Six on Saturday - 20 March 2021

My spade is getting twitchy and I am finding that I want to move plants, or divide clumps: last week it was crocus this week it is my clump of daffodils that I forgot to move when dormant last year.

 "The ideal time to lift any bulb is when there is no root growth to disturb or damage. For most bulbs that is when they go down for a summer rest however if necessary you can move them in full growth - provided you can do it with minimal damage to the roots. The reason I am planting this pot of bulbs out now is I can see the spaces in the beds where I want to plant them and I can get reasonable access. By the time these bulbs would be dormant there will be extensive growth in the beds and around the area where I am placing them and planting the bulbs then would cause much damage to those other plants so it a case of doing the job when I will cause least damage." Quoted from the Bulb Log Diary of Ian Young shared on the Alpine Garden Society's Members; Group Face Book Page. This is full list of Logs to which I shall surely delve many times.  I am reading one a day, and making notes!

I lifted the Daffodil clump "Rip Van Winkle", examined them all, discarded some, found a big Narcissus Fly Grub in the middle of a fat bulb. It was amazingly tough: I have to get my knife to slice it in half. Would this grub have been muching through all through the year?

2. Dicentra cucullaria is worth watching each day as it emerges.  This is a day later than I would have liked to photograph them in the leaf stage without flowers.  They appear like folded grey lace.  I now have two pans all from the original small pot bought in 2018. They just stay in these pots the whole year, that is up to now.  I would like to understand how well they grow in the ground, so may move the smaller pot after I have refurbished the shady border.

3. I have a little primula which I bought from a small nursery at one of the plant festivals at the Bishop's Palace.  It was labelled 'Blue Horizon' and indeed I did check up this name with the grower.  Maybe it is just one of those old cultivars that is no longer available generally. It is smaller than my primroses or primula Primula Wanda.

SOS companion Jim has written below and I am now incorporating this here: AGS Primula book lists 'Blue Horizon'as a julianae hybrid and describes it as a sport of 'Wanda' P.C. 1950.  I asked the question as to what does P.C. stand for, and a fellow member of the Alpine Garden Society kindly advised: 

P.C. stands for Preliminary Commendation which is the first level of awarded granted by the joint Rock garden Committee of the R.H.S. to plants shown to that committee. The next level is A. M. = Award of Merit and the highest award is F.C.C. = First Class Certificate.

4.Ipheions give little stars of brightness towards the back of the border. Soon emerging  perennials will hide the foliage.

5. Another plant with blue flowers but no so lovely foliage are some Muscari which I found when I attacked the jungle at the side of the house.  This border is still a work in progress, and the Muscari may well be for the chop. I shall have to decide soon as they are much easier to find.

 6. Flowering for the first time this year is this handsome Euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii

This plant was handed over by my neighbour, in whose garden it had got too large, here it is right opposite her front window so there is no getting away from it.

Is this flowering a little early? It looks like a Torch the sort Olympians carry.  If there were to be a torch bearer it would be Jon The Propagator, who has warned us that 'alacrity' may be thin later on, as he is on his long run this morning.  The long run is a real one not a metaphor for his wonderful energy in bringing us all together every Saturday to talk about six items from our garden each week. Do go and join him and others like me, to muse on things gardening.

A Zoom meeting later this morning from our local HPS will be the excuse to get moving and get all my chores done as earlier as possible.