Instant or seasonal gratification in the garden - Six on Saturday

We have had a very wet week, and garden cannot take any more. Some of the flowers have been bashed down by the heavy rain, and the lack of sunshine is taking its toll. However at this time of the year, expectation is high and the newly emerging plants bring intense pleasure, but still I am not immune to instant gratification.  Just reading Jim's anchoring post with all his Camelias and posts from other gardeners several in other countries will bring more Six on Saturday enjoyment.  

1. I ought to know better than visit a good local plant nursery, merely of course on the pretext of delivering a year's supply of the regional HPS leaflets, whilst having a bit of ready cash in my wallet!  I came away having spent some of my pocket money:  Crocus chrysanthus 'Romance' was placed in the garden, in a spell of 'non heavy rain' yesterday. The outer petals are paler but and when open all the inner petals are a lovely buttery yellow.
 

Crocus chrysanthus 'Romance'

I also picked up a snowdrop: Galanthus Sprite, it is a good virescent, which I happen to have in the garden which is nice and healthy.  As these specials are slow to increase, I wanted to establish some in another part of the garden, but the original clump is not ready to be divided. As well I bought four pots of Eranthes.  However I had picked up two pots of Eranthes from the garden centre at Rocky Mountain, where I did my weekly veg shop on the way.  Comparing the two suppliers, I am pleased to say that the pots supplied by Jackie Williams at Triffids Nursery were far far superior, having very good roots, whereas the others had barely started to root but showing shoots, I dare say the corms had only just been planted.  That reminded me of the lesson to check the roots before buying!

2.  I've not posted about this crocus which grows in the Conservatory border right next to Crocus sieberi 'Tricolor' out of sight to the left of this group.  I believe these are Crocus tommasinianus 'Barr's Purple'.  I've had it many years now and is a good returner each season.  These grow on the outer edge of the bed along the gravel path, so whatever the weather I can walk out a look at the spring flowers emerging, or even admire it from the conservatory.

3. It is the mixture of the Cyclamen coum that forms the fist strip of  Spring flowers which I look out on from the conservatory: this week it although not quite reaching its peak, it is already working nicely.. 

4. In that same border Galanthus 'Trumps' is sending up its easily recognised blooms, one gifted to me by Cathy: three flowering bulbs this year.

Galanthus Trumps

These  eranthes were planted in previous years!

5.  Whilst planting out some other plants,  I had forgotten that  the spot is where the Oxalis triangularis come up  each summer.  Having just come back from a friend in whose home I have admired several times this plant growing as a house plant,  several of these little rhizomes are going to be placed in a  pot of compost ready to grow into a new house plant.

Oxalis triangularis rhizomes accidentally uncovered

6. Still my favourite returner now in its sixth year in the garden, is Crocus minimus Spring Beauty. At a stage when as my gran would say: not quite enough blue sky to make a sailor a pair of trousers, the bees were out and the crocus obliged by opening.  Precious moments during this generally wet week with dark skies.

Crocus minimus Spring Beauty

When it dries out a little I have a few jobs to do, more tidying up and pruning, and a little seed sowing.

Tree Appreciation Tuesday - Of myths and legends

In these parts do trees grow, around which myths and legends abound.  Many myths, legends,  and much speculation has grown up around a Hawthorne which grows in a stunted way.  The best information about this tree I found can be read on The Garden Trust Blog.

Crataegus monogyna 'Biflora' flowers in the Spring and then during the winter.  I would not say that the winter flowering is showy, to me it is as if it is just starting its Spring flowering early. 

Glastonbury Parish Church with The Glastonbury Thorn

I have read that neither cuttings nor seeds can be used to propagate the tree, and that it has to be grafted.

Flowers in January as well as haws from last year's flowers

Lichen and moss encrusted criss cross of twigs

I first wrote about  a similar Hawthorne two years ago, and for this week's Tree Appreciation Tuesday, I took pictures last week of the Hawthorne outside St John the Baptist, the COE Parish Church at Glastonbury. 

