In a Vase on Monday - Beauties and Thugs

A larger vase than normal is needed this week had me hunting around the house.  Most had arrangements of dried flowers, but I spied amongst my Pewter collection in the kitchen the deep and wide pewter biscuit barrel.

The White Centaurea Montana Alba is a 'low effort plant'. I was reading an article by Jack Wallington In the April 2026 Gardens Illustrated, and it struck me immediately that White Centaurea Montana Alba falls into the group of surefire plants that grow in many conditions, don't need pruning and don't need staking. I just cut it right down and it pops back up with more flowers throughout the year.

Slightly more effort is this double white Hellebore, which is now green and forming seeds.  With only one flowering per year it is a slightly different league to the Centaurea. The stems keep firm at this stage and I rather like the detail.

The thug this week are the Spanish Bluebells, which I have been in constant battle with since we moved here.  I try to cut the flowers as early as possible in the season as well as pulling up and trying to remove the bulbs. Otherwise the garden would be overrun by them.

As usual I'm joining with in Cathy to celebrate the act of cutting a few flowers from our gardens, and talking about them on our blogs. 

Six on Saturday - 11 April 2026

We had two days of very warm weather and now the temperatures have dropped again.  I have a few more seeds to sow, and yet the garden remains the same size, the question as yet unanswered is where will they fit in. Several of us are linking in this weekly meme together.

1. I've grown several Phlox to date, but currently have only two. Phlox bifida 'Ralph Hayward' I have shown several times over the past few years is doing well.  I took cuttings last year and have put them in bowls this year.  The Phlox bifida 'Alba' looks very smart on one of the tables.

Phlox bifida 'Alba'

2. We found a local wood to walk to this week where the white wood anemones were growing in large swathes under the mixed woodland deciduous canopy.  I learnt this week that the little yellow plant that I bought in 2024 from Long Acre Plants at The Bishop's Palace Rare Plant Fair needs similar conditions, whereas it is growing in the sunny rose bed.  The bronze of its emerging leaves is a lovely contrast for the flowers that have already emerged.  The sad thing is that the slugs are rather partial to the blooms. 

Anemone x lipsiensis Pallida

3. As well as Anemones in that wood, there were loads of the simple lesser celandine, and that leads me nicely to show this lovely double form of Ficaria verna. Like the Anemone, this one is summer dormant.

Double form of the celandine

4. I was very fortunate to receive a fine clump of the hose in hose Primula vulgaris' Mount Juliet'. With a little careful slicing I have three plants, and have learnt both from Caroline and my old copy of Primulas Old and New by Jack Wemyss-Cooke that these need a soil made hearty by the addition of manure! If anyone would like to recommend any other publications which I could get second hand, please leave a comment below. This week I was lucky to find three sacks of horse manure. Mr S has a bad back at the moment, and I was so elated to find the manure just round the corner, that I even managed to lift the sacks and stack them in the car boot.  It is the first half a mile the car has done in over a month!

Primula vulgaris' Mount Juliet'

5. I was sent the wrong bulbs!! I ordered and was invoiced for 10 Fritillaria michailovskyi but, from the picture, I can tell was sent the wrong ones.  Instead they look very much like Fritillaria acmopetala which Pottertons also sells. Only half of the bulbs have come up, but that may well be the wet conditions this winter. I think in future for  small bulbs such as these, I shall buy them at the fairs in the green, when I can see them in flower. It is starting to grow on me and I like the 'common' name pointed petal fritillary.  

Fritillaria acmopetala

6. Of the dwarf Irises I had, only one of those is left.  Blame me for sure, as I probably allowed other plants to crowd them out.  Iris pumila Dark Purple Fuzzy DBI has the most purple of purple flowers on its stout short stems.  I still yearn after Knick Nack, and ought to make a call out to friends that I shared many divisions with. 

 Iris pumila Dark Purple Fuzzy DBI

That's the end of this SOS, the garden calls to me: I have seeds to sow, divisions to make and plants to move....

When you go down into the woods today - Park Wood Wells

Earlier this week, along with a good sized contingency from the Wells Tuesday WI, I went on a memorial walk which was planned as a circular walk from The Bishop's Palace in Wells.  Some members chose the shorter version, and I along with a few decided to make the whole circuit, but found that we had to made a short cut and took a path through a little piece of woodland.  We were in a hurry at that stage, but I could tell that it would be well worth a return visit.

Mr S was easily persuaded that for this week's date day, it would be a walk out from home via The Bishop's Palace to view their primrose bank, and enjoy a drink there and then to these woods.  The previous week we had had a muddy walk through Tor Hill woods but had been disappointed that we could not find any wood anemones. To think we have lived in this area for several years and had walked and cycled many times along the Strawberry Line, but had not been aware of the beauty these woods hold.

