Erodium Fran's Delight

This delightful plant arrived in the post in January 2019 from Potterton Nursery.  I had not grown it previously and probably it had been added to the order to make up numbers.  Since being planted that year in the gravel garden it has never failed to delight continuing in flower under autumn.  Here it is in May 2022.

Erodium Fran's Delight was raised by plantsman John Anton-Smith from Cheltenham and introduced in 1991, and named for one of his gardeners.

Perhaps it is the dead heading which encourages it continue flowering for so long.

Writing about this plant  in August 2022:

 "I'm not sure whether to be happy or fed up that this plant on the corner of the gravel garden just doesn't know when to stop flowering. I'm happy that it is the longest flowering plant in the garden, starting in the spring, and flowering until very late in the autumn. Erodium Fran's Delight never fails to please.

A weekly task of dead heading required attention before the sun creeped round. 

I dead headed early in the morning during the scorching days about once a week during the peak flowering period,  which leaves the plant tidier and ready for more flowers to be formed. Since this is from one week, it does give an indication of the ver floriferous nature of this erodium.

In September 2022 the plant was outgrowing its allocated space and was subjected to a drastic cut back.

 At the time I wondered whether it would survive.   I held my nerve and it did grow back.  

Before I attempted this, a made sure there was  a rooted cutting which was growing on well. 

I am delighted to say that this plant in its fourth year in the garden is summer ready even on this damp April day. 

Six on Saturday - 23 July 2022

 What a week of fluctuating temperatures: they were well into the mid thirties during the earlier part and now they are back to early twenties..  The fields have turned a straw like colour and I shall probably have to cut back several of the perennials such as the Thalictrum.  I may well have to find out plants that will withstand this summer dry too, as I have neither the resources, aka watering systems,  or the time to water the whole garden. Tubs have been watered of course. I expect that Jon and most others will have a similar view, but I know it hasn't been the same for all gardeners, and you and I can read all about the week in our gardens by following the link:  https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/2022/07/23/six-on-saturday-23-07-2022/

Let's get on with Six things from the garden this week, and a little from the kitchen and a special outing.

1. First pickings from two tumbling tomato plants: they growing together in a 30cm pot on the patio, which is not smooth with paving stones or such like, but a deep gravel area.

The skins are a little tough, but were delicious roasted with some marjoram, and  with a little olive oil salt and pepper. I used them make a topping with garlic butter made from garlic and parsley from the garden, for some flatbreads. The butter had oven roasted garlic as well as fresh garlic. Enough here for many servings.  I shall cut into slices and freeze, ready for taking individual slices out of the freezer.

2. When the morning temperature dipped I just had to get out to do a little 'soil play', and made up a new 'Alpine Bowl gardens'

Saxifraga 'Pink Melba', Hebe buchanania minor, Potentilla nitda rubra all came together in a small bonsai pan to form a miniature garden this week.  I pinched a piece of the Pink Melba from the bowl I made earlier this year. I also added the little Cyclamen purpurascens but having checked up on its needs, it will most probably have to come out again as it requires deep shade and the others sun! I'll let it settle in and watch it, and it if looks stressed I'll move it to another grouping.  Ha!  Now I need to make a mini garden for a shaded situation, and I thought I had no projects to move onto!

The other little miniature garden I made earlier this year  had one little plant die on me, because I think I had overwatered.  Since then I've added a few bits from existing clumps of plants in the garden, and for now I am very happy with it.

3. Some more soil play again, but one involving water and 'mud',  Just the way to keep cool. I have a succulent that needs potting up, and I had in mind a studio pot by Jacky Ardens that currently has a Pelargonium Ardens growing in it. The plant had been in since May 2019, and I thought it would have been ready for a repot and soil refresh.   I had never seen, with my own eyes in the flesh, the root system for this Pelargonium, and had not realised that the whole of the tuber occupied the pot. Sadly the trowel damaged the edges...

Last time I had a pot bound cyclamen I had to smash the pot. So when the pot is more valuable that the plant, it is a real tussle to remove the root when it is this big.  In the end I washed out most of the soil, then had to remove a few of the lobes to get the root out using a long bread knife.