This particular tree just represents for me, the mystic and mystery which can build up regarding either one particular tree or a tree type or maybe a tree in a particular place.  It could be that a tree has particular meeting for just one person, a group of people, a tribe, the fact that trees enter the psyche of people is not surprising. The Glastonbury Thorn has been written about, and stories spun around it.  This is quite ironic given that almost all the specimens of 'The Glastonbury Thorn' are not likely to be more than a hundred years old.

Whether in ancient times or now, starting up stories which appeal, or entertain, has been of value to religious places, business and commerce.  From the Glastonbury Abbey webpage:

The Holy Thorn

Many believe that the Holy Thorn tree that can be seen in the grounds originated from the staff of Joseph of Arimathea.

By the 1530s, not long before the Dissolution of the Monasteries, three thorn trees grew on Wearyall Hill (sometimes known as Wirral Hill) about 1km south-west of Glastonbury. The trees were very unusual because they flowered twice - once in the spring around Easter, and a second time at Christmas.

Not surprisingly, they were seen as holy thorns. In the Civil Wars of the 17th century Puritan soldiers cut down the only remaining thorn because they saw it as an object of superstition. However, local people had kept cuttings, and it is from these that the thorn now growing in the abbey grounds is believed to descend. It continues to flower around Easter and again at Christmas.

The custom of sending a budded branch of a Glastonbury thorn to the Queen at Christmas seems to have begun in the early 17th century, when a branch was sent to Queen Anne, King James I's consort. A spray is still cut from the thorn in St John's Church yard and sent to the sovereign each Christmas by the Vicar and Mayor of Glastonbury.

The thorn featured on British 12p and 13p Christmas postage stamps in 1986.

Snowdrops and friends In a Vase on Monday

 Snowdrops and Cyclamen coum are coming up in the garden.  They make good bed fellows, as the coum corns are relative small, and the leaves not as extensive as the C. hederifolium.  

This week's little arrangement consists of a number of the named varieties.  I had picked these as I had a number of friends come round for coffee and cake(s) on Friday.  We sat in the conservatory, but that is where they chose even though we were packed in there. I had quite a few compliments about the garden,  most had not seen anything other than the Nivalis, and enjoyed viewing the differences close up in the little vase.

Again another charming and different snowdrop is Galanthus Diggory.  This was a gift several years ago from Anna, and the outer petals curve in and are pleated reminding me of seersucker fabric.

 As usual I am linking this post to Cathy's post, and anyone who wishes to post and link in their arrangements using flowers and greenery from their gardens is welcome to join in.

Six on Saturday - Six things in the garden at the start of February 2024

The garden plants has more or less been standing still during the last week, but I have been doing a little repotting, and moving around of plants.  For further interesting reading on matters garden or gardening, Six on Saturday anchor blog is the place to go to.

As I looked back over previous years, I realise that each year I had been attracted to 'yellow' in the garden.  Last autumn I bought some Crocus chrysanthus 'Dorothy' from the Potterton's stall at the Bishop's Palace in Wells. Jewelled with moisture on this grey and gloomy day, they draw me to the sitting circle table on which some of the smaller pots of early flowers have been placed. The dark purple streak on the outside of the petals particularly appeals to me. The crocus in the ground have been slow to emerge this year, with one or two are valiantly showing promise.

2. Other spring  beauties that I am trying to establish in the conservatory bed are Eranthis.  In February 2024's edition of Garden Illustrated, there are several pages dedicated to what we call 'Winter Aconites'. 

I mentioned last week  that I had planted a new one: Eranthis hyemalis 'Winterzaube' 'Winter Magic', and ones planted in 2020 are just at the stage of their showing their position.  A little further away is a plant which has been moved several times, but I think this came in soil in a pot brought from my last garden.  It forms a neat clump of several blooms.

I even had a few moments wondering if I was 'imagining plants' since they are neither up now, nor did I mention this last on blog.  This is where I search for what I have done in the garden.  I remembered that I had bought three eranthis last year which I identified as Eranthis cilicica when I looked carefully at them.  The article explained that it appreciates a sunny spot that becomes dry in the in summer.  I have already earmarked spots, and should they come up, they will be moved. 