I only got out my phone during the last few minutes in the wood, and saw many different wild flowers. These are just a very few.

English Bluebells in patches

and in swathes

Greater Stitchwort

Wood anemones

Wood Spurge 

Euphorbia amygdaloides

and Yellow Archangel

Lamium galeobdolon

I am sure we shall be returning and enjoying this small patch of woodland.

Six on Saturday - 4 April 2026

Happy Easter to you all.  Saturday is the day when a few of us garden bloggers join together to share six things from our gardens, and join together over at Jim's, where should you choose to join us you will find guidance on how we go about it.

We have had a couple of glorious days this week when spending time gardening, or even just sitting with my beloved enjoying coffee in the garden wearing just a couple of layers has been possible. 

1. Each time I go into the garden I am drawn to Ribes × beatonii, to admire its flowers: they remind me of the colours of the centre of a ripe peach when you remove the stone, colours ranging from peachy yellow to red.

Ribes × beatonii

If it was good enough for Broadleigh Gardens it was certainly going to join the few shrubs I have.

2. I moved this clematis right up onto the gravel by the conservatory so that I can watch the many large bumble bees that seem to effortlessly fly straight to each hanging bloom. Clematis alpina Blue Dancer in its pot is a real beauty, and it came to me and grew from a tiny plant .

Clematis alpina Blue Dancer

3. Henton Gardening Club gave members three daffodil bulbs donated by the Wessex Daffodil Society, and we don't yet know the name.  If it remains cool and remains in good condition it may make it to the show on 12th April.  Even so the club is having a little competition, and we are to enter a picture.  Tomorrow I shall try and take a picture against a neutral background.

4. The Galanthus ‘x valentinei’ in the front garden are particularly good at forming large seed pods, and there is a little patch that catches all the Amelanchier leaves in the autumn, through which the little snowdrop seedlings emerge each year, and this variety seems to grow to flowering size within two years.  As they ripen I shall move some of the seed pods there. From planting the first little pot of maybe two or three bulbs around nine years ago, a now have a good number of clumps.

Snowdrop seed pods

5. In the front garden I also have some species tulips and this little grouping is a delight.

Tulipa Whittalii Major.

6. This week, we have had a lovely variety of butterflies and moths such as the Peacock, Brimstone, Orange Tip Butterflies, and surprisingly a Hummingbird Hawkmoth.  This pair of Ladybirds are enjoying the softest of leaves on the Phlomis fruticosa Bourgaei and they were not the only ones!

Several SOSers may from time to time like to ask, to offer or to share seeds and bits and pieces from their gardens.  This past week I was delighted to send and then receive packed in the same box a few choice additions to the garden, which have now been planted out.  Many thanks to Phlomis Chloris for the  Viola sulfurea, R. Brazen Hussy, a little piece of Veronica perfoliata and a bit of her precious dwarf iris from the Gargano in Italy. I look forward to caring and bringing on these choice little plants. This week I have planted seeds received such as Aquilegia and Marigolds and Rudbekias received last year. 

Six things from my garden - 28th March 2026

Arriving home yesterday, after a few days in Cornwall, I just had to get into the garden and was able to do some gardening.  We were so pleased to see large patches of the lovely wild primrose growing to the very edge of the coast and I start with week with similar yellows. Next week after the clocks have changed there will be more time in the evenings to get out there.  With six things from the garden to share, I am joining in with Jim and several other gardeners.

1.  Primula 'Treborth Yellow' which I bought in 2024 from Pottertons is doing very nicely.  It is quite a small flowered in comparison with those bright things currently being sold in garden centers, but it is a beautiful yellow in the garden.

Primula 'Treborth Yellow'

2. For a pretty lemon, I couldn't fault Primula vulgaris Belarina Lemon Chiffon when I saw it on Long Acre Plants  stall at the Snowdrop Festival earlier this year. It has a green ruff and double flowers.

3. Looking far more natural is Primula Elatior, again one I bought last year from Long Acre Plants.  It looks lovely amongst all the other spring flowers in the conservatory bed.

4.Again in the Conservatory Border is another spring beauty, called Pulmonaria 'Diana Clare'. The original plant was a gift from Brenda.  It came as a small plant and I have been lucky that it is settling down nicely now in the garden.

 Pulmonaria 'Diana Clare'

5. Another blue in that same border is this little blue flowered bulb: Scilla Sardensis.  I planted them as bulbs which first came up in 2023, so they too seem to have settled down.

Scilla Sardensis

6. In the front garden the Amelanchier is out in full bloom.  I believe it to be a week or so early.