Identity Crisis

It was that time of year again this weekend - my horticultural society's annual plant sale which was blessed with the most glorious weather. Despite my yearly heartfelt "never again!" utterances I had my own stall at the sale. I did not manage to assemble as much as in some previous years which was a combination of both events and the weather. With not as many perennials divided as usual this spring, there were fewer perennials to take so a good few annuals as well as veggie plants supplemented my stall. As usual the weather the day before did not exactly provide perfect weather for preparations. It was decidedly cool and most windy so both plants and humans got rather ruffled. My right hand man was excused from duties on the day this year because of work commitments but was amazed when I called upon his expertise for some serious plant identification.

You can see the plant concerned in the above photo as well as in the close ups of flower and foliage below. I think that the photo has accentuated its pinkness - it appears a softer pink to my eyes.

It is one of my favourite umbifillers and is either chaerophyllum hirstum 'Roseum' or pimpinella major 'Rosea'. I've bought both plants in the past but one plant and both labels have since departed. They are fairly similar but the chaerophyllum can be identified by virtue of hairy leaves (hence hirsutum) and by its apple scented foliage. Neither of us could see much in the way of hairiness but himself detected an aroma of apple whilst I could not try as I may. So there was much sniffing and debate but no definite conclusion. Oh what a dilemma when it came to deciding how to label the plant, so in the end the two flowering specimens I had went to the plant sale under an anonymous guise. The larger of the two was the first to be snapped up from the table followed in due course by all the perennials flowering or not. The half hardy nicotiana mutablis all went. I wish that I could remember exactly when I sowed these plants last year, as I had managed to get one into flower which I think sold the others. If the weather had been kinder they would have all been in flower but at least they were all sturdy and sizeable plants which will flower soon.

Tomato plants which I had were in great demand likewise peppers which I did not have nor did any of the other sellers. However you can guarantee that if we bring peppers next year they will not be wanted. The mints which were popular last year did not prove to be so this year so most of them came home with me. They will now need repotting now in time for the next sale in July when our allotment association will be fund raising at a local event. My respect for the professionals increases every time I take part in these events as it helps you to appreciate some of what is involved in getting plants to shows and plants fairs. They have my utmost respect especially in a spring such as this.

Now before you ask of course some new plants just had to come home with me. These were an allotment bound tayberry, a begonia for indoors and a sweet cicely - destination undecided.
P.S. If anybody grows either the chaerophyllum or pimpinella perhaps you can help solve my plant's identity crisis.

That First Plant Sale Of The Year

Just before last weekend's social event of the year there was time for a lightening raid at that very first plant sale of year! This was held by the Cheshire and Friends group of The Hardy Plant Society as part of their 25th anniversary celebrations. I was member of this local group in the dim and distance past and still try to attend their annual plant sales when possible. There is always a good choice of happy and healthy plants on offer grown by both local nurseries and keen gardeners. We left home in brilliant sunshine but by the time we arrived the skies were clouding whilst a rather erratic wind blew up from nowhere. The sale was mainly based outdoors and quite high up on a hill top so the sellers deserved a medal for their tenacity.

Purchases included a trio of pulmonarias - 'Stillingfleet Meg', 'Majesté' and 'Opal' as well as the brunnera 'Langtrees' with its most subtly marked foliage. The other acquisition was cardamine quinquefolia which has hovered on the edge of my consciousness for years. This was the first time that I had ever seen it in the flesh but only a few seconds acquaintance were enough to persuade me that this plant was coming home with me. Sadly its flowers were almost on their last legs so it will be next spring before I can take photos and show them here.

I wish that I could have stayed long enough for a second sweep of the stalls as I'm sure that I missed out on some gems but was still delighted with my purchases. I'm sure that there will be other plant sales this year but there's nothing more exciting than the first of the year. What about you - have you had the chance to get to a plant sale yet this year and if so what did you come home with?

