Dwarf Forsythia

Last week for the Vase on Monday post, the little sprig of Forsythia attracted a few comments.  Here is the plant which is growing in the same pot since 2013.  Photographed yesterday when the sun came out briefly which opened the little crocuses at its base.  Later in the summer and into autumn the leaves have a purplish tinge.  

In 2015 it had really established itself well and was flowering very nicely on my previous patio.  This year I shall be repotting it or moving it into the new garden.



I bought the plant in either 2012 or 2013 from our Kenilworth in Bloom plant sale.  Janet was propagating wonderful plants which were in her garden, and this raised funds for us to plough into all the troughs and fund the summer competition and Autumn Prize presentation evenings. Each year I would look out for several ones to try out in the garden, and often they were ones which were hard to source from local nurseries.

We had bees and large bumble bees flying around the garden and visiting these early blooming plants.

Six on Saturday - 30 October 2021

 At Six this Saturday morning, I was woken by thunder and lighting, so that was the clarion to sort out some of the pictures I took in the garden this week, and compose my post.  It has been amazingly mild but also with some strong gusty winds. Today the heavy rains have set in.

1. Seeing the vegetation sway around was the reminder that roses ought to be tied more securely against the fence and shrubs pruned back to prevent swaying.  I know that the general rules are that one ought to prune roses in the spring.  However I got carried away and in general had a fairly good trim back of damaged, crosses or diseased wood, and the roses look almost ready for Summer.  We shall see:  I will probably have some corrections to make in the spring when they get their first dose of feed.  I really did not think there were many roses left, but there were sufficient for me to make a little posy, which I shall show for my In a Vase on Monday.

2. A couple of weeks back I was asked about the 'shrub in the back-ground'.  It is the lollipop Bay Tree which originally was much smaller and it had a twisted stem.  It was given to me as a 'thank you' for assisting someone in an emergency.  It seems to be adopted as a home to ants wherever it is located, and thus all sort of plants sprout from seeds which the ants carry there.  There are violets and the bronze leaved Carex Comans Bronze Form which I used to have growing in my previous garden.  This year the early year trim was forgotten, and the growth is showing flower buds, so I shall postpone its pruning till next spring.

3. Clematis orientalis Bill MacKenzie has romped away in its second year and is providing a cloud a shining seed heads as it catches the low autumn light.

4. The Dwarf Forsythia which I have had for nearly ten years, has been moved again.  It arrived here in its pot, and then about three years ago it got transferred to the bed in which I grow snowdrops and other early spring beauties.  It liked it there so much, and grew so well that it was starting to outstay its welcome.  As the rose bushes were getting pruned, something got hold of me, and I got hold of a big spade, and before I could stop myself, it found a new home on the opposite side of the garden.  Of course something had to be removed first and that was the Japanese Anemone September. It just languished in the heat, and the soil was far too dry for it.  I did have to give it a good hosing down three or four times during the dry weather, but it did not rock my boat, and now it is gone. The Forsythia is behaving as if it had been there for ever and now hopefully with a good drenching of a few buckets of water, and the rain this weekend, it will settle in nicely.

5. There is still a little flower in the garden...

6. Some of the better leaved forms of Cyclamen Hederifolium are gracing the shed shelf.

With rain set in for the weekend, you would think that puts the breaks on gardening activity.  Well it may well do as far as hands on plants is concerned.  However, if I have time to spare, I shall be going over some of my notes from the Iris Ney's talk last night called "Galanthus in Good Company" as there may be some little plants that I want to learn more about and possibly source for delivery next spring. 

I am joining in with Jon The Propagator, as do a number of other keen gardeners who love to share Six Items from their Gardens on a Saturday.

Six on Saturday - March's First

 One day of sunshine this Friday has lifted me.  After a week suffering from some dreaded lurgy, a gentle walk round the garden is just the thing to slowly appreciate some of what makes my Spring garden special to me. I picked up a few leaves which could have been protecting small slugs or small snails from around the spring beauties, but that is all for now, tomorrow I may sow a few seeds.

I had to tidy up a too large pile of magazines and send them on their way but tore out some amusing straplines, altering them a little and scattering them through my Six this Saturday, for my own amusement of course.  If you want to view practical, amusing or just seasonal items in the garden, the place to meet at is Jon's, whether you are contributing or just earsdropping.

1. Within a hour of the sun coming out the bees were out and the two latest varieties of crocus are now out and open ready for visitors. 

Crocus vernus Pickwick.

It is perfectly matched by Crocus tommasianus Ruby Giant . 

Groupings of both are scattered around the garden.  To think that these various clumps all came from perhaps three or four bulbs which hitched a lift in a pot along with another little shrub.

