduced the pressure in the water pipes to not much. Hosepipes are banned and have been for a while.
They are asking you to take a shower not a bath, and one strange politician has come up with a new slogan "SHOWER WITH A FRIEND!"
This does sound interesting, but I do not think it will catch on, as you may get caught having a shower with someone you shouldn't be!
Driest winter and spring ever recorded. Ten days ago at the top of Scotland it was over 80F which is a record for them in the far north.
They were sunbathing until yesterday they woke up and had been snowed in overnight. Talk about crazy weather. Muriel has had rain, but she is in the midlands, the south is bone dry!

Neil.

Well, I am very sorry to hear that Neil. I am afraid I would be freaking out if I couldn't water my gardens! Hoping for rain to come your way!

We are dry, but not like that. When the rains return can you get seeds for bottlebrush somewhere. Not going to be 7 ft even if you can.

I would think the clematis will come back, they are very strong...

I would think so too, but, what do I know? lol

It is a tender evergreen Clematis that was hit by the frost then the drought! I watered it and got a few leaves back, but the frost hit it again.
I have scraped of a little of the skin and the top bit was dead. Cut it back and was hoping, but then when I checked the whole plant and it came out of the ground with dead roots. It really got hit this time.

Neil.

awwwwwwwwww darn it. your pics last year were so beautiful too.

Drat!

So sad...