All Boxed Off

The last week has passed in glorious sunshine, so much to do in the garden and allotment as well as the additional flurry of activity of getting sorted for our annual garden club plant sale, which took place on Saturday. Long time readers may remember this post. Well after temporarily retiring from the plant sale for a couple of years and just helping out on the day, I returned to having my own stall this time with the intention of raising funds for a particular allotment project. There has been much sorting out of plants and boxes over the last few days.

My good intentions of dividing lots of perennials earlier in the spring somehow got lost in the chill wet that was April so I had little to take that was in flower on the day. What was in flower though walked from the table in the first few minutes as it normally does on these occasions. With the allotment theme though I mainly had herbs and vegetables for sale. Lemon verbena or aloysia triphylla, which Cathy at Words And Herbs,  has recently posted about went as soon as it was stroked. Chocolate peppermint with its aroma of 'After Eights' was popular too. I wonder why. I was rather pleased with my selection of basils - cinnamon, lettuce leaf and lemon - something for everybody so I thought until the customer who only wanted Thai basil and no other. Oh well there's no pleasing some folk. So another plant sale done and dusted but I will be reporting for duty again at a local community event in July and am already wondering what I can possibly assemble for that occasion.

Déjà vu

Earlier this month I set off for the Malvern Spring Gardening Show with a relatively modest shopping list of five plants. Now why did I come back with only one plant on the list but more than I intended? I realised by mid morning that the contents of my horticultural shopping basket looked rather familiar. I was buying plants that have been in the garden before. Firstly there was the delicate foliage and white buttoned flowers of ranunculus aconitfolius 'Flore Peno'. I much prefer its common name of 'Fair Maids of France'. I had this beauty some time ago but then it fizzled out. The fact that the foliage disappears reasonably quickly after planting did probably not help. I am sure that it has already had a second coming so hopefully this reincarnation might be a case of third time lucky. How many times do you persevere with a must have plant? Maybe it could be a category in 'The Guiness Book of Records'. Then there was Gladiolus communis subsp. byzantinus with its striking magenta spikes. Again I have grown it before only for it to disappear to that giant plant catalogue in the sky. I have also attempted to grow it from bulbs only to be cruelly thwarted by squirrels who stumbled on a gourmet lunch. This time round I received what might be some potentially crucial advice from Avon Bulbs, that they would only sell it to me if I promised to plant it it deeper than it was in the pot. They must have taken one look at me and sensed my track record.

On the herb front a 'Morrocan mint' - yes I know that mints are hard to see the back of and a small angelica archangelica. I have not actually been responsible for the demise of the later (yet). It is growing in statuesque splendour at the allotment just now. It's huge flower heads are covered by bees who seem to settle and doze upon it. However from what I understand that the plant will disappear after it flowers and sets seeds. It may self seed but I thought that I would have a stand by at hand. It can be difficult to transplant as it has a tap root so I ignored the larger specimens for sale in favour of a diddy one. 

Finally on the have been there before scenario another attempt with Brunnera macrophylla 'Looking Glass' as my previous attempt turned out to be an impostor. My fault for not being more observant and for always believing what I read on a plant label. 

Ticked off my shopping list though was tiarella 'Appalachian Trails' which you can see in the above photo. I am still trying to find a nook or cranny for it to fit into. Not only do I like the foliage but it really does have a trailing habit so would look great in a container. In a talk to our garden club  in 2009 Vicky Fox from Plantagogo, indicated that there was some exciting breeding work taking place with tiarellas. I wonder if this is one of the results.

I did buy a couple more new to me plants which I am really pleased about but more of them another day.

Retail Therapy

An opportunity to indulge in some welcome plant retail therapy this weekend as plants sales seem to be thick and fast on the ground. Yesterday was our garden club sale .Typically the day started wet and in fact continued most wet throughout. I must have had a premonition as I decided not to have a plant stall this year. So I was delighted not to be traipsing round in the rain early in the morning, gathering up crates of plants and desperately searching for loose change at thevery last moment. No frantic labeling as I realise that a dozen or so pots have escaped my beady eye and although I know what they are potential buyers may not. Instead I could take my time and although I helped my friend D. on her busy stall I had plenty of time to wander round the other stalls at my leisure. I came away with some unamed plants including a white phlox and a purple campanula as well as a cirsium rivulare 'Atropurpureum', which I have been contemplating buying for some time.