I already have last years cuttings in bloom, and have taken cuttings from the top growth on this one. So I am discarding the root.  I have another pot which will be even trickier to empty as the shape turns inward. This link to a video shows propagating P. Ardens  very clearly.  I remember watching this some time ago, when I was wanting to take cuttings, but I stopped the video before the pot was emptied and root cuttings taken, so I hadn't clocked about the huge tuber.  

4. The Nasturtiums are doing very nicely in the heat.  Some I have already uprooted as I was clearing the area of 'fazzled' hardy geraniums. This nasturtium has different shaped leaves and flame shaped petals, which resemble the Phoenix Strains.  The seeds were collected from the floor at a favourite garden a little way from here, there is no variation in colour all are this orange,  I have a few other types of nasturtium growing around the garden, some dark, others pale with spotted leaves.  I love them all.

5. This poppy is also giving me much joy at present.  

I admired it in a friends garden, and was given a little plant. I've looked it up and it is probably Papaver rupifragum var. atlanticum.  No wonder it is thriving in the heat see the full description on Plant World Seeds. I particularly think we need more plants that can cope with the current conditions in our gardens.

"You can forget to water it for weeks and it will still bloom! This incredible perennial poppy comes from the hot, dry areas of Spain and Morocco."

6. Thinking about dry gravel gardens and the little plants I bought after visiting Beth Chatto's Garden last autumn, the diminutive Limonium bellidifolium is a current favourtie there. Very difficult to photograph, but for sheer elegance caught in the early morning, it is my current 'bestest' plant in that area. The colour is maybe a little bleached in the early morning light, but it is the form of both the flowering stems and the rosette  of leaves that I particularly liked. I've since observed that the flowers close at night and gradually open during as the sun hits it.

That spot of orange in the background come from those poppies just mentioned before.

Yesterday I visited THR's garden on a trip no pictures permitted, and they had guards with very sinister looking riffles (of course to protect the lovely garden), so no seeds were picked up there, but I came back with some ideas for a couple of pea varieties: a good Mangetout 'Norli' which was half the height or less of the ones I grew this year, and pea Rondo and with no label but checking on Claire Austin's shop, a good  bright achillea  'Paprika', or maybe it was 'Funcke'  again a very drought tolerant plant.These are extras I realise, but just as much as for showing and sharing this weekly post very much serves as a reminder to myself.

Instant Garden - In a Bowl

 I was delighted that one of my favourite stalls at the market had returned.  Graham  from Tadham Alpines often brings a good selection of alpines.  He didn't have quite the full range, but non the less I chose a few plants, and three ended up being planted in an empty bowl.

The three pieces stone was collected as samples when the Geology group visited Doulting Quarry a few weeks ago.  Saxifraga anglica Grace Farewell is the one with longer stems at the top of the picture. The one of the right with the open pink flowers is Saxifraga 'Pink Melba', I've not grown these type of Saxifrages before but I am learning. The little grey leaved plant is Anternneria dioica alba sometimes called 'pussytoes'.

I may have made a mistake with these as they all need slightly different light/sun regimes, but I'll keep a close eye on it move them out in some shade if the sun gets too hot, but it would be easy enough to slip in a different plant if necessary. 

In a Vase on Monday

The Mexican bush Sage: Salvia Leucantha probably Purple Velvet is the sole subject in a little cut glass vase.  This plant arrived late last year in a giffy bag, from one of my SOS friends.  With attention to its needs, and a little warmth, it made its way through the winter and was planted out in May.  After waiting patiently the shrub is now in full flower, and I challenge anyone to walk past without carressing its purple fluffy flowers.

With its white woolly stems it is a great plant, but it is tender.  A few soft wood cutting have been taken, and I hope to take a few more of the heavier stems in a week or two.  This is a late flowering Salvia and although it showed some colour over the last two or three weeks, it is now an absolute picture.

How do you capture the soft velvety texture? Now that colour in velvet would make a fabulous winter evening dress just the colour of my Amethysts.