2.  The Shrub in question is a small Forsythia. I think this may well be it final resting point in the garden. 

"We've tweaked and edited and added, remoulding it a little more every year. That's the joy of it."

This shrub is at least 10 years old now. 

3. Standing at the study window looking down onto the gravel area there is a little gem of a creeping plant that has stood out all winter. It is very dark, but a good contrast against the cream stones.  Its tiny leaves are a deep metallic purple which reflect the light and unlike some of the silvery leaves or other preciouses have remained in pristine condition whatever the weather has thrown at it. None of the pictures where this plant is for sale shows the deep dark shiny winter foliage, and I would grow this never mind the flowers, for the foliage alone.

4. The red primula has survived another winter. Though I think it is loosing its vigour.  Perhaps I will try rejuvenating and moving it after it has flowered. I think they just flower so much it weakens the plant.  Is it flowering itself to death?

"We don't need the same plants in the same spot every year: we're always corralling them."

5.  I'm not sure that I find a daisy with so many petals quite as charming as one with a centre.  

6. The corydalis are starting to emerge in the conservatory bed, but just on the other side of the path, I am establishing a little clump of Galanthus Marjorie Brown just behind the Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens', a planting combination of snowdrop and this black grass that I picked on from the snowdrop weekend.  The plants arrived earlier this week from Lyn Miles, along with G. Pat Mason and G. Augustus.  However poorly I was I was not going to have snowdrops unplanted!  I think going out in the cold and rain set me back, but the bulbs have picked up very nicely.

"Using different layers of plantings, designer Ula Maria has created the space with soul her clients desired, full of contrast and character".

With such a small space, contrasts in colour, texture, changing plants throughout the season, or having ones so close together but with their different seasons, I work towards creating a garden that is seldom not able to give me something lovely to look at.

When resting I am  reading" A thing in Disguise: the visionary life of Joseph Paxton" by Kate Colquhoun. It is witty and interesting to hear about everything he got up to: visits to other gardens, nurseries and moving large trees etc. He was the right man at the right time, full of energy and with a very wealthy employer.  I am less than a fifth through, and am enjoying reading about his work. My interest was piqued only yesterday evening, by the first banana to fruit in the stoves at Chatsworth, and its connection to Mauritius.  I have looked into this further and found that Telfair sent two plants to the UK.  The story of how it came to be in Paxton's hands and what he paid for it, is further explained  in an article by The Tenerife News. There were two or three distinct types of banana available to buy and indeed my parents grew a couple of these in our garden, the smallest variety being the most sought after and sweetest.  I am not about to try and grow them here in my garden!

Garden at the start of April

Although the winter does not seem to have been very hard this year, I think that we are late with Spring here in the Midlands.  Usually I manage to find one or two good auriculas to show, these is not a blossom stem in sight.

I love to grow shrubs in tubs, this one with a dwarf prostate forsythia works its way to the patio each spring.  The show starts with a few species crocus and there is interest throughout the year, but it does move down the garden as different tubs take their turn as  stars.

This is a new planted pot has Lophomyrtus ralphii Little Star, a new fern, a couple of parahebes,  and some cyclamen seedlings, and my stone with a large hole through it!

My little wild pink primrose is in full bloom, and I have even managed to divide up a clump just this week and position some around the garden.  With the ample rain, they still look very perky as if they were well established!

Even though I think the garden is just about full, you can get seduced by new plants!  Especially when Mr S admired the leaf form of this one.  We bought it from Packwood House a few days ago.  The gardeners there have a few of their well grown plants for sale, and it is lovely to support them.  This one is Sanguisorba Officinalis 'Pink Tanna'.  For the moment it is still in its pot on the patio table where the light is shining through its leaves.

I still love to find flowers seeded where they will, and of course left by me, and not moved elsewhere:

 and one of our little men is wondering what happened to his label this year.  I think I should made him a tie!

The last plant is very small, but just look at the pattern, and the light falling on its hairy leaves.  It looks positively tropical and yet it is fully hardy.

Later it will have tall flower spikes, with dainty little flowers.  This picture was taken in June last year.  Its called Saxifrage stonlonifera.  Its great for growing in shady areas in the garden and is completely frost tolerant in Warwickshire.

Aeonium Velour in flower - Six on Saturday

I'm saving the best for last this week, this is not to say that first five of six things aren't SOS worthy.  Areas got flooded again this week, but luckily the only bit of standing water here a mere sliver along the fence that abuts the neighbours path only lasted half an hour or so.  I'm linking in this post as do others, which offers any reader visiting Jim's post, the opportunity to savour lots of multiples of six things from lots of different gardens.  

