Six on Saturday - 4 April 2020

The Propagator is safe and well and enjoying his garden.  His Thalia daffodils have managed to creep in ahead of mine, it is quite magnificent.  I am ready with my Six on Saturday and with many other will be joining his weekly get together.  Hope you enjoy my collection of six random things about my garden, comments are much appreciated.

It has been cool and bright, with some drying winds.  Tubs and pots have had to be watered...we are expecting the weather to turn warm on Sunday.  We are having a 'drive' coffee morning on the close.  Each keeping to their own drive, no coffee, cakes etc shared, but just banter with a road width between us!  The Amelanchiers which the builders planted over twenty years ago are in full flower for the occasion.

(1) Acer 1

Off the Edge had  acer's unfurling leaves on last week's SOS.  This prompted  me to tread carefully across emerging plants for a close look at 'Acer Corner Acer'.  With just a week of sunshine the leaves have emerged and the plant is in flower.

This is the 'Acer Corner Acer' in her Autumn Frock.

(2) Acer 2

Posh Acer with an excellent pedigree from a special grower and grafted, 'don't you know', has had a change from plastic pot to one more befitting its station, the pot was bought at the same time as the rose last week,  with only the best ericaceous compost used. These acers are about the same age! She is very high maintenance, needs to be protected, does not like too much sun.  She has a special feed etc...Not sure I ought to have bought this one, but am its slave.

When the label snapped in half a few years ago, I meant to write out a new one, my old garden notebook is lost, it has no name. Anyone suggest one...the funnier the better.

(3) Information on the web has widened my enjoyment and knowledge in gardening: temptation and also ordering from specialist nurseries ensue. Of course there is so much out there we could become overwhelmed.  I would rather be outside in the garden rather than sitting at a desk, or scowling through a smaller screen.    Along with all the subscribers to Jekka's last Sunday's newsletter dropped into the online mailbox and makes for great reading: for Easter The Cowslip was featured....

For Easter look out for Cowslip (Primula veris) also known as St Peter’s keys or Keys of Heaven. These names are associated with the legend that St Peter let his keys to Heaven drop to earth when he learned that a duplicate set had been made. Where they fell the cowslip grew.

Our gardening club have compiled a list of local nursery people, growers and suppliers who will do local deliveries, and sharing this information around.  We treasure our local growers, so we all need to help keep them afloat.

(4) Cowslips

Here is a patch of my garden: my little Heaven, where the cowslip is coming into flower.  Reading that the flowers are edible I shall be hunting out a special dish for Easter in which it can star.  As another part of my 'heavenly' activities is preparing delicious dishes, I am sure to find inspiration amongst the Herb Based Recipes on Jekka's web page.  

(5)  Gardening Books and Magazines

This is one of the books I kept when I had a massive book clear out......

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(6) Irises 

I am a  novice when it comes to Irises. I very much love the forms of the plants as well as the flowers. I  always stop to admire them in other gardens, but have never quite got into them.  Maybe it is because I have never spent time getting to learn about them and understanding them.  Is this going to the start of something new?  I like 'the new to me', and in the absence of adventures out there, I may have found a new learning project...

As in my last garden I now have a clump of Iris Sibirica: this time Silver Edge which has yet to flower, a few Iris Reticulata, and a small dwarf iris Knick Knack . 

 In the front garden is Iris Jane Philips which had been growing in a large tub. This was a gift from Simone. I had simply slipped the plant into an appropriate sized hole.  After flowering it will require some attention for sure...

Iris Jane Philips undivided

From some corms dug up from a Gardening Committee member's garden, unknown type, name etc...just 'loving planted with hope' these are yet to flower...I think they are Dutch bulb iris...

The inspiration for writing up the last of this week's SOSs is My Garden Blogging Friend Brian Skeys post about Irises and his visit to Doddington Hall.  Down the rabbit hole I fell.  I found  a Utube video of the gardens and the technique for dividing the plants whilst hopefully maintaining the following years's flowers. This inspired me to add this section on Irises in my garden.

I am finding information on how to care for them insightful.