It seems that this last week has seen a tremendous surge of growth in the garden boosted by the warmer weather and extra daylight. The snowdrops have had their skirts wide open instead of being hunched over in the cold. I noticed yesterday that some of them have already started to go over. I noted that some creature has been nibbling at them, apparently enjoying the singles more rather than the doubles. I wonder why that is. I have made a mental note to divide several clumps later this year but will remind myself by putting labels in the ground beside them. Crocuses have started to croak, the hellebores are unfolding and irises are opening although sadly I seem to have lost 'Kathryn Hodgkin'. Will have to get a replacement as soon as possible.
The young hellebore plants that I bought from eBay arrived quickly. They are sturdy little plants that have now been potted up. Some of them had big enough rootballs to go straight into two litre pots. I am hoping that they will grow into marvellous specimens, as can be seen in this guest post on tulipsinthewoods.com written by Sylvia from Blotanical. Also arriving in the post this week, was the order that I had placed with Pam from Hortensia for some dahlia tubers. I opened a box in which were nestled some most dinky and beautifully adorned little hessian sacks containing the tubers. They would make a lovely present for a gardening friend. Pam also has some other most tempting items for sale on her Etsy shop.
Visiting the bird feeders this week we have seen robins, blackbirds, blue tits, great tits and the long tailed tit as seen in the photo below :
So although it is not yet spring it does not now seem so far away and indeed neither does summer. In the words of Gertrude Jekyll :
'There is always in February some one day, at least, when one smells the yet distant, but surely coming, summer. Perhaps it is a warm, mossy scent that greets one when passing along the southern side of a hedge-bank; or it may be in some woodland opening, where the sun has coaxed out the pungent smell of the trailing ground ivy, whose blue flowers will soon appear; but the day always comes, and with it the glad certainty that summer is nearing, and it the good things promised will never fail'.
- from 'Wood and Garden'.
I think that the trailing ground ivy she describes might be vinca one of the banes of my life but I will forgive her that !
Saturday 21st February - sunrise : 07.02, sunset : 17.27.
Saturday 28th February - sunrise : 06:48, sunset : 17.40.
Hi Anna, we are back to 'winterland' here, heavy snowfall and cold. I haven't stepped outside my door today. I have been indoors cooking and baking instead. Love you coffee break photo!/ Tyra
ReplyDeleteI'm very excited to receive my dahlia tubers later this spring from a local heirloom bulb company. I've not grown dahlia before (have to dig them up over winter here), but I couldn't resist Bonne Esperance or Clair de Lune. :)
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't have thought to buy hellebores over Ebay...what a neat idea. Hmm, I suppose you were looking for a particular variety that you couldn't find elsewhere? I did read Syvia's post on Tulips In the Woods but don't remember if anything was mentioned about that. With that idea, however, I may try to do something similar! I have just ONE hellebore plant and am now drooling over them!
ReplyDeleteI love all of your spring flowers! I don't have any yet!!
It's so exciting, isn't it? Spring time is coming soon! The sooner the better, we say! God bless you this week.
ReplyDeletePersonally I think it's the smell of dog poop in the air that signals spring. LOL!
ReplyDeleteNice to see your flowers and know spring is not far off.
We're still buried in snow.
We don't have crocuses or irises,here in Florida.My mother always had them(along with lilacs)in her garden in Western New York state.I miss their smell,but we have tropicals here,so I guess that evens things out.
ReplyDeleteI see you have Long Tailed Tits - lovely birds - always zipping around like pin pong balls.I think your idea of labelling the snowdrops is a good one - as soon as the flowers disappear I forget about dividing them.
ReplyDeleteThanks Tyra. ' Winterland' sounds decidedly cold. Cooking and baking sound suitable activities for such a day :) It's not quite 'Springland' here but heading that way.
ReplyDeleteI usually did up my dahlias too Monica :) I don't know the ones you mention so I am going to look them up. I do like the names :)
Jan, hellebores are lovely but I would not particularly recommend Ebay as a good source. You are best seeing the plants when you can see them in flower at a good nursery or garden centre. I already have a few plants and am taking a bit of a gamble on these young plants :)
Hello Kaishon - the sooner the better indeed :)
Wendy - I hope that you don't have too long a wait for warmer days !
You are quite right ChrisC and JonJ but gardening makes you greedy - it would be great to be able to grow both cooler climate plants and the tropicals too :)
They are lovely little birds as you say Easygardener and fascinating to watch. I am going to have to divide the snowdrops this year, as I was going to do so about three years ago and never got round to
it :) I will just put labels to the side of the doubles clumps and then divide them in a few weeks.
Hi Anna.
ReplyDeleteTrying to catch up with blog readings. Love the Gertrude Jekyll quote you have here. Today, the first yet, might be the day she wrote about for me in this cold, cruel 2009 February. I'm going to forward the quote along to my walking friend from today. We marveled at wearing no gloves, no hat and a wind that at moments smelled warm when the it wasn't coming off the snow covered hills. Thanks for sharing this.
Ann
Hello Anne - it's great when you can finally take off all those extra layers of clothing isn't it ! It sounds as if you enjoyed that walk :)
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