Today it was further afield to another plant sale about five miles away or so. At the advice of friend D. we arrived just before the start time of 11.00am. I am so glad that we did as within half hour the sales area had been decimated. The sale was not due to finish until 2.00pm so latecomers would have been rather disappointed. Coming home with me was the oak fern that you can see below~



a phormium to replace the one I lost in the winter as well as monarda 'Gardenview Scarlet'. Before we left there was time for a walk round the windswept hilltop garden with its fine view of the Cheshire countryside. Better weather is predicted for tomorrow, the ground is warm and damp so ideal planting conditions for my new purchases.

Full Circle

It's funny how you often come round to where you first started and this includes plant buying habits. When I started planting the garden here I was besotted with hardy geraniums. Slowly though I went on to develop other addictions and although the love affair has never ended I have not added to my geraniums for some time. They still must have a hold over me for it was a stall with a prominent display of hardy geraniums that caught my attention at a recent garden festival. So my Arley Hall haul included two new to me hardy geraniums - pratense 'Summer Skies' and 'Pink Penny'. The former is a double with very soft lilac tinges and the latter reminds me of geranium 'Buxton's Blue' but with pink flowers. I also bought an old friend whose name escapes me at the moment. It's too dark and wet out there to a go and check the label now. It is a rather delicate geranium which has a trailing habit and very small white flowers. I have managed to kill this off before but thought that I would give it another go. Also coming home with me were achillea 'Jacqueline', verbena rigida (smaller and more stocky than verbena bonariensis), some Redbor kale and for having the pleasure of inhaling its scent -a lemon verbena. On the subject of verbena bonariensis I have a surfeit of seedlings at the allotment and must make sure that I do not let any of the fully grown plants set seed this year. Famous last words :)

Done and Dusted

Well the garden club plant sale is done and dusted for another year. The day dawned dry and the wet stuff considerately held off. During the morning the sun made a much wanted appearance. On opening we were quite busy for the first hour but there was no repeat of the opening rugby scrum scenes of previous years.Try as I might it was a challenge to take photos indoors with sunshine streaming in and under artificial light, so have included just a couple of snippets of my stall. It is in the foreground in the second photo. We hold the sale at the local branch of The British Legion where our club meets. The Legion generously allows us to use a big room for the sale free of charge. This year we decided to 'grow', so we also ran a table top sale and invited a local project for young people with special needs to have a stall. The young people made the items they were selling which included bird boxes and garden ornaments.

True to form all the plants that I took in flower were snaffled up rapidly. These included astrantias, dicentra spectablis alba, polemonium caeruleum, polemonium 'Sonia's Bluebell and geranium phaeum 'Margaret Wison' and heuchera. I had some sturdy specimens of cerinthe major pururescens which were just on the point of opening and was pleased not to bring them all back home with me. Next year thought I must follow the lead of Pam at Hortensia and Maureen at Allotment Heaven who sowed their cerinthes much earlier. Geranium 'Orion' although not in flowers also proved popular. My happiest customers of the day were a couple who bought two insignificant looking teasels and were absolutely delighted with them.

What was not popular this year was tomatoes - no takers at all - I wonder why - normally they are snapped up.



As with all good plant sales I could not resist making some purchases from my fellow stallholders. Filling in some of the gaps in my plastic crates in the way home were geranium 'Brookside', a purple flowering osteospernum, hydrangea 'Annabelle', aconitum carmichaelii 'Arendsii',a horseradish and a pot of three Lilium 'Le Reve'.

Disappointment of the day - I had bribed himself my trusted assistant with the promise of a bacon butty, but the kitchen had run out of bacon by the time he went to order lunch. Somehow a grated cheese and onion sandwich is not the same - the cheese goes absolutely everywhere except into your mouth so why do people make grated cheese sandwiches ? One of life's perplexing mysteries.