I am sure there will be arrangements of garden grown plants to be enjoyed over on Cathy's blog: Rambling in the Garden.

 

Beginner's mistakes or luck when choosing snowdrops

 Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and given a selection of snowdrops I go for the ones that make me smile.  I am not a collector or galanthophile, nor have the sort of brain to hold all the differences, but maybe that comes as a result of years of study and observation. It is the cultivation and care that I enjoy. 

 With all the zooming going on, it has been a bonus to be able to join in with lectures and to this effect, I have now joined in with the Galanthus arm of the Hardy Plant Society, after hearing about the talk on Saturday by Anne Repnow all the way from Germany.

I went to collect my order from a local grower, and having viewed the snowdrops picked up a couple more plants.  How could you not?

One snowdrop which really appealed when I saw it, but it was not on my list.  It was also too cold and wet to get my book out.   I could not remember why it rang a bell.  I had read up about it, that I remember, but I could not remember its details.  Its name was Galanthus Jacqunetta, and it was indeed a fine one.  But is it Jacqunetta?  Jacquenetta on the left and Hippolyta  on the right side by side.

Hippolyta is flowering with shorter leaves and Jacquetta has a longer stem.

The plant labelled as Jaquenetta on close inspection the flower does not appear to resemble any pictures I have seen, as it lacks the green markings on the outer petals.  I wonder whether it has been mislabeled: by that I mean the labels being mixed up?  If any one recognises it it would be much appreciated, if you would post your suggestions below.

Galanthus Hippolyta

"One of the last to appear, but one of the best, beautifully formed, rounded bells, filled with neat, green edged petticoats. One of the Greatorex doubles. When established makes two flowers per bulb. 20 cm"  the Description on Beth Chatto's site is a clear description of the flowers on the pot on the right.

The reason the name Jacquenetta was familiar is that it is one that Anne may have a spare bulb come the summer.  I am hoping Anna will be able to compare the one I bought with hers.  

Cyclamen repandum, Galanthus S Arnott, Zwanburg, plicatus and Elfin have also been added to my collection. I hope they will all be good doers.

Six on Saturday 30 January 2021

Time again for Six on Saturday in a week when I could write about six types of weather, but that would be too boring, and your brain may fog over.  Don't despair The Prop will have gathered several of us and no doubt we shall hear from gardeners several hopefully from some who have had better weather.

(1) It was very cold start of the week: cyclamen coum brought a spot of colour as the blooms poked up above the meagre sprinkling of snow. This couldn't help but bring a smile to my face.

The auriculas Nessun Dorma ought to brought under shelter to keep away from the wet?

If these had not been  brought  under shelter as well as all the other small pots, they would have most probably been washed out of their pots: the rain on Thursday night and during Friday was the heaviest I had seen.  We have more of this to come today!

(2) By the middle of the week, the weather became unusually warm.  Windows in the house and the conservatory were opened, and this gardener could not just sit on her hands.  The old tatty gasteria was in imminent danger of being thrown out.  It had worked its way to the back door ready to be thrown out.  Of course it has once been loved, and had been potted in an old hand-thrown terracotta pot,.  

On one of my forays before the times of being able to locate nurseries on the internet, and the era of 'Garden Centres' as we know them today, I came across an old nursery.   It wasn't so neat and tidy, but it grew plants.  It had  stock plants from which it grew seasonal plants to sell.  It seemed that tomato plants and  garden plants like wall flowers, and biennials etc. were their stock in trade.  They were also small market gardeners. You would walk out along rows, and the old gardener would dig you some up and wrap them in newspaper.  I was very young and starting my new garden.  He had fuchsias, succulents and glass house Chrysanthemums too. I got to know the 'old chap' who in the glory days of the nursery was one of the best producers of glass house tomatoes for the area around, and loved to welcome callers.   Behind one of the glasshouses I found a mountain of clay pots piled pell mell.  Many were broken but I could see one or two whole ones.  I asked why they were like that, can only remember that he explained that plastic pots were now what people wanted, and he just used the broken clay to help with drainage along the paths etc. He said it was a shame to see them like that as some were as old as the big old house that had burnt down many years before.  He was only too happy for me to have two or three.  This was one of those: it has been with me ever since then.

