Six on Saturday 30 January 2021

Time again for Six on Saturday in a week when I could write about six types of weather, but that would be too boring, and your brain may fog over.  Don't despair The Prop will have gathered several of us and no doubt we shall hear from gardeners several hopefully from some who have had better weather.

(1) It was very cold start of the week: cyclamen coum brought a spot of colour as the blooms poked up above the meagre sprinkling of snow. This couldn't help but bring a smile to my face.

The auriculas Nessun Dorma ought to brought under shelter to keep away from the wet?

If these had not been  brought  under shelter as well as all the other small pots, they would have most probably been washed out of their pots: the rain on Thursday night and during Friday was the heaviest I had seen.  We have more of this to come today!

(2) By the middle of the week, the weather became unusually warm.  Windows in the house and the conservatory were opened, and this gardener could not just sit on her hands.  The old tatty gasteria was in imminent danger of being thrown out.  It had worked its way to the back door ready to be thrown out.  Of course it has once been loved, and had been potted in an old hand-thrown terracotta pot,.  

On one of my forays before the times of being able to locate nurseries on the internet, and the era of 'Garden Centres' as we know them today, I came across an old nursery.   It wasn't so neat and tidy, but it grew plants.  It had  stock plants from which it grew seasonal plants to sell.  It seemed that tomato plants and  garden plants like wall flowers, and biennials etc. were their stock in trade.  They were also small market gardeners. You would walk out along rows, and the old gardener would dig you some up and wrap them in newspaper.  I was very young and starting my new garden.  He had fuchsias, succulents and glass house Chrysanthemums too. I got to know the 'old chap' who in the glory days of the nursery was one of the best producers of glass house tomatoes for the area around, and loved to welcome callers.   Behind one of the glasshouses I found a mountain of clay pots piled pell mell.  Many were broken but I could see one or two whole ones.  I asked why they were like that, can only remember that he explained that plastic pots were now what people wanted, and he just used the broken clay to help with drainage along the paths etc. He said it was a shame to see them like that as some were as old as the big old house that had burnt down many years before.  He was only too happy for me to have two or three.  This was one of those: it has been with me ever since then.

Gasteria carinata v.verrucosa

A few of the old leaves were showing signs of fungal disease.  Time for complete destruction and a little post mortem?

The bottom of the pot was full of dead roots.  I learnt this week that this happens to the old roots every few years. After all the bits were separated, I found some healthy shoots and decided to clean up the pot, and start again, with fresh compost mixed half and half with grit. I

This isn't the first time of repotting, but I ought to have done it sooner. I only have a few succulents, and love having them around the house, in different places. I don't have a book on how to really look after them properly, and just check on the internet.
 

(3) As I had the repotting tray out, I mixed some suitable potting medium  and got cracking on potting up some rooted cuttings. Three of  Salvia microphylla 'Cerro Potosi', and three of silver leaved Artemesia Powis Castle, which I had taken as an insurance should my heavily pruned shrub not survive its hard pruning.  All six are being protected in the shred from further rain. It has started to rain, but it was still warm, and a treat to out in the fresh air.  I limited myself to keeping only a few of the cuttings: for myself and to give away. Jon The Propagator used an apt term this week: "one to wear, one to spare, and one for the wash".

(4) My well packed order arrived from Pottertons. The plants may be in their winter phase, but since 'the specials' were in very low supply, leaving it a little later would end in disappointment.

New labels are best written out straight away for : Gypsophilia tenuifolia, Origanum 'Buckland', Salvia cyanescens, Pelargonium endlicherianum, Silene schafta 'Ralph Haywood', and Viola pedata.  I saw the tricolour version at Birmingham Botanical Gardens a few years ago and the whole plant charmed me. If I am successful with this one, ie I can grow it reasonably successfully, I hope to find and grow the tricolor version.

I've been asked what sort of pen I use for the labels: 

The Pen I use is Pen-touch extra fine marker in silver. For the small labels I use the Extra fine size, and for the larger labels the fine one. However I like to write on all sorts of information for instance sowing date, purchase date etc, I use Extra fine. For labels, pens and other items I find The Essentials Company gives great service and good prices.

https://www.theessentialscompany.co.uk/marker-pens/pentouch/

(5)  Galanthus Magnet, from Cathy, (2018)  and Eranthis hyemalis.  When separated and replanted last summer, the snowdrop bulbs were repositioned  it seems too close to the eranthis, or even over the top!  

(6) Crocus sieberi subsp. sublimis Firefly/Crocus sieberi atticus 'Firefly':  the second crocus variety in flower this year.  Not quite as bright a purple as Tricolour, however the gentler colours look great in the conservatory border.

I hope my gardening friends find something to keep them going and maintain their hopes, but also there are great memories that emerge during quieter times. 

Regular walk round Hay Hill

 Stepping out from home our regular walk takes us round Hay Hill.  Today there was still a little of the light snow left, but the roads were just about free from ice except along narrow hedge lined sections. This morning it was grey with intermittent fine drizzle.

 Whenever we have been away from home, the view of the hill just before we turn off is a cherish view.