The last hour of the sale was very quiet in terms of customers and once again we wondered about the timing of the event. We think that we have the timing right as far as the month is concerned. We hold the sale on a Saturday from 12.00pm - 2.00pm. Is two hours too long ? Is it a good time of day ? Would Sunday be a better day ? Your views would be most welcome. A glorious morning here so I am heading of to the allotment to find a home for my horseradish.

The List Mistress

The garden club plant sale looms ahead this weekend and I am losing the plot. Back in January when I wrote this post it seemed a comfortably long time off. So now that it is a couple of days before the event and I wish it was over:) I have lists everywhere - lists of what plants to take to the plant sale, what I still need to do before the day as well as what to take with me on the day. It is fortunate perhaps that I have fewer plants than what I imagined my still relatively new non working life style would give me the chance to propagate. As well as the plant sale lists there seems to be a plethora of other lists - what needs taking to the allotment, what needs bringing back, what still needs sowing and well as what needs attention in the garden. Meanwhile the greenhouse shuffle continues in all its permutations, plants seem to reproduce overnight, I am still searching for whatever decapitated my cucumber and everytime I put my head out of the door there's more of that wet stuff ! I will write more about the plant sale at the weekend when I surface for breath.

Plant Sale - Never Again !

The above photo is of our camper van packed up for its trip to my garden club plant sale back in May 1999. Camper vans are great for plant addicts as himself has found out to his cost. Whether it is a trip to a plant sale, nursery, garden centre or an open garden almost every size and shape of plant can be accommodated with ease. There's never too little space :) Anyway the subject of the garden club plant sale has been in my thoughts for the last few days. This years sale will be held as usual on a Saturday in May. The date is still to be decided so I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will not fall on the same weekend as the Malvern Spring Gardening Show. Himself is hoping that it is not the same day as the FA Cup Final.

Once having committed yourself to participating it is a matter of providing plants and the wherewithal to run your own stall. Although at the end of each sale I utter the heartfelt words "Never again" ! I return almost every year. The day itself is quite long and usually exhausting. An early rise, van to be loaded with plants etc, van to be unloaded at venue, tables to be sorted out and filled with plants then organised in some logical manner etc, etc. There may just be time for a quick slurp of something wet before the official start and our customers pour in. By now I should know better but each year I conveniently manage to forget that sod's law dictates that :

The weather in the days leading up to the plant sale and on the day itself will be cool, wet and windy. You will usually arrive looking like the proverbial drowned rat. You will have dropped plants on the way in and will break a nail or two carrying your plants in. Forget fashion and wear your most comfortable gardening or allotment clothes for the occasion.

You can never have too much change. Amongst your first half a dozen customers, there will invariably be somebody usually making a small purchase, who utters the words 'I am sorry but I have not got any change', and then merrily waves a twenty pound note at you.

Folk will always buy whatever is in flower. You may have far sturdier and superior specimens of the same plant but if ain't got flowers it gets left on the shelf.

Folk always want to buy what you grew last year and did not sell. One year there was an overwhelming demand for hollyhocks and herbs. I grew some the next year so of course nobody wanted them and they all came home with me.

The plant that you have been willing to open its flowers in time for the plant sale always opens the following day.

You bring flowers from your garden to help illustrate what you grow. This vase containing aforesaid flowers always gets knocked over wherever you carefully place it on the table and you get a soaking. You have probably only just dried out.

If labels are taken out of plant plots for a closer scrutiny they do not get returned to the same pot.

You may have nourished seeds and cuttings for weeks, sometimes months but your babies will quite often be handled most roughly and without due respect. Grit your teeth !

Sometimes you may actually be sad to see a plant go depending on who has bought it.


Having said all that I have almost all but said yes to this year's sale. Calling at a local garden centre in the autumn, I came across some sturdy plastic crates at a bargain price. ' Just right for the plant sale ! ' I shouted gleefully. Himself shot me a scathing glance. I am now thinking of what plants I can gather together to travel in these crates come May. To be continued.