Gasteria carinata v.verrucosa

A few of the old leaves were showing signs of fungal disease.  Time for complete destruction and a little post mortem?

The bottom of the pot was full of dead roots.  I learnt this week that this happens to the old roots every few years. After all the bits were separated, I found some healthy shoots and decided to clean up the pot, and start again, with fresh compost mixed half and half with grit. I

This isn't the first time of repotting, but I ought to have done it sooner. I only have a few succulents, and love having them around the house, in different places. I don't have a book on how to really look after them properly, and just check on the internet.
 

(3) As I had the repotting tray out, I mixed some suitable potting medium  and got cracking on potting up some rooted cuttings. Three of  Salvia microphylla 'Cerro Potosi', and three of silver leaved Artemesia Powis Castle, which I had taken as an insurance should my heavily pruned shrub not survive its hard pruning.  All six are being protected in the shred from further rain. It has started to rain, but it was still warm, and a treat to out in the fresh air.  I limited myself to keeping only a few of the cuttings: for myself and to give away. Jon The Propagator used an apt term this week: "one to wear, one to spare, and one for the wash".

(4) My well packed order arrived from Pottertons. The plants may be in their winter phase, but since 'the specials' were in very low supply, leaving it a little later would end in disappointment.

New labels are best written out straight away for : Gypsophilia tenuifolia, Origanum 'Buckland', Salvia cyanescens, Pelargonium endlicherianum, Silene schafta 'Ralph Haywood', and Viola pedata.  I saw the tricolour version at Birmingham Botanical Gardens a few years ago and the whole plant charmed me. If I am successful with this one, ie I can grow it reasonably successfully, I hope to find and grow the tricolor version.

I've been asked what sort of pen I use for the labels: 

The Pen I use is Pen-touch extra fine marker in silver. For the small labels I use the Extra fine size, and for the larger labels the fine one. However I like to write on all sorts of information for instance sowing date, purchase date etc, I use Extra fine. For labels, pens and other items I find The Essentials Company gives great service and good prices.

https://www.theessentialscompany.co.uk/marker-pens/pentouch/

(5)  Galanthus Magnet, from Cathy, (2018)  and Eranthis hyemalis.  When separated and replanted last summer, the snowdrop bulbs were repositioned  it seems too close to the eranthis, or even over the top!  

(6) Crocus sieberi subsp. sublimis Firefly/Crocus sieberi atticus 'Firefly':  the second crocus variety in flower this year.  Not quite as bright a purple as Tricolour, however the gentler colours look great in the conservatory border.

I hope my gardening friends find something to keep them going and maintain their hopes, but also there are great memories that emerge during quieter times. 

In a Vase on Monday - Posting Birthday Flowers

 It was my 'baby' sister's birthday on Saturday...no longer a baby, actually something like five years younger than me.  We three 'girls' live continents apart, and birthdays these days consist of thinking, loving, and sending kind thoughts.  I usually make a special arrangement, and have often used them later as IAVOM posts later.

This Saturday is was too wet to venture out and the blooms were just washed out in any case.  On my birthday wishes, I posted an arrangement from three years ago.  I was slightly unhappy, but the situation took on a rather humorous turn when Mr S thought that I had wanted to post: in a box with stamps etc, but I explained that post meant putting up a picture and message!  He really doesn't do social media...

This morning it has stopped raining, but I have never seen the garden quite so wet.  We are on a slope, well up, so don't get any flooding, but a friend told me of a car being washed down the road in nearby Crosscombe, with water no longer contained by the River Sheppey. Storm Angus battered us all weekend.

The main star is Alstromeria Indian Summer, which I bought at the recent Special Plants fair at the Bishop's Palace. Everything else has already made an appearance this year: Hakornechloa macra 'Aureola', Dianthus, Persicaria Red Dragon, Gaillardia, and the lovely winter green Fern Polypodium cambricum Richard Kayse, which has just started to send up its new leaves. Granted it is acting a little shy here, but what else could it do since Indian Summer is taking centre stage.

