IVOM ~ Bring Me Sunshine

 

A slightly naughty vase from me today in the shape of a recent supermarket purchase made when I was feeling very much in need of some instant sunshine. I rarely buy flowers from a supermarket or florist these days but occasionally make an exception.  

Sunshine seems to have been in very short supply this last week with three named winter storms more or less in succession. There has been much in the way of gales and heavy rain.The latest and let's hope last one 'Franklin' raged furiously for a good part of yesterday, throughout the night and well into this afternoon. I was rather deprived of sleep but am glad to say that apart from a good bit of twiggy debris and the odd snapped tree branch there was nothing serious in the way of damage. I hope that everyone who was in its wake escaped its full wrath. It looks as if these intense storms are likely to feature more regularly in the future because of global warning. A most sobering thought. Thanks as always to Cathy, over at 'Rambling In The Garden', who provides a platform for us to share our vases on Mondays come storms or sunshine.

February Musing ~ Winter Dreams

"Every gardener knows that under the cloak of winter lies a miracle ... a seed waiting to sprout, a bulb opening to the light, a bud straining to unfurl. And the anticipation nurtures our dream." 

Quote by - Barbara Winkler.

Illustration - by Mary Azarian

The Best Laid Plans ...

The plan was to venture out  into the garden today and snip a few hellebore flowers, enough to float in a bowl for 'In A Vase On Monday'. That was the plan but the weather gods have not been cooperative so it's a case of make do and mend with one that was already floating. This was the accidental victim of some late in the day pruning of hellebore foliage on Saturday. I thought that I had finished this task early in the new year but there was one plant that got away. As the gardening books all suggest this a job to be completed before the arrival of flowers as there is a risk that if you leave it until later it's easy to snip a flower head off which is what happened. I'm sure that most hellebore lovers have done this at one point or another. I retrieved the head with short stalk, bringing it indoors to float in the hope that it would enjoy some company today but it was not to be. The hellebore is from a white picotee helleborus hybrid with a dark nectarine from Ashwood Nurseries. 

It is nestling in the pages of a book that I think that I might spend some time with later this week, namely Edith Holden's 'The Country Diary of An Edwardian Lady'. The forecast is predicting two named winter storms so I think that there will be much in the way of hunkering down and reading. Thanks as always to the lovely Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' . No doubt she has had a most busy weekend with preparations and then opening her garden for the NGS yesterday, but she has still had time and energy to squeeze picking and posting some delightful gems to share with us today. Do visit and enjoy them.

IAVOM ~ Creeping Towards Spring

After a most wet and windy weekend, when the nearest I got to gardening was looking at seed packets and indulging in a smidgeon of retail horticultural therapy, it was a relief to greet a much calmer and so far drier day.  A few outdoor jobs were done and as it's Monday a few blooms were snipped for a vase, which this week includes :

• A hellebore flower - variety unknown.
• A trio of iris reticulata flowers - the variety is 'Pauline', chosen as I have a friend who is a Pauline. I've not grown it before, like it but I'm coming to the conclusion that I prefer lighter and bluer iris flowers. Iris reticulata does well in pots for me rather in the garden but even then they tend to be short lived. A friend suggested a possible reason for this last year and it wasn't our lack of dry warm summers but I can't remember what it was.
• Finally a couple of snowdrop flowers. These flowers are of galanthus 'Lapwing' which is easily identified at a glance and clumps up steadily. 

Thanks as always to Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' for encouraging us out to pick flowers and foliage etc. to share in all seasons. Although it's still definitely winter here, the appearance of these early blooms and the sighting last week of the first bee of the year, has me feel that spring is only a few footfalls away. The thought of that is oh so exciting indeed. 

 

Slightly Wordy Wednesday ~ 'Imbolc'

Today not only marks Candlemas Day, the Christian festival of light but also concludes the pagan festival of Imbolc. Imbolc marks the half way point between the winter and spring equinoxes which is indeed good news for people in the northern hemisphere. Both of these festivals have connections with purity, cleansing and hope and snowdrops are often associated with these festivals. Snowdrops were once known as 'Candlemas Bells', usually being in flower at this time of year. The above photo is of galanthus 'Imbolc'. Despite the fact that is has been the sunniest January on record in England as well as being warmer than average  the flowers on my clump of 'Imbolc' in the garden are still shut tight. The flower is from a bulb that is growing in a pot in a sheltered spot near the house. This is one of my favourite snowdrops and one of the last to open for me.

Diary Update - Late January 2021

January is all but over so a diary update is called for. I can't say that I've done that much in the way of actual gardening. A combination of days of grey grim weather and other matters have been responsible but there has been some behind the scenes activity. A January birthday called for a garden centre visit. Here unlike most of the other customers I resisted the compulsion to make a beeline for the bargain price festive paraphernalia. We headed straight for the outside and plants and it was so sad to see that just after 11.00am we were the only people out there for a while. Still it was pleasant to be able to browse comfortably. I came home with the above helleborus 'Lily' which in fact was not the one I intended to purchase. I was guilty of not checking the label as it was a flowering helleborus 'Tutu' which had grabbed my attention. I was guilty of just seeing colour and not looking carefully enough. Still it's a pleasant enough plant. A couple of witch hazels also landed in my trolley - 'Ruby Glow' and 'Jelena' thanks to a garden gift voucher from my dear sister. I also bought a modest amount of half price seeds. In the last couple of weeks or so more packets of seeds have arrived in the post mainly of sweet peas. I think that I'm more or less done now on the seed purchasing front but I've said that before. Shallots 'Red Sun' and seed potatoes in the shape of the salad potato 'Charlotte' have also arrived. 