Of Country Markets

Today took me in the direction of the market town of Frodsham where I was meeting friends for lunch. I fitted in some odd ends of Christmas shopping beforehand. Panic is beginning to set in. Why is it that my plans to have it all done and dusted by the beginning of December have failed abysmally ? I am beginning to come to the conclusion that leaving things to the last minute is part of my genetic makeup.

My first stopping post was the Country Market which is held weekly every Thursday morning. I have been going the market on and off for about fifteen years or so, both as as a customer and in the past as a producer. Country Markets Ltd is a co-operative organisation that gives home producers the opportunity to sell items at markets throughout the country. Its roots go back to 1919 when the first W.I.(Womens Institute) Market took place in Lewes, Sussex. W.I. markets were started as outlets for surplus produce from gardens and small holdings, and allowed women and men to supplement their incomes. Markets slowly but surely expanded throughout the country. In 1995 Markets separated from the National Federation of Women's' Institutes, adopting a new name 'WI Country Markets Ltd'. In 2004 the use of the WI initials was discontinued

My local Country Market provides an excellent source of homemade bread, cakes, pastries, jams, chutney and honey. There is also craft produce in the shape of handmade greetings cards, knitted items and jewelry. In the summer months the trestle tables outside groan alarmingly with a tempting array of plants, cut flowers as well as fruit and vegetables. The market has provided me with a good number of plants over the years which are grown locally and lovingly by the producers. I have been a producer in the past selling plants. For the princely sum of five pence anybody over the age of 16 can become a shareholder and sell at market. Markets take a percentage usually 10% from the producers which goes to cover the expenses of running the market. I enjoyed producing and may return now that I have more time on my hands. There is quite a bit of paperwork involved i.e. labeling each plant as well as filling in an invoice detailing what you have bought to market. However for anyone wishing to dip their toes into the water as far as selling plants go it can be a good place to start.

Today I picked up a jar of seasonally named 'Christmas Chutney' but I am hoping to return next week for a seasonal wreath for the front door. Come the new year I am sure that more plants will make their way home with me whether from my local Country Market or those that I have come across on holiday.

Crumble

Spring seems a case of one step forwards and two back at the moment. Woke up this morning to sparkling blue skies and a blanket of snow. It melted during the morning. I missed the spring plant sale at Arley Hall today as my beloved was working. I imagine that the stallholders must have been frozen by the end of the day. Oh well I suppose I saved some pennies ! Quite a few seedlings in the greenhouse now. I will try and list them soon so I can keep a record of what I have sown this year. I need to start pricking out the first tomatoes but it is much too cold today. On Friday I picked the first rhubarb from the lottie - enough for us and for our next door neighbours. Crumble here we come!

Where is summer ?

Summer slowly seems to be arriving and some time has been spent working on the allotment. Tomatoes and lettuce planted. I have cheated on both ! Lettuce purchased from the nursery near the Dorothy Clive Gardens and tomatoes from R. at the WI market. Have a couple of home grown 'Black from Tulsa' grown from last year's seeds. The strawberry plants are smothered with fruits and I have temporarily netted them. I nipped into the pet shop today and they hope to have some straw in on Friday. We have another plant sale at the lottie on Saturday.

The day after the plant sale

The weather is slowly perking up and the last couple of days have seen it become slightly warmer. The first part of May though has been decidedly cool and windy. The wind dries everything out and I think that I have lost a thalictrum that was in the cold frame. Yesterday was the garden club plant sale and for the first time I remember my chives were not in flower. As usual everything I took that was in flower sold i.e. astrantias,tiarellas, polemonium and hardy geraniums. Plants I bought home were 'Solomon's Seal', hesperis and a day lily 'Little Wine Cup'. Several of my favourites are now in full bloom including various geranium phaeums, polemonium 'Lambrook Mauve',aquilegias including a new one 'Ruby Port' and astrantias. The lovely iris that I bought from the Spiegel garden several years ago opened yesterday after the plant sale ! Went to take a photo before but camera batteries need charging.

Have been busy in the greenhouse - sowing a few more seeds and pricking out. Having guilty pangs about the allotment - have spent a negligible amount of time there and really need to get down to some serious work. There's always next weekend !