The PROG has some nice fresh arrivals, and I am sure there is much from contributors to inspire us this week. I often dip in during the week, notebook in hand, or to be truthful little scraps of paper, and later notes made properly somewhere I can hopefully access easily aka spreadsheet.
(1) Slow gardening - sowing seeds to grow herbaceous plants is certainly a form of slow gardening. Since germination of seeds of Eryngium Silver Ghost in situ in the gravel garden, seeds from another Eryngium alpinum superbum are biding their time in a little pot under some gravel. It may be a month or two before the seedling emerge.
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| Eryngium alpinum superbum seedpan |
(2) Why no show for some snowdrops?
Lady Beatrice and Lapwing early flowering types now over, and Magnet and Viridapice amongst the specials in peak form this week, are up and showing blooms. The standard doubles and singles are slowly appearing.
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| Galanthus nivalis 'Viridapice' |
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| Galanthus 'Magnet' |
Worronowii, Elwesii, Blewbury Tart, Mrs Macnamara, and Diggory have not even emerged. Are they just being shy?
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| Galanthus nivalis Flore Pleno |
(3) To see or not to see?
That was the question this week. I did not foresee how far the Erigeron karvinskianus would tumble. I decided to have a little prune mostly of the old underlying growth. As I moved the growth, I could see some little crocus leaves emerging. Along the edge of the border, they would be worth seeing, and I also wondered whether they would even survive another year if they could not have their own unencumbered share of the spring sunshine.Within three days Crocus tommasinianus Barr's Purple flowers emerged . Sturdy flower heads now are easily seen above the leaves, with the sunshine highlighting the soft silvery sheen of the outer petals.
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Crocus tommasinianus 'Barr's Purple' |
Even this little patch of Tete a Tete is positioned behind the semi denuded fuchsia, which will most probably be snipped back some time today.
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| First daffs of the season |
(4) Gardener's Tumble and Blush
I was trying to get down low to take this picture, and you can guess: I took a tumble backwards from my low crouching position, being more careful to safeguard my camera rather than myself. Safety clothing aka woolly hat saved the day, but not my blushes! Next time kneel....
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| Cyclamen coum Maurice Dryden blush |
(5) Small but beautiful, with a blushing up of its tips in the cold.....
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| Hebe Silver Dollar |
(6) Temptation - Is fast gardening a sin?
If so, all I can blame is my weakness and the snake of a fine display at Rocky Mountain Nursery. I was missing my aconite left in the previous garden. Yes I had just one plant which must have arrived in a pot with another plant from a friend.
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Eranthis hyemalis (Winter Aconite) |
Those cyclamen and the hebe are a nice contrasting colour at this time of year. Pretty Six-on-Saturday.
ReplyDeleteThanks G.
ReplyDeleteAlmost worse than things not coming back is not knowing why they didn't. You don't know what to do differently next time when you don't know what went wrong. I suspect that the cheaper snowdrops are, the better their chances of survival.
ReplyDeleteSome words of wisdom there Jim. It plants are easy to grow, then it stands to reason they will be more successful. Its the 'high maintenance' ones that are the ones that quite rightly cost more.
DeleteSpring flowers a like little jewels. They catch the eye, but when I come to photograph them they seem too spread out to capture properly. You can console yourself that although you took a tumble, you took some good photos too.
ReplyDeleteYour daffs are ahead of mine. Those crocus are lovely. I've not spotted any purple ones in the garden... yet.
ReplyDeleteIf only someone was there to take a picture of your tumble! That would have made an excellent SoS entry.
ReplyDeleteAny time the packet predicts a long germination period for the seed within, I let the pot sit around forever, not willing to give up, when of course, they've not germinated & the pot's being wasted. I hate slow gardening because of that. As to fast gardening, you've not sinned but bought things 'in the green' ;-)
ReplyDelete