Six on Saturday - Snowflakes and beyond

It has been an awkward week: Mr S hurt his left wrist and forearm cleaning the conservatory, a sort of sprain or wear injury, which has meant my sous-chef which in the case of having only a couple of punters for meals, mean kitchen tidy upper, washer upper, butler etc. He has needed entertaining as he was getting bored.  Therefore I have had less time or energy to do gardening.  I ought to say Mr S is no 'Snowflake' and the title chosen before I had thought to document Mr S's condition, was in respect of the weather and the first plant this week.

Yesterday however he was out for the day and bliss I was outside all day.  Of course the overt excuse was 'on guard' duty with my tin can filled with a few stones to act as a rattle should the pesky magpies attack 'my' little nest of robing hatchlings.  I got lots done in the garden: plants planted, seeds sown, geraniums tidied up, emerging shoots on one or two year old perennials counted; you all know the pleasures of Spring.  Hence apart from this fewer words and larger pictures for my Six.  As for weather, it has been cold at night with frosts an odd snow flurry even..... 

What I am pleased about is that The Beechgrove Garden has moved to a prime time slot on Friday nights.  I prefer this programme to the one that now follows it, even though being set in Scotland they are a couple of weeks or more behind me season wise. Mr S too can sit there more quietly rather pass his not always flattering remarks regarding Monty's gardening.  He watches it for a look at Nigel and Nell, and sadly misses Nigel. He has not taken to 'the rat'! We still watch it...

To know what the rest of the gang are up I've linked in to The Propagator, as I do every Saturday to mention Six things in the garden. Spoilers alert just look at the Narcissi 'Baby Boomer' and Tulip Trick not just great names but gorgeous flowers in Jon's garden.

1. Snowflakes in the form of perennial candytuft Iberis sempervirens 'Snowflake' are the much more welcome sort.

Iberis sempervirens 'Snowflake'

2. Blossom on the Plum Mirabelle de Nancy are starting to open, and I am counting my plums before they form! 

 Plum Mirabelle de Nancy

3. Pear Beth is resplendent for a young tree, but I think I shall need to remove a lot of the fruit on its first year fruiting. 

 Pear Beth

The other pear tree Concorde another columnar tree appears to have just one flower truss at present.  Obviously a tree which is taking its time.  

4. Nearly white, but not quite: dwarf Iris Nick Knack is looking great.

5. White with lots of pink on Tulip Cabanna.

Now fully open they were beautiful from the start:

6. No white on this little cutting planted up last November in a pot with a few stones:

It must be amongst my favourite spring plants in the garden.  It has weathered the winter, grown a little and looking lovely on the shelf.

Phlox bifida Ralph Hayward  in a pot

Phlox bifida Ralph Hayward in the gravel garden with tortoise

The one in the gravel garden is looking equally charming, and flowering from early April too. This one is just a year older than the cutting, and is a cutting of the original plant.

Spring Beauties In a Vase on Monday

 With small flowers it is a delight to cut them and arrange them, and have them on the table.  Their detail can easily be admired and even on a cool dull day after the bring cold clear days, a little posy is much to be treasured.  So rather than kneeling down myself to admire the flowers in the rain, my kneeling Terracotta Army miniature soldier can demonstrate my usual position when looking at the flowers in the garden.

Spring Beauties in a Vase this Monday

Having arranged this little vase, it is time to share it with others via Cathy's Monday get together.

This new treasure this year is the palest of blue grading to white at the tips.

Muscari Americanum Esther

I have them growing in a bowl on a pedestal by the front door and also on a shelf in the back garden.  When I had snipped a few blooms, with second ones coming from each bulb, this was no robbery, I went around to choose something to go with them.  The blue green highly dissected leaves of Dicentra cucullaria was the top choice, and then I thought why not add some of its pantaloon shaped flowers.  Since getting my first little pot in 2018, a healthy population allows me to have some growing in a pot as well as in the garden.

To finish it off a few of the tiny blue flowers from Brunnera macrophylla 'Jack Frost' PBR growing nearby just to show how pale a blue is the Muscari Esther. 

Six on Saturday - 2 April 2022

 I was going to focus on whites this week, but I seem to been charmed by some other blooms and plants as well.  We have had flurries of snow: yes for sure, and it was not all the blossom being blown off the Amelanchiers which are still looking fabulous.