The Vase is a blue cloisonne which I presume my mother bought on her trip to China many years ago.  It is one of a pair, and Jenny whose birthday it is, had them, and gave me one, so that even though we are far apart, we can think of each other.  It was the perfect choice for her belated birthday flower bouquet.

Cathy has some lovely autumnal hues in her post this week, together with apples and a pear.

Gooseberries in the garden and kitchen

I am interested to hear people's feelings about gooseberries.  Do you like them, and what are your earliest memories?  When did you last enjoy them?

These days gooseberries rarely make an appearance in greengrocers or on the shelves of supermarkets, have gooseberries fallen out of favour?

Last year Susanna  and I posted a small gooseberry harvest on Facebook, and again this year I have shown my first harvest from my one and only Gooseberry Bush Invicta.  Up in Warwickshire the harvest has not yet started in her garden. Susanna may of course have a later fruiting variety.

Already the first pickings are more than the whole of  last year's crop, and together with a second picking, added to the above, I have 1 Kg prepared fruit.  There are still at least a couple of pickings left.  I shall wait until the rest are fully ripe to check on their sweetness.

Cooked in a little water and orange juice with the zest, I have a little stash of jam to enjoy in the Winter months.  I could not help thinking of my mother as I prepared the fruit yesterday, as it would have been her birthday.

Harvesting means scratches if you don't wear gloves, but once the branches are moved and the fruit is visible picking, with the bowl on the ground, is pretty straight forward. For now the birds are leaving them alone which I am happy with. I have tried netting over some strawberries a couple of years ago, but because I had not pegged it down sufficiently, a little bird got in and got trapped, so now I do not net any fruit.  Of course, if you have a large garden a lovely walk in fruit cage would be the answer.

On 17th June, I picked the remaining gooseberries, a further 550g, bringing the total harvest to a rounded 1.5Kg for the one bush Invicta in 2020.  More or less the largest berry is 13g.  I'm not about to join the wonderful champion gooseberry growers of Cheshire, whose Giant Gooseberries are over 60g!

I picked up this bush at a local nursery, and planted it a corner of the garden now called: Gooseberry Corner.  What attracted me to this cultivar is its ability to resist Mildew.  Invicta is an early season variety and In its second year in the garden the yields are higher than expected.  There are some very good comments on different gooseberry varieties on the site Garden Focused.  Blackcurrants are doing very poorly in this area as they need so many chill days, and over the winter, we hardly had any frosty periods.  I may well be adding gooseberry Hinnonmaki Red. Plenty of good growing guides, with the one on Grow Veg clear and simple.

I've loved gooseberries as far back as I can remember.   Once we had been invited out to 'luncheon' at a lovely large country home.  I must have been eight or nine years old, and we had all travelled to the UK.  We travelled from London, by steam train where the water intake was between the lines, and met at the station the other end and driven to this house with an enchanting garden.  Can you imagine just how excited I was?  My father knowing his little greedy gourmet, had instructed me to be on my best behaviour, which I now know, means that I ought to be quiet and not talk too much.  When the desserts were presented at the end of the meal there were two options.  I remember one of them being a Gooseberry Pie.  I just could not resist and my words were:  "Please may I have the both?"  I could not understand why the whole party erupted into laughter, after all I did ask very politely!

My mother too had a particular love of gooseberries. Once when she was visiting I found her walking back from the fruit and vegetable section of my then garden which was planted out with a great range of fruit.  She has a look on her like a cat who had got the cream.  When I asked what she had been up to, she confessed that each morning she would walk down the garden and eat the fruit off the bushes.  I was slightly bemused and asked her which fruit and she replied: Gooseberries!  I had always just cooked the fruit and had not realised just how sweet and delicious a well ripened gooseberry could be.  At the time the Whinham's Industry were as purple as dark plums, and Golden Drops soft, sweet and delicious, reminiscent of a muscat grape.  Just proves you are never too old to learn something from your mother!  Each time we travelled out to visit my mother, amongst the must haves from the UK, were tins of gooseberries.  I guess they reminded her of  home.  

