Scilla Hughii tops the bill for Six on Saturday - 27 April 2024

Its been a fairly reasonable week and I've enjoyed a couple of sessions of gardening. For more gardening blogs of Sixes this Saturday, you don't have to go far, but start with Jim's anchoring post.

1. Scilla Hughii is looking absolutely full of itself in the sunshine, but I guess it is wondering why the temperatures have dropped so much over the last nights. I've only had it a short time and there was only a suggestion of flower spike when I bought the plant on a visit to Broadleigh Gardens.

2. It is only because I almost had my nose in this Canary Bird Rose, that I spotted this very small lady bird.  I had to look it up.  It is the 14-Spotted Ladybird.

I continue to be delighted by this rose bush, which has many more flowers now open.

We seem to have many more ladybirds than last year, and I shall be looking out for different ones. There seems to be even more in the front garden, and as the roses are in the back, I may be collecting a few of those and relocating them.

3. I lost one pulsatilla last year, probably because I cut it back hard during the summer. I just thought that they would survive that and return in the spring.  Luckily I only did that with one of the four I had.  The first in flower in this lovely little purple one by the seating circle.

4. The soft pale lilac flowers of Geranium 'Beth Chatto' light up this border edge by the stepping stones down the side of the shady border, though that side does get the sun until about two o'clock.

5. As I peruse the online catalogues, I am looking forward to adding a few different auricula's already, but I shall have to wait until they become available again before ordering. Here are a couple more from the shelf.  As the early flowerers go over, I move them to the shady wall where they will see out the summer.

Primula auricula Two Steeples

Primula auricula Chelsea Bridge

6. Last week Fred asked whether the pot I showed came with the holes ready made.  

Yes they do, and I am lucky to have three of them.  The oldest fern in the middle pot has about four crowns. I met up with Penny many years ago, as she came to collect our phone system from our home offered through Freecycle, and the rest was a lovely friendship until her untimely death. One day Penny brought me a lovely pot which she had come across at the recycling centre she volunteered at.  After my appreciation she managed to find another two and brought them to me.  They had been used, but were in excellent condition and to date have not suffered any damage from frost etc. I have never seen any like those since. The ferns were ones which just grew themselves  in the garden, and were  moved it as a very small plant.  Later two more were found and makes up this trio, one of the top five of my garden treasures. They have been growing in those pots undisturbed for just over ten years. I was looking for the name of a small fern plant and came across an article by Jack Wallington on how to grow ferns from spores, which I shall try and have a go at later this year.

Pumpkin Soup

 I last made this soup for our book club, and had frozen half of the roasted pumpkin.  I'm using up stuff from the freezer and it was easy to turn and remake the soup, since I had printed out the recipe and it was floating around the kitchen drawer. 

This is before the Spiced Pumpkin and coconut soup has been whizzed and had the coconut added. I'm simply posting this here as I find it easy to use my own blog as a repository for when I have pumpkins to use up. 

Soup is one of those lunches that are so easy, and just right for a coolish day like today.  This week's daily loaf is a sourdough seeded half wholemeal loaf which will suit this very well.

Clematis In a Vase on Monday

Here we are again on a Monday, and it is time for In a Vase on Monday, a weekly gathering of people who enjoy arranging things from their garden, created and hosted by Cathy.

Where I listened to Charles Chesshire as his gave his lecture at my gardening club last week, there was something he said which has come back to me again and again since that time, which was 'you have to decide what not to grow'.  As one who loves plants and lots of them, and one whose space is limited, I have found that to be worth hanging onto.  I am a neophile by tendency in many aspects, and I do realise this must be kept under control.  We can't keep all and still have room to breath.  

This dawned on my this morning as I was plunging some pots into water to clean out,  I noticed just within a few metres sufficient, and for today chose to limit myself to this small space.

The clematis in flower and bud is Clematis montana Warwickshire Rose, and the seed heads are from Clematis alpina Blue Dancer. Down in the shade are a few Lily of the Valley, and the variegated ivy grows on the fence. The whole little arrangement is small and I arranged the material in my hand a little like one would do for a corsage and used a little green raffia to achieve a small arrangement which would not shift in the vase.

From a small garden -Six on Saturday 20 April 2024

We have had glorious sunshine, with cooler temperatures towards this weekend, just the best sort of weather this time of year.  As usual a band of us, and you too may join with six things on Saturday from our gardens, under the garden awning that is Jim's weekly post.