Particularly in winter when the paths get muddy, we stick to the lanes. We are able to walk all around Hay Hill and back, passing the riding centre at Burcott, walking through Coxley Wick and then down onto Hay Moor. We walk along Haymoor Drove, which is edged by Rynes that drain the levels, and then turn back home.  

There are some old trees characteristic of the levels, and a number of birds.  For the last few times we have seen two pairs of stonechats.  Today we spotted the kingfisher, buzzard, swans, crows, jackdaws, blackbirds, robins, goldcrests, different types of ducks. 

There is an old thorny tree most probably a Hawthorn from which sprouts a large spray of male mistletoe.   It is have a more yellow look to it on account of the male flowers.

I've been meaning to frame its lonely growth, no female in sight, for some time. 

 It was at this spot that we crossed with the farmer, who was checking out the water levels around her fields. We hovered and chatted for quite some time, it was a treat to chat to a person face to face. She mentioned that they also get snipe in the area, which we shall look out for, but we ought to bring our binoculars to view further in details across the fields.

On the homeward stretch we catch a view of the barn on  Hay Hill. Still quite a way to go but always the beautiful green grass and the tree topped Ben Knowle Hill on our left.

We alternate directions around Hay Hill.  We cycle around if we want a short cycle ride, but walk if we want a longish walk from home.  During the covid lockdown, we feel this is all we ought to allow ourselves! 

Six on Saturday - Signs of spring

 Time again to gather together and share our weekly six things from our gardens.  Jon blogs as The Propagator, but this he is also turning into a 'runner' not of strawberries but miles.

After days of rain brought on by the latest storm Christoph, yesterday was sunny, and although no great task was accomplished, I took delight in the garden.

(1) Stepping out from our back door, the three oriental pots in which the deciduous small fern are quietly resting,  the soft green cushiony moss caught my eye.  Needing as much cool shade as they can get, these pots remain here except for a few days when their fronds start to uncurl, when I may move them onto the 'blue table' or the shed shelf, where I can see them from the kitchen window.

This is the  narrow alley leading to the garden

'

(2) In the pouring rain the closest Kitchen Herb', except it is no herb but a shrub, is my pot of Bay, also a major ant nest....

(3)  The sun has coaxed open the first crocus: Crocus chrysanthus Snowbunting.

(4) Lady Beatrice Stanley is a pretty double snowdrop, and a cherished present from gardening friend Anna. I have only a few specials and this is a one that is starting to bulk up. Anna suggested I might like to listen to last week's Radio 4 programme on snowdrops.  I enjoyed listening to Open Country this week, in which Alan Street from Avon Bulbs described his passion for snowdrops and discovering new forms. I don't know how long the link will last, but it is worth sharing this with you.

(5)Frost warning the natural way.  I can check the outside thermometer, via the base station, but it is much more fun to peer out at Iris Jane Phillips.  At the first hard frost she bowed down completely, but within a short time as the sun coaxed up the temperatures, she soon perked up. Jane Phillips has curtsied several times this winter.

(6) An hour of so in the sun is good for everyone 

I was moving around mindfully, and thought to move some leaves, luckily I was wearing gloves, and only using slow gentle movements, as I thought there may be snowdrops hidden below. The dome of leaves was a covering for a hibernating hedgehog. She made her own bed in between the plants and the stone wall, and to think some of the neighbours have set up Hedgehog houses, I shall have to share this on our WhatsApp group.

It looks as if we are to have snow tomorrow. Delicates have been brought into the conservatory.

 

Marmalade wrapped up

There is something quite enchanting about fruit beautifully presented.   Ordinarily Waitrose sells the oranges in Kg boxes, but I was attracted by the wrappers adorning the fruit, beautifully packed, in open cardboard boxes, depicting The Ave Maria Organic Orange Farm close to Seville. Don't they look pretty used up as a wrapping for the jars before they are stored away?

These organic Seville Oranges were fresh, bright and in perfect condition.  The wrapped ones had slight marks, but it just proves that they are grown on trees and not made by some magic plastic fairy.

 

Fruit tissue wrappings for transport are not a novelty.  The New Gastronome has an article by Lisa Schultz on citrus fruit wrappers which is interesting.  I was transported to the foothills of Mount Etna, when we  walked through the organic citrus groves, after a delicious lunch cooked for us on the farm, 

And are those oranges on the kitchen tiles?  Maybe.  I have been making marmalade each year for years.  A note in my old cook book for 1977 shows I had made 48lbs that year, and that the oranges cost 16p per pound, and the sugar om 1979 29p per kilo.  In 1980 the oranges were 24p per pound.

Cyclamen posy In a Vase on Monday

After all the fireworks, it is now time to do a little spring cleaning, and yesterday, during a little pottering around in the garden, found some early flowers.  Linking up with Cathy, who is the 'House Keeper' of this weekly Monday 'club', I am able to share with others a little of our gardens.

This particularly early flowering cyclamen coum could have featured in a posy a couple of weeks back, and really needs her moment of glory before the specials emerge. 

 The little bit of greenery is from a fern which 'arrived' in my previous garden, spores floating in from how far, your guess is as good as mine.  A few leaves of Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’ picks up the deeper maroon of the base of the petals and underside of the leaf.

The posy is set against a very large and beautiful antique damask linen napkin which came to me from my grandmother.