Six on Saturday

It certainly feels like spring this week, with three different butterflies seen in the garden.  We've been able to have coffee in the garden, and the dawn chorus is waking me up.  Up in time to complete by SOS.  Jim of course is the first to post as he is our leader and anchorman, I and several others are joining him to show six things or so from our garden.

1.This   Primula my special one because I discovered it in a hedge, and it has been going strong in all my different gardens for over forty years. I had been wondering what it was since it did not look like a pink primrose. Thanks to answers to my queries on facebook, I have found out that t is likely to be a Primula juliae cross in a similar vein to Primula 'Wanda' and 'Wanda White', which I also have in the garden.

2. Sadly many of the daffs I planted in the green bought as growing plants  last year have failed to come up.  Something must have got to them.  One of the few Narcissus cyclamineus which was in a pot survived, and is now flowering in the garden.

and Narcissus 'Rip Van Winkle''s stems are finding the blooms too heavy and are bowing down except that I found a stick to prop them up. Not much else on the Narcissus front in the garden at present.

Narcissus 'Rip Van Winkle'

3. Persicaria Red Dragon is shooting up now and looking fine against the stone wall, and close to the dwarf forsythia a pleasing combination. 

Persicaria Red Dragon

In June 2023 I read an article written by Asa Gregers-Warg, head gardener at Beth Chatto's with the most apt description of Persicaria microcephala 'Red Dragon':

'A superb foliage plant with sumptuous lance-shaped, deep-burgandy leaves, adorned with a silvery, chevron marking in early summer.  The intensity of the foliage colour changes as the season progresses, with the leaves taking on green tones as they mature.  Unlike most other Persicarias, it is clump forming, with an upright, gently arching habit.'

I find that I can cut it back once or twice a year when the vibrant new foliage emerges once more, and keeps the plant just the right proportion for my garden.

4.  Other plants are showing promise, I wonder how long it will be before these Pulsatilla start to open? This one is on the corner where I can look easily into its blooms.  The other three are in the gravel garden and not quite this advanced.  Since all of them were acquired either last year or the year I am waiting eagerly to see how their form and colour sit within the small areas they are in.

Pulsatilla vulgaris

5. The best clump of white flowered Pulmonaria 'Sissinghurst White' is a bee magnet.

Bird Bath with Pulmonaria 'Sissinghurst White' at its foot

6.  Last year I salvaged the very top of the Fatsia Japonica 'Spider's Web'as I was chucking a very sad looking plant, not knowing whether it would grown new roots if planted as a cutting.  I kept a good eye on it.  During the year it had put on some good roots and I've just repotted it as it is making such good growth.  For the moment I am keeping it as a house plant after seeing some green Fatsias used that way in a local restaurant.  I had been considering a leafy house plant, and for this year at least, that is what it will be grown as.

Fatsia Japonica 'Spider's Web'

The original plant, in a large pot outdoors,  had gone into severe decline over just a couple of weeks, at about this time last year, and the 'postmortem' revealed that the roots had been almost munched completely by the dastardly little grubs of the Vine Weevil.  

I've depleted my six, but just want to add that the Amelanchiers are about to burst open, which is a good 10 days later than in 2021,  and the Mangetout Peas I sowed only days ago had 100% germination, and are already planted out in the garden. As I planted them the cooing of the wood pigeons reminded to cover them with fleece, to protect them both from the weather and those greedy marauders.

My talk at Henton Gardening Club was well attended and I had some lovely feedback, so I may well be called on to prepare a different  talk for next year.  Thanks to the regular posts each week for  SOS I had lots of photographs and notes to help me write up my talk.  It  may be that other local gardening clubs may ask me to go and present the powerpoint show.  Mr S was surprised I ad-libbed throughout without notes.  I didn't want to present a 'read' talk, but I did annotate each of the slides with the names of the plants which were a great help to me, and also to the audience, as I have since had emails asking me about some of the ones I showed. 

I'm off to HPS Somerset to listen to Helen Picton talking about Asters, and next Saturday I will be at Yeo Valley Plant Sale in that most lovely of gardens and what a setting with the lakes and hills. That will be an all day affair and I am on the gate both morning and afternoon.  Of course I shall arrive early to be able to view and maybe get some little beauties for the garden.