Visit to Tadham Nursery on Somerset Levels

Continuing on our 'regime' of regular cycle rides, it is not surprising that since Graham has opened his nursery again, that today's ride took us there.  Around trip of about 18 miles.

I have really missed visiting his stall in Wells on Market Street.  Last year he moved to the weekly market in Street, which I tried to visit, but he was not there that week.  I happened to be searching for some more Hardy Geraniums, when I saw that he stocked at least two and that he was opening a stall at his nursery on Fridays and Saturdays.

As there was room for just this lot in my pannier, I am sure further trips during the summer may be necessary.

Clock wise starting in the top left hand corner: Geranium sanguineum album, Erodium Natasha, Geranium Russell Prichard, Geranium Dusky Crug, and Allium senescens glaucum.

I am always on the look out for stalls outside cottages selling home laid eggs:

Six on Saturday - 21 March 2020

So much has been changed recently and over the last week it has been even more evident that  this Virus is causing the whole of humanity to enter a period in which  a hiatus greater than one could have imagined.  I have decided to 'withdraw' as much as possible, when going for walks, smiling but keeping my distance.  Already I had been unwell with a cough etc, and had decided not to go to any meetings.  I was on the point of feeling that I could have gone to the talk our gardening club had organised with Matthew Biggs as our main speaker, when it was cancelled with only two days or so to go.

There has been sunshine for a few hours and we have more to come next week, and we shall probably have more frosts that we have had all winter.

The Propagator our 'leader' has urged us to celebrate Spring whether you have a garden, house plants, or enjoy looking at front gardens on your suitably socially distanced walks.  Do join us to peer or even to join through comments on his blog. 

(1) Spare plants...I had suggested a friendly competition for our club, which we were to have held for the first time this year.  It is an idea that had caught on in The Kenilworth Club and had been very much enjoyed there.  In March each member is given a 'plug plant' and asked to grow it on.  Our chairman had collected something in the region of 80 plugs and now without 'an outlet', has distributed them as best she can, mainly around the committee members and 'helpers' who had the ability to bring them on.  Friday morning saw some plants left on my doorstep: Fuchsia Southern Belle Happy Wedding Day,  Petunia Tumbelina Cherry Ripple, and Geranium New Century Red.

They are now potted up and in the conservatory for protection from the cold nights

(2) Last weekend Sally arrived with a plant that had been on a joint order, and had been looked after by her for a couple of weeks, whilst I was out of circulation.....Blackberry Karaka Black.  The white rose iceberg has been moved to another place to make way, and against the fence the little stems hopefully will develop over the next couple of years to yield delicious pickings.  In effect it was a gift from Sally..she took home the 'mystery' plant which was the source of my little battle a few weeks back.

We are now a two Blackberry Plant family with Blackberry 'Thornfree' on the other side of the garden close to gooseberry corner.

(3) Back indoors the flower spikes on Pelargonium ardens are just beginning to open.

I bought a couple of plug plants in 2018 which had been micro propagated, they went dormant during the summer and then leafed up in the same year.  Last year I decided that I would be ruthless and cut the plants right down to soil level when they were repotted in an effort to generate a multi rosetted plant.  It worked out well, with four rossettes on the smaller plant and six on the stronger one.  It is the one with four rosettes that has sent up two flower spikes.  I don't know whether this is early for Pelargonium ardens, and whether there is time yet for the other plant to flower.

(4) Plum Tree Mirabelle de Nancy is blooming.....

The tree is still rather small and I have yet to pick any fruit...hopefully this year they may be some.

(5)  From the vantage point by the plum tree,  I noticed that some of the Ipheion bulbs were showing their first flowers.  I was given sufficient for several clumps by my neighbour Val who had brought them from her mother's garden.  I took pictures and then downloaded them almost straight away.  Look closely....

The smooth shiny coppery 'thing' emerging from the wall is a slow worm.  I rushed out to check whether it was still there but it was gone.  Only last Monday I had disturbed a much larger slow worm a little way along the base of the wall in some leaf litter.  I had noticed these holes near the bottom of the wall and had wondered how they were kept free and open.  Now I know not to arrange to mortar these up.