On the garden shelf it is the turn for a week or two for the Primula auriculas to strut their stuff. I used to have a few and last year restarted acquiring a few to add to my remaining Auricula Nessun Dorma

1. Welcome to my small garden is Primula auricula 'Old Irish Scented'.  Although a 'garden auricula' I have chosen to keep it as a pot plant.  The petals are described as having golden frilly edges and it has a 'white eye'.  This is one of the plants from a batch I ordered last year from Hillview Hardy Plants. 

 

2. Another new yellow is a double.  This is my first double and is a pretty frilly yellow bloomer. However I think for now I much prefer the single auriculas. This one is Primula auricula Sarah Millington.  

3. Wednesday's talk at our Henton Gardening Club was given by Charles Chesshire on designing with Peonies and Roses.  I must really go through my notes and look up some of the plants he mentioned.  However I did pick up a tip, which I put into action the very next day, when I moved an Echinacea purpurea Magnus which I had placed such that although the flowers would be in full sun, but the rosette of leaves was not.  I said 'sorry' to the plant, and as it survived the wet winter, I hope it will be far happier in its new sunny position.  

At the meeting we were also able to choose a free plug plant to grow on for a little competition later in the year.  I passed on the petunia and the fuchsia and choose a Geranium 'New Century Salmon'. At the end of the evening it seemed as if this had not been a popular selection, so I nonchalantly offered to take the rest should they not be chosen.  I offered to buy the remainder. Yesterday our Treasurer Caroline turned up with a further 12 plants.  I shall probably offer several to friends in our WI 'Bloomin Fun' group to grow on.

4.  With it so nice early in the morning, I managed to catch the early slanting light on the fern.

with all the damp weather my old pots with ferns are just about under maximum moss!

5. We have had more frost warnings over the last few days compared to winter, so it was out with the fleece to cover the strawberries.

6. The newly planted little alpine Aethionema 'Warley Rose' is settling in well. I rather like its 'common' name of Persian stone cress.

The gravel is a great foil and I am already wondering how best to propagate this so that it can be added to a pot for the shelf next spring. I reckon a good pot of these would look lovely on the garden table this time of the year. It is described as short-lived by the RHS so cuttings will definitely be taken.

I have plenty to do in the garden this weekend, and the weather is set fine.......

A Magnificent Scilla Peruviana In a Vase on Monday

Earlier today I was walking around Dryham Park with friends from our club's 'Bloomin Fun' Group, and before setting out the weather was very gusty and some rain, but it was glorious on the other side of the Mendips. The outing with lunch to follow on the way back put me in such a good mood, that I felt energised and went out to select a few stems of things from the garden to arrange for today's In a Vase on Monday. IAVOM is a creation of Cathy, and in this weekly blog several of us join in showing material from our gardens.

As I had been chatting with my friend Jane who is designing some new beds with grasses, I mentioned that I had a large clump of Carex Comans Bronze and when divided I would be able to offer her some clumps.  I therefore had to include a few snippets of this to help show off the bloom from Scilla Peruviana.  

Just to add a green note, I only needed to have one of the now very large leaves of the Arum italicum 'Marmoratum'. This vase, a Charity Shop acquisition from a few weeks ago, is heavy and can take the weight of this large bloom.  The Art Deco Black elephant is there to give a little balance.

Scilla Peruviana

Not long ago I read 'The Maid', and so enjoyed this I ordered the sequel 'The Mystery Guest' by Nita Prose.  It is quite a easy going style and read, and again if you enjoyed the Maid you will enjoy this.

I've been interested not surprisingly in food, how it eaten and prepared, its  rituals, and the changing landscape across the world and in time, for almost ever.  This book by Bee Wilson is very much about the sociology of  food availability,  inequalities, preparation, and the way different people eat, and the pressures on our time particularly in the last fifty years, which has meant far many more processed foods are being pushed and consumed, on the time spent preparing food and whether we eat as a family or not.  

I do remember 'works canteens' and was priviledged to eat lunch in some very good ones such as the one at Hambro Life as it was know in those days, where a 25p free luncheon voucher could buy such exotic main courses as grilled rainbow trout and almonds, usually on a Friday, plus veg and a pudding!  We had exactly the same menu as enjoyed by the Directors . Plus we had an hour to enjoy our lunches in groups or on our own. In the evenings a quick 'high tea' would see any spaces filled before going out.