1. Luck would have it that at my gardening club this week, I won first prize in the raffle, which allowed me to choose, and although there were probably more valuable prizes such as a bag full of maincrop seed potatoes, worth nothing to me of course as I don't have room to grow potatoes, I chose this pretty red Primula titled 'Gold Nugget Mix'.  My primula that I had been nursing through many seasons is just about hanging in there, so I am delighted to have another one. 

2. With a little bit of shelter from the excessive rain, this 'exotic' looking plant catches the eye of visitors.  After hearing that it is a little hardier than I thought, from Avon Bulbs at the HPS talk, the Tropaeolum tricolor is starting into flower outside.  I may just use a few blooms to jazz up tonight's starter.  

  

I read that the bright green lobed leaves are called 'peltate' with the middle of the leaf connected to the leaf stalk, which is also similar to nasturtiums which are in the same family.

3. When it was pouring with rain,  I spent a little while writing out some labels for the new snowdrops, and in a lull when I went to put in G. Heffalump's label, I noticed that the dwarf Forsythia was valiantly starting to flower.

4. I have a little penchant for clay  pots, preferably terracotta and if I can get old and interesting pots so much the better.  I was interested to read about some early pots excavated during an archaeological dig  in Wells to the rear of what is now the Wells Museum.  I am volunteering as a Gallery Steward for 'Smashed in the Cellar' and took some photographs showing parts of the old garden pots.

Panels explained that the earliest garden pots were made at the East Somerset Potteries, and there is a piece of old Dutch Delftware Pot which would have been used for displaying prize bulbs.  When I was in Shepton last week, I spied what looked like an old pot for sale, and would have gone back except that the roads have been flooded.  I went on the bus yesterday and each and every one had been sold! I  have amongst my old pots one imprinted Sankey! 

5. One buys bulbs with the expectation that they increase.  It seems that Daffodils don't do particularly well here in the garden.  This is all is left of the bulbs I bought in 2022.  The foliage is a little on the yellow side and perhaps it is ailing.  Any suggestions?

6. There is just about sufficient headroom for the Aeolium Velour as it stands on its stone topped table, and had we had more sunshine, its leaves would be even more purple and would contrast nicely with the yellow flowers.

And will there be any dry weather soon?  If not I shall still have to go out there, and prepare a few seed pans, hopefully in a couple of weeks time when the seedlings are up we shall have better light, but I ought to check first!

 

Six on Saturday - 4 March 2023

We are now into March, time flies, but having turned cooler hopefully this will allow the crocuses to remain in top form longer.  I have just had a thought and would welcome yours: is it that there are fewer bees around so they do not get pollinated, and if they are pollinated the petals go into 'degrade' mode?  Someone out there will already have observed this, studied it, and written up about it.  I might come across an answer or you may like to add to this. In the meantime they are gorgeous and it has got to be the week of the crocus here in the garden.

1. Crocus minimus Spring Beauty, although shown before, is really coming into its prime during moments of sunshine.  Will bees and bumblebees feasting or even dozing.....

2, Here are a couple of several clumps of Crocus tommasianus Barr's Purple, which are more on the mauve side. I think these are ready to be divided before next spring.  They started with about five corms planted 4cm apart five years ago.

3.  Although called Crocus tommasianus Ruby Giant, there are more purple.  Gradually I am extending the clumps across the garden without buying a single further bulb.  They are tough here and take lifting and dividing even at this stage, when it is easy for me to locate potential places, rather than at the time there are dried bulbs, when I cannot remember what is where.

4.  Ruby Giant and the following Crocus Vernus Pickwick started off as just a few bulbs piggy backing in a pot in which a shrub was growing in the pots I brought down with me from a previous garden.

I have a few areas with this one in all from about this number of bulbs growing the first year. These were planted and spaced out last year, and I shall enjoy this group clumping up over the next few years.

5.  The pot in which these bulbs were growing contained a dwarf forsythia, and that is itself flowering this week. Flower timing is just as it was last year. It is now planted up in the garden, and I have another plant about four or five years old taken as a cutting.

6. Who doesn't like a bargain, especially when one was nipping into Morrisons just to get some butter?  A perfect little plant costing less than the butter: Clematis Alpina Blue Dancer. Suitably replanted up a pot size, and labelled, it is staying in safety and will be slowly acclimatised after probably a week or so in the warmth. I've yet to know where it is going in the garden, but then that is the lure of spotting just the right plant, I will cogitate on the right place!

I'm joining in with Jim and several others mentioning six things in the garden.  We get inspired by each other and often tempted to try something new. 

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.