1. At first I was just going to post a picture of the White Thalia daffodil growing in the gooseberry patch.

Then I went and explored the internet and learnt a little more than when I first bought the bulbs over two years ago.  For one they are a Triandus cultivar, bear two flowers per stem, tolerate light shade and heavy soil better than other daffs, have two or more flowers per stem, with coronas pointing downwards and the surrounding perianth 'reflexed' meaning that they bend away from the corona.  I just felt the description was apt as all of this is shown in the picture. I had planted them after growing in a pot the first year into a slightly shaded spot in heavy soil...so luck rather than understanding!

2. Lovely white and green on the emerging leaves of Hylotelephium  erythrostictum 'Frosty Morn', aka 'Alison's sedum'

3 The very first blossom on Pear Beth. It is a Supercolum tree planted in December 2019.  Each evening frost has been forecasted, she has been swathed in fleece. And yes we have had frost and light flurries of snow after several weeks of warm due weather,

4. White daisies, well at least one good white daisy plant in this mixed pot.

5.  The species tulips in the front garden are going over quickly in the heat, but now it is cooler I hope they will last a little longer.  The multiheaded Turkestanica are already in seed which is about three to four weeks earlier than last year which was the first time they flowered in the garden.  Tulipa Clusiana 'Lady Jane' has settled in nicely and indeed increased.  

6. Tulipa Whittalii Major is strong but still not increasing, with perhaps fewer bulbs coming up than on their first year last year.  As it is supposed to spread via stolons,  I am still hopeful that it will increase, but maybe the better option is to add this to the bulb order later this year.

As it was windy the only way I could get an unblurred picture was to use the flash...I may try again and substitute the picture.

Hopefully the longer days for those of us in the northern hemisphere will mean more hours enjoying our gardens.  Now to join in with the Prop and others with Six on Saturday.

Even better than Sticky Toffee Pudding

 I made Dan Lepard's Rye Malt Banana Cake in anticipation for a few friends popping round today and tomorrow to view the garden, and having a demonstration of plant division. The recipe came to me via Bakery Bits newsletter, but in any case I get Dan Lepard's posts of Facebook.

A number of changes to the cake were needed simply because I didn't have all the ingredients, and baked it in a 20 x 30 tray deep oblong Silverware bake tin.  I didn't have walnuts, so used pecans instead which had been lightly roasted, and didn't have any roasted barley malt, which I am sure to put onto my next order from Bakery Bits. I used 30g of malt syrup instead. I find tray bakes easy to portion up and freeze, as we wouldn't want to eat so many slices just the two of us over a couple or more days.

Tonight we had a lovely big bowl of spiced pumpkin soup with lots of chicken bits from the stock, with added lentils.  After a' soup dinner', I like to serve a pudding.

We were out of yogurt, but we had been saving the cream from the top of the goat's milk which has just started to be delivered by Sarah.

Into the small frying pan went a good desert spoon of sugar and a little water, boiled together and a dessert spoon of malt syrup, then the banana added.  This formed the 'sticky' element, then the cream poured over, and a couple of pecan nut halves for me, but none for him.  You can guess who is the nuttiest of us two!

If I had any ways of improving this, I would have warmed up the cake in some foil in the oven.  It was still delicious.  I have sixteen good sized portion, so in in effect one could make sixteen desserts for a large gathering with this recipe.  Five stars for Dan's Recipe!

In a Vase on Monday - Frugality?

I've always enjoyed the challenge of using what I have rather than discarding.  I'm not perfect but I find pleasure in using things up, for instance some of my best suppers have been finding what needs using up and making a meal of it, rather than leaving for yet another day and then having to throw things away.

Two plants were recently divided and repotted, and required removal of material, which would have ended in the recycling bin.  They looked so attractive even though still in tight bud, so decided to use the best to put in a vase.  Sorbaria sorbifolia 'Sem' has now unfurled leaves

It ended it with two vases, one without flowers but with bark leaf and seeds which have been on the mantle piece for months.  The other one still looking very good with the Alstromeria fully opening over a few of days.  

I could have gone out and picked some lovely daffodils fresh today, but I have friends coming today and tomorrow to look round the the garden, and for now they need to stay where they are.  If it turns cool they may well last and be available for next week's vase.  

Over with Cathy to whom a band of us gardeners link in, where without doubt there will be an abundance of opulent arrangements.