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.