The greatest source of pleasure this month for me this month has been my collection of special snowdrops both those grown in pots under cover as well as in the garden. Below are a couple of newcomers. The first is 'Hans Guck' In die luft (which translates as 'Johnny-Head-In -The-Air') - new arrival this year whilst the second' Green Of Hearts' is a 2021 arrival.

During the  past week we had a couple of blissful hours when it almost seemed like spring and the greenhouse temperature warmed up encourage a couple of pots of iris reticulata 'Pauline' and a 

pot of crocus 'Firefly' to show colour. Magical! 

Wordless Wednesday ~ Coming Up 'Trumps'

January Musing - A Posy On The Kitchen Table

"Every day of the year there would be a posy to greet you on the kitchen table. Pushed at random into a little pot to suitable utensil, the posy would be there come rain or shine, and it was the reward of adventure, the fruit of labour or the chance happening of something one of her many birds had brought to the garden. In this posy were mapped the weeks of the year. A spring of Hamamelis and Galanthus in January, or a tuft of old man's beard and rosehips come autumn. Her posies were the garden distilled in a jam jar, and often she would pick a spring that you might admire from the assemblage and push into your hand as the making of a cutting. She shared her garden well, and to this day I try to keep a posy from my own garden"

Words - Dan Pearson from 'Natural Selection'

Illustration - Winifred Nicholson

In A Vase On Monday ~ Just Dropping In

Picked on a bright, blowy and cold Sunday afternoon, these few stems of galanthus elwesii 'Fieldgate Prelude' only fully opened to reveal their markings when I bought the vase into a cosy warm kitchen. It rained overnight but it is now possible to see their full colours. 

 What you are not able to see though in this photo though is just how small this vase is - about the same height as my middle finger. The few stems dropped in most snuggly indeed.

Thanks as always to Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' for the encouragement to pick a few stems of flowers or foliage to share each Monday, whatever the weather whatever the season.

Garden Diary ~ New Year's Day 2021

Illustration by Lena Anderson.

What a pleasure it has been to spend time in New Year's Day in the garden. The temperature was warm enough to venture out without a coat! Yesterday was perhaps slightly warmer and sunnier but both days provided unexpected bonuses. The first gardening task of 2022 was to snip off the old hellebore foliage and bin it. It was interesting to see that there was evidence of aphids on the back of a few leaves. I than disposed of some soggy tat. Tomorrow the weather is predicted to be cooler but still warm enough I think to get out again and mulch the hellebore plants with some well rotted leaf mould. In the garden there are signs of activity with bulbs beginning to emerge. The first snowdrops are opening which is such a heartwarming event. Some clumps are now quite sizeable but others are taking time to establish. 

Time soon to plan next year's vegetable garden. There are seed potatoes to order. I think that I will stick with my favourite 'Charlotte' which is a great salad potato. Without the allotment I grew potatoes in bags last year for the very first time. It proved successful and I think that a further bag might be purchased. This year's sowing definites include the usual suspects of salad leaves, shallots, French beans, beetroot, courgettes and chard but I will have to consider carefully whether to add on top of this list. It was good to notice yesterday that the garlic cloves of 'Purple Early Wight' planted on the 17th November have started to come through.

After my outside pottering an inspection of the greenhouse and my potted special snowdrops followed. One big change since last year is that I've bought a smaller number of pots in to overwinter. A good number will take their chance in pots outside. A lot of them are now planted in the garden so a few casualties in event of a tough winter will not be the end of the world. In the greenhouse are my favourites and newest additions will I can gaze at a close quarters during the winter months. If necessary I can put a heater on overnight to fend off the worst of any bitterly cold snaps. There are three trays which each hold two dozen bulbs and some dozen or so loose pots too.Some bulbs are duplicates. My two newest purchases are showing mixed promise - galanthus nivalis 'Prague Spring' which was a small bulb on planting will not flower this year whereas galanthus plicatus 'Sophie North' is thriving. Both were bought as dormant bulbs in the summer.

In flower today are the following galanthus elwesii ' Fenstead End', galanthus plicatus 'The Pearl', galanthus plicatus 'Trimmer', 'galanthus Sutton Courtney' and galanthus 'Betty Hansell' and galanthus 'Ding Dong'. Sadly the also early flowering 'Three Ships' has decided not to flower this year. Other 'drops are nearly there but not quite so I shall check again next weekend. 

Also in the greenhouse I was pleased to spot that the first anemone 'Mr Fokker' is sprouting. I planted six in November in dry compost which has been watered yet.

My gardening day is not yet complete as tonight I plan to order some dahlia tubers. some difficult decisions ensue! On this and my new seed packet storage container more to come hopefully next weekend. Happy New Year and happy gardening to all my blogging friends - I hope that 2022 treats you, your loved ones and your gardens most kindly. Thank you for all your kind comments and encouragement last year.