They are not yet up, but I did find a picture in my files, but I had not named it.  From now on I shall be naming the pictures I choose to keep each month, all the others are useless really when it comes to searching.  However I found it based on looking through pictures taken in February 2023.  

3. On the couple of decent days this week, a got down to a couple of plants which needed moving.  

When I turned out the Fatsia Japonica Spider's Web, I realised it either had to be moved to a larger pot or out into the garden to take its chances, so it was decanted into the shady border.  It seems to be going by a different name these days: Fatsia japonica 'Tsumugi-shibori'. Here it will fend for itself, and won't need watering.

4. Some of the seedlings from seed received in December 2022, have already grown corms large enough to take their chance in the open garden.  Of the seedlings labelled 'Fairy Rings' there were just a few whose leaves more or less conformed to that type, and again, they are going to take their chances in the open garden. It will be probably 2025 before they start to flower, but as I like the leaves, I will be happy to enjoy those.

Cyclamen hederifolium Fairy rings type

5. I tend to go for the distinctive or larger snowdrops.  I do have two small but perfectly formed snowdrops which I was delighted to see up again this year: their first year since being planted last year.

I love this diminutive single nivalis. 

Galanthus nivalis 'Charlotte' has bulked up since last year.

The other small one is Galanthus rizehensis 'Margaret Billington'. 

The taller of the two blooms, which is the older bulb has four outer petals, and the smaller one is from the bulb formed last year, and has just three outers.  Both these were bought at Elworthy Cottage Plants last year, when we visited with friends Brenda and Peter. 

6. In the same Garden Illustrated magazine (Feb 2024), currently my going to sleep read, I was amused and informed in equal measure by Alice Vincent's article 'Fond of the Frond'.  She is a self-confessed pteridomaniac. 

I probably don't have enough plants, didn't know the name until now, or don't know too much about all the wonderful ferns,  I am however 'an admirer' of the fern. And if all space which could grow ferns in the garden is full, well, there are pots to fill. Here  Fern Asplenium x ebenoides aka 'Dragon Tail Fern' and Fern Cheilanthes lanosa (grey felty) aka 'Hairy Lip Fern'.

No doubt the garden will draw me out, and I shall find time to do a gardening next week. 

Tree Appreciation Tuesday - Golden Weeping Willow

 What an enchanting tree and its  placement was inspired! 

The footbridge across the Bishop's moat, with the small island on which it is growing, allows for a glimpse right into the crown, and a walk right through the drooping branches.  

In the summer you are bathed in pale green flickering light, now in the winter you can pause mid way and appreciate the structure of the tree. Look up and there are long side limbs, and look down and the reflections equally enchant. 

I noticed in a couple of places where the long stems reached down to the water, they were growing roots and therefore it would be easy enough to propagate. If anyone has a large expanse of water in need of a tree, maybe some enquiries for cuttings to the Bishop's Palace may gain you a little piece of this beauty?

Once in 2020 the Swans nested on the little island and a board had to be put up along the bridge, usually the Palace Swans nest along the bank of the moat further along, but during this period when there were far fewer visitors to the Palace, and when so many places were closed, the Island must have seemed the ideal spot for Grace and Gabriel to build their nest.  I remember watching the webcam to see how the eggs and the young chicks were progressing.  The things we found to do during the Lockdown! The island is still a place for rest or preening for all the Palace's birds

There are so many wild willows growing on the levels not far away but this is a hybrid. 

Salix x sepulcralis var. chrysocoma

Cultivar origin

Golden weeping willow is a hybrid between white willow (Salix alba), which is native to Europe and Asia, and Babylon weeping willow (Salix babylonica), which is native to China, both of which have been cultivated for centuries. The first golden weeping willow hybrid dates to 1888.

Derivation of names

The genus name Salix is the classical Latin name for the willows. The hybrid name sepulcralis means of sepulchres, or tombs, and, like the common name, refers to the trees' weeping habit. The letter x in the Latin name indicates that golden weeping willow is a hybrid species.

These details are courtesy of the site Canadian Tree Tours I found this when I was searching for the origin of this tree, and found the site to be well worth looking through. There is much there to further my enjoyment of the trees I see around me.