A pair of garden warblers have been visiting the garden this week for the first time this season.   The gold finches have been on the feeder.

(6) Planting up and rearranging plant pots

Being undecided as to where in the garden I wanted to plant the new Clematis Sugar Sweet,  it went into a large pot for this season, and to grace the base,  I chose  three little plants dug up from the borders.  One of the reasons for this indecision is that I want to be able to get up close and admire the flowers and also its scent.  As I write this, I wonder whether it may have its ideal spot.  It was also time that the carnivorous pitcher plant went up to a bigger pot.   The Sarracenia has been outside all winter and now the new pot has been slipped in a tall flower bucket with stones weighing it down.  It used to fill up with rain water, but that is a benefit to this bog plant.

Six on Saturday - 29 February 2020

The mechanics of this post is that I top it with a reference the the Prop: he who brings us all together.  I have enjoyed his post this week, which includes a little interesting aside about this 29th February on a Saturday.  He has also worked hard in the past week dealing with a load of bark chippings.

What a week weatherwise:  book ended by storms.  I am not looking forward to the effects of Storm Jorge as now the garden is just about as wet as it can get. Overnight Friday into Saturday it sounded as if someone was pressure hosing the drive...

I could not leave the Bishop's Palace last Saturday without picking up a few beauties.

(1) Labelled Primula vulgaris Blue Horizon, this is the tiniest of primula with large flowers for the size of the leaf.  It is similar to pictures of Hall Barn Blue.  I can find no reference to the name Blue Horizon on the internet.  I had intended going back the following day to check the name, but the weather was so fowl, I decided to stay put.





























(2) Crocus Cream Beauty

These were planted near Pear Beth, but once the foliage dies down I want to get in and separate them out.  As you can see there has been much cutting back of perennials in readiness for the spring bounce....

(3) A couple of clumps of named Anemone blanda Pink Star, again several corms packed in the pot, so these will be spread around in due course, remembering where they are when the foliage dies down is a challenge so this post will help when I need to refer back.  Black labels with silver writing are almost invisible!

Is it better to tease out the individual corms and separate them now, or wait till later in the year, or just leave them growing four or five corms together?  I chatted to a friend who is a trained gardener and her advice was to leave them in clumps, so that they get used to the soil etc, and then divide in a couple of years.  Hopefully they will be very happy, and I shall be sure to spread seed when it has set round and about.

(4) I was pleased to meet up with Marcel Floyd and on his recommendation came away with Clematis Sugar Sweet....

We had agreed to meet on the Sunday again, when Marcel was to have brought another clematis for me, but he emailed to say that he would not be turning up.  The weather must be playing havoc with nurseries and their sales this season.  I am planing to visit his nursery on one of his open days this year.

(5) Guttation on the indoor Spider plant.  I bought this little plant growing in a tin can from a young man trying his hand at encouraging other young gardeners to become interested in indoor plants.  The saucer, my addition, is a small empty tuna tin.  The plant was small but has been growing steadily, its the fresh green colour has been attractive in the kitchen, and in the position on the windowsill I usually reserved for Basil. Here it is in the background as I was bottling up my homemade pomegranate kefir.

 I moved it momentarily to the other side of the kitchen.  Later in the evening, against a grey slate plate, I noticed these drops from some of the tips and also along the length of the blade like leaves.  I had to look this up, and found that it was called  guttation and it is not that unusual and several indoor plants can display this phenomenon.

(6) Twists and Curls of fertilized cyclamen hederifolium seed capsules  After flowering, the flower  twists into a spiral, bringing the capsular fruit close to the ground.  I am wondering whether it is better for my plants to have these removed, maybe leaving only one or two.  Any advice?

I've read through The Magic of Cyclamen which is excellent in many ways, but could not find an appropriate answer.  From this I learnt that this plant displays thin sagitatte, arrow head to me till now, leaves.

That is it for the week during which I even had to sow a few seeds: beetroot Bolthardy into modules.