It has been a little drier and sunnier and some plants are requiring some tender loving care, various tasks are being added to the list, but removing some plants, and moving others around seem to be the main activity. Having just a small garden, it is the way I like to try different arrangements otherwise I would get bored! Six on Saturday is a great source not only for myself but by joining in with The Propagator and fellow bloggers, we get to learn, share, and just enjoy 'chatting' with other gardeners. Some are superb photographers too, so visiting Jon's blog and whether you contribute or just 'ear's drop' is always interesting.
1. Chamaecyparis pisifera var. filifera maybe ‘Filifera Aurea’, it could be 'Golden Mop'. It is a type of dwarf threadleaf cypress, with graceful golden foliage.
I must admit that the name is simply gleaned from the internet, having looked for plants with a similar form and colour. I had been using some little snippets of prunnings in my recent In a Vase on Mondays, and given that I had several comments about it, I thought I would feature it this week. I've had it now for three years, it is a slow grower, which is one of its advantages in a small garden. I bought it from Graham at his Tadham Nurseries stall, this was the last one he had, and I forgot to ask him the name!
In the pot, the foliage drops down around the rim, and it tends to be moved around making different groupings. Grown like this I am also able to turn it around to catch the sun, and gain a lovely golden colour all round. During the winter when most of the garden is quiet, this little shrub shines out.
Corydalis Beth Evans continues to unfurl and the corydalis are following on very nicely in the same bed, where the snowdrops have finished blooming. This is one of several clumps which I have gradually increased in that bed from the original plant. I seem to have got the conditions just right, or maybe they are just easy to grow.
6. These primula are so bright, I have had to tone down the colour a little and in turn the leaves look a little yellower. I could never get bored of this primula, which is why I cherish it and nourish it as it requires: it gets split and replant regularly in soil enriched with compost, otherwise I think they would just flower themselves to death. They flowered before Christmas, and are again ready to send up several flower spikes per plant.
Lovely little primula! So pretty.
ReplyDeleteThe corydalis are looking very well.
ReplyDeleteThe cypress is indeed a striking color. I like your creative use of pruned branches to deter birds from harvesting in your bed. This gives me an idea for fending off the feral cat population from certain areas where they have, unfortunately, been quite active.
ReplyDeleteThanks Erin, and the sticks were initially to deter neighbour's cats, but now some birds are coming down and taking the sticks for nest building. It is quite amusing watching them. My husband waits and counts, and knows that I will be out chasing them away.
DeleteThat's a very choice Chamaecyparis, very nice indeed! There are some lovely conifer varieties about.
ReplyDeleteCyclamen repandum is another great plant. Are you planning on keeping it in a pot or putting it in the garden? Mine is in a pot, I think it's meant to be just about hardy, but with the exception of hederifolium, I don't have much success with Cyclamen outside.
So pleased C. integra is doing well. It's much taller than mine are at the moment! Beth Evans looks good too; it's easy if you put it in the right spot, so you can definitely take some of the credit!
I have quite a few cyclamen dotted around the garden such as the hederifolium, coum, cilicium and graecum. I'll take a chance with this one, and prepare the area well with good drainage and compost, and make sure it is covered with leaf litter for most of the winter. I don't have any where under glass suitable. I may keep it just one more season in a pot.
DeletePretty colours, as usual. The primula is a stunning colour.
ReplyDeleteThe Corydalis are very pretty. Croconut! Some of them are driving me nuts with their toppling over tendencies.
ReplyDeleteWith a small garden, I am able to go and 'dead head' all the ones that have finished flowering, but it could send you croconuts it you have hundreds in a lawn and attempted to try that!
ReplyDeleteGolden Mop was a sport of Filifera Aurea and apart from growth rate there really isn't much difference between them. I must sort out a suitable place for growing my Corydalis in the ground, I thought I'd let them die down in the pots and plant them as bulbs. Someone once told me that the only reason that snowdrops are better planted green was that as small, thin skinned bulbs they dry out and shrivel very easily, but that if they were lifted and replanted straight away, dormant bulbs were preferable to "in the green". What do I know, there are real galanthophiles out there who will actually genuinely know.
ReplyDeleteJim: I was transplanting crocus in the green, and wondered if there is any guidance on that.
DeleteNot from me; the someone who thought they knew all about snowdrops was an ex work colleague who I rarely see. I think Crocus are much more resistant to shrivelling so it maybe isn't so critical to guard against it.
DeleteWe can all be croconuts together! I'm still enjoying mine although they are rather short-lived. I think I've usually moved mine after flowering in spring but only because that's when I know when where they are. Once the leaves die back I haven't a chance.
ReplyDeleteThat is also a very good reason, and far more easy to see where other crocuses happen to planted.
DeleteVery nice photo of the cyclamen flower ready to do its pirouette. I also liked the 2 corydalis in bloom that you showed us.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful corydalis Noelle. Thanks for introducing me to a new to me world in the shapes of croconut 😂 Good luck with your division experiment.
ReplyDeleteYour are a already a fully paid up member of the Galanthophiles Anna, no harm in checking out other groups too, from time to time.
DeleteI'm going to try moving some crocus when they finish flowering too. We can compare notes next year!
ReplyDeleteThe corydalis are looking great. I love their delicate leaves.
I wonder whether you have any friends within the AGS who have any experience of this, who you could compare notes with. If only I had the space to experiment a little more.
DeleteThat is indeed a pretty dwarf cypress, somrthing that would do very nicely for the edge of my 'shrub border' which still has some gaps - must seek out a reliable source of dwarf conifers. I have successfully lifted and divided chinks of crocus in the post and have no qualms about doing the same again - but won't attempt it on the ones groing in the grass. My Beth Evans is budding up too, but sadly there is no sign of my other one whose name I have forgotten
ReplyDelete