Six on Saturday - 27 March 2021

The clocks change tonight, and that means even more hours in the garden. I have now changed to making our main meal mostly at lunch time.  With all the zooms in the evening, this suits our current days, and it means we get to eat at a reasonable time too. Although I am waiting for our Amelanchiers to bust out fully, daily walks have become blossom watches.  For some sedentary blossom watching, a peep at some of the posts and indeed The Prop's blossom, following down the rabbit hole will be worth while. 

1 Sometimes a plant 'will grow on me', for now I am rather underwhelmed with
Tulipa turkestancia, When it is cold and sunless the flowers close and with the outer petals a pale grey green they are indistinguishable from the leaves.  Maybe when it gets a little warmer, and I can 'bond' with it by getting close up, my opinion may change.  Already I am finding tulips to order for next year...but I shall give this one two or three seasons  to 'improve'. Maybe when the sun comes out and shows me its yellow centre?

2 Another bloom which only gratifies when the sun is out is little clump of pink Anemone blanda Pink Star, of which I bought two and planted them out in the garden last February. It sulks if it is too cold or cloudy, as it has been quite often over the last week. Only one clump came up, the second has quite disappeared as have all the blue ones I have planted over the last few years.  All the blue ones that I planted over the last two or three years have disappeared. I may have just chosen the wrong place, or something has eaten them, or they have inadvertently been removed by me.  Frankly I am not that fussed!

 3.  I have just rescued this plant by removing the pile of leaves that was surrounding it and under which its stems had become soggy and damaged: Corydalis cheilanthifolia.  I blame the hedgehog for this as it has made a big pile of leaves against it and the stone wall behind. I think it is time to propagate this one and have it in several locations to see where it is happiest. I shall try and capture some of the seed rather than dead head it. After mid-summer last year, I started to get some unusual flowers.  Having consulted 'Bleeding Hearts, Corydalis and their relatives' by Mark Tebbitt & al, I read that "in shady situations, under stress, or late in the season, it may disappoint you with small cleistogamous flowers, which lack a spur".  

4. Primula Lilac Lace needs tlc and regular division to keep it going: here in a mixed tub at the foot of a clematis, these extra little bits, which were surplus were planted rather than chucked last November,  are proving the point; aren't they are small and dainty.

5. For now my new Cyclamen repandum is just outside the back door, where I can admire it each time I look out.  In the narrow side alley it only catches a little light towards late afternoon, when its elegantly twisted long and slender petals seem to glow with deep but delicate self assurance.  I wish I had bought more!

6. Robust but non the less hanging on for dear life this succulent nestles in a pocket within a piece of  lava.  All week we have been watching from time to time the live webcam on Iceland ad the eruption from the vent keeps building up and within a short time the classic volcano cone is getting higher and higher, but the vent has since expanded to take over the smaller adjacent fissures. 

Echeveria Elegans seems to be at home, on the stone conservatory table. The advantage of propagating this easy succulent is that you can experiment with all your surplus plants. From time to time I just immerse the whole lot in a bucket of water, then drain it off. There is very little soil.  A clump of Echeveria Elegans has survived in the ground in the front garden, and has managed to come through all the rain, and several days of freezing temperatures, albeit with a few darkened leaves.Yesterday fell down the rabbit hole of the internet and found the person after whom this plant was named.:  the 18th century Mexican botanical artist Atanasio Echeverría y Godoy. I also found that it is not a 'tropical' plant  and grows at high altitude and often on cliff or vertical slopes, which explains its need for good light levels.

Enjoy the spring in your gardens and if in the southern hemisphere the autumn bounty.....

Nexus Socks Complete

 

Came across this pattern again when I was sorting out my old copies of The Knitter.  Always loved this pair, and nicely photographed in mango, a favourite colour of mine.  Knitting this in WYS blue, which happened to be in my stash.

I looked up the meaning of Nexus: an important connection between the parts of a system or a group of things...

That sums up the pattern: a lace cable pattern and wave pattern interspersed with some other stitches.  I though it would do my head in, at first, but using colour coded markers to separate the groups, and keeping a log checked off after each row, I have managed to build up a rhythm and enjoyed this project.  Knitted in blue West Yorkshire Spinner sock yarn.

Just in case Kay is looking at this...I am still using the bag and scissor keep that we made in our little Kenilworth WI craft group under your excellent tutelage.  So many happy memories.

In a Vase on Monday - Black or White

I've enjoyed musing over a few recently heard sayings: you know the sort of thing you hear and such good catch phrase or a expression which give a short cut to ones feelings or experiences, is mused over.  One the Queen used recently was "recollections may vary" and now Mr S and I are using that and also may "differ in place of vary". I have recently been quite tired and felt I have had to draw back from some things.  I heard someone say regarding knowledge, or interest: "That is outside my bandwidth" so for now many of the things I may have followed through are now "outside my bandwidth".  I wish I could remember where I heard it so that I could give it the right attribution.

Picking flowers, arranging them and posting here is well within my current bandwidth.  You can have it in Black or White: now that was a saying that was thrown at me when I was young.  Now I am older I can see all the shades in between, what it may look like from other people's viewpoint, and the more tactful approach of not saying anything. Wise men have always known this:

"The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,

Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit

Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,

Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it."

 Attributed to the medieval philosopher Omar Khayyam 

Back to topic: A Vase on Monday Black (Dark Grey)

A Vase on Monday White ( A cream of some kind)

A few Silver Birch twigs picked from a branch I found on the pavement on my journey out for my dental check up: the first for around 18 months. A few stems of Pittosporum  garnettii speckled with pink on the fringes of its green and cream edged leaves, and a small bunch of grape hyacinth  plonked in a Caithness Vase forms this week's offering. There is a type known as Muscari neglectum, but I am not so sure that this is that one.  When I looked up and found that name I nearly let out a burst of laughter.  The bulbs were in a neglected patch at the side of the house, that I had only tackled last autumn, and I planted the bulbs well spaced so that I could see what would come up.  I knew at least that the bulbs were not the same shape as the hybridized bluebells which have still come up a plenty, even where I thought I had dug them all out. There are some much nicer Muscari around but 'neglectum' is a great one and will have to do for today.

Cathy's vase of twigs and stones artfully arranged is our  cornerstone this week.  I am joining her, as well as many others again this Monday.

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 early as possible.

Winter is over - Spring has begun

 Its true Spring is with us: the first wild Wood Anemone are out on Torhill today.

With some wild primroses, violets and a pair of nuthatches close by, our short walk was a pleasure.  Somehow both of us were washed out, so for the first time for ages and ages, we went by car just to the other side of town, and had a short walk up the hill and through the woods and back to the car.  The wild garlic is just coming up.