European Gardening: calling all Irish gardeners, 1 by lortay

lortay wrote:
Hi Orange Blossom,
Sorry for the delay, I have been off work with illness, so just back.
Kerry is fantastic when you get the good weather in particular. Some good gardens down there too!
As regards your photos; I usually load directly onto the computer via the camera chip as it slots directly into the computer. Picasa is often free with Windows now or can be downloaded from Google.
The alternative is 'Flickr' the Yahoo based web sharing photo site. This is great as well because you can share photos, but also store them online. Search for 'Flickr'. Then search for 'Vincentdunne' or 'Plant Geeks'.
There are several forms of Lavandula stoechas, I now have 2 blue ones (un-named) and a paler one labeled as 'Milan Purple' which I think is false.
Sarcococca is really easy to grow once it settles in. For flower arranging, it depends a bit on the species. S. confusa is the one usually grown, but if you can get S. ruscifolia, it is even better. They need some shade and good rich soil to give their best.