March Garden Diary

A quick recap of the month before it goes sailing over the horizon. March 2022  has been dry and mild in the main and we have recently enjoyed a fool's spring, basking in a most settled long spell of above average temperatures, blue skies and sunshine. That came to an abrupt end with some dramatic torrential rain on Tuesday evening since when the temperature has absolutely plummeted. The month is ending with a cold but most seasonal snap.

Various distractions have meant that I've not achieved a lot in the garden other than seed sowing in the greenhouse and continuing to plant up the dedicated snowdrop border, where I'm beginning to run out out of room for further snowdrops.  I have been making sure to regularly water new additions and the established bulbs have had a seaweed feed.

A few more new plants have arrived in the shape of yet another pulmonaria 'Miss Elly', phlox 'Blue Paradise', epimediums 'Domino' and youngianum  'Niveum' and viola odorata 'Konigen Charlotte'. I'm looking forward to seeing all of these in flower. I've also had a delivery of dahlia tubers which now need starting off.

I've not sown any vegetable seeds yet but there is plenty of time left to do that. Shallot bulbs 'Red Sun' have been planted in cells in the greenhouse and will be transferred to the ground when they have made some growth.

I've made the difficult decision to sow fewer seeds this year but whether I stick to that remains to be seen.  It's a decision largely influenced by the fact that I have developed osteoarthritis in my left hand, which ironically is not the hand that sustained two breaks a couple of years ago or so. I think that I need to ease the burden on my hands as I get older and sadly lugging seed trays back and forth adds to the workload. The special snowdrop pots have been turfed out of the greenhouse into the outer world, the sand bench has been turned on and seed sowing has been going on since the start of March. 

To date I've sown panicum capillare 'Sparkling Fountain', lagurus ovatus (my own saved seed for these first two), larkspur 'Misty Lavender' (all of eight seedlings as of today), salvia viridis 'Blue Monday', two batches of sweet peas, ' papaver rhoeas 'Amazing Grey', more rudbeckia 'Sahara', phlox paniculata 'Isabellina' and 'Cherry Caramel', amaranthus caudatus 'viridis', cosmos 'Apricotta' and scabious 'Fata Morgana'. I've been mostly happy with germination rates with the exception of the poppy, larkspur (although the packet carried a warning that germination had been low in tests so there was a larger quantity of seeds included in the packet to compensate) and the phlox 'Cherry Caramel', which hasn't germinated at all so a second sowing has been made from a different packet. I will also sow more larkspur and poppy. The only perennial sown to date is heliopsis 'Bleeding Hearts' which is a new one on me. The seedlings from September sowings - orlaya grandiflora, ammi visnaga, perennial scabious, calendula and daucus carrota have been pricked out and potted up. Sadly all the puny snapdragons went by the wayside over the winter. April will see a few further flower sowings. 

Anemone 'Mr Fokker' is now in flower from November planting but those that were planted this February have gone mouldy in their pots. However I'm delighted that six of ten ranunculus 'Champagne' planted in a tray in February have healthy green shoots and need potting up soon.

So that in a nutshell was March in my garden. A month especially memorable for it's unexpected weather and an unbelievable sudden woooooosh of growth, the return of our resident ducks and for the pleasure gained from sticking my head over the stream to to gaze upon  labours of my guerilla gardening. When we moved here there were already clumps of snowdrops and some native daffodils growing on the other bank, which is nor owned by us but isn't maintained by anybody. I have slowly lobbed bulbs over to that side over the years. Numbers have depended on my finances and Wilko's sales at the end of the planting season. More yellow patches and the odd white are spreading slowly but surely with each passing year, with no attention from human hand whatsoever.

IAVOM ~ 'Monday, Monday'

 

A few tiny spring treasures in my tiny vase on  this sunny Monday. Making their way into this week's vase are :

• Pulmonaria 'Diana Clare' who sadly lost some of her dark purple colouring as I  rather dangerously twizzled the stem round in the vase for a better view. Fiddling has its dangers when it comes to vases. This is one of my favourite pulmonarias. 
• Muscari 'Valerie Finnis' named after the plantswoman and photographer.
• A fritillaria meleagris or snakesead fritillary flower with its most distinctive chequered markings. 
• A couple of stems of perennial anemone blanda.

The little glass vase was a gift from my mum who hand painted it with what I think are suns, although I suppose they could also be stars.

As always thanks to Cathy, who hosts 'In A Vase On Monday' on her blog 'Rambling In The Garden'. All shapes and sizes of vases containing flowers, foliage, stems, fruits etc. are welcome from fellow bloggers each and every Monday.

IAVOM ~ A Spring Posy

Although spring has really and truly been officially declared it feels more like winter today with a frost to greet my accidentally door left open overnight greenhouse, stubborn grey cloud cover and a definite nip in the air. I was relieved that I had bought my really tender seedlings into the house overnight and that I had fleeced up a few cuttings before darkness set in. I was also pleased to have snipped my flowers for a vase and taken photos on a Sunday sunny afternoon. In my vase this week are a mixture of late winter/ spring flowers and one that has surprised me by coming into flower so early. They are :

• A flower of iris 'Purple Hill'. I have not grown these bulbs before now and initially thought it was too dark a flower but it's growing on me.
• A dusky pink primula - unknown variety.
• A flower of anemone coronaria 'Mr Fokker' - I planted the tubers sometime in November. They overwintered in single pots overwinter but have taken up residence in the outer world for a while now.
• A couple of flowers, one now fading, of a  white picotee helleborus hybrid I bought from Ashwood Nurseries.

A sprig from a pulmonaria self seedling Finally keeping the pulmonaria company a sprig from geum 'Totally Tangerine'. The pulmonaria and the geum are companions in 'The Lockdown Border', aka 'The Border Of Doom' ,because of the persistent nightmare of marestail.  I planted three of the geums at intervals in the same border and one plant is flourishing, one is not quite as robust whilst the third is sadly puny. I was surprised to see it showing colour so early. The pulmonaria seedling appeared behind the flourishing geum and so far I've not had the heart to remove it. I was pleasantly surprised to see the geum showing colour so early in the year.

 Thanks as always to the lovely Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' for her steadfast hosting. The forecast for the rest of the week is looking most pleasant indeed so I'm looking forward to much time spent in the garden this week.

IAVOM ~ Simply Yellow

I peered out early this morning to be greeted by blue skies and glorious sunshine, so my vase this week is just shades of yellow to celebrate a fine start to the day. The little daffies are at their peak now so they seemed just fitting. In my vase are narcissus 'W.P. Milner', 'Jenny', 'Gypsy Queen' (so petit that she is hidden from view) 'Elka' and the bright yellow of 'Téte-à-Téte'. The paperweight has been with me since my teenage years but when exactly remains a mystery. The sun and blue skies gave way to grey and a good shower this afternoon but tomorrow's forecast is encouraging. As always thanks for Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' who encourages us to share our flowers and foliage every Monday come rain or shine. 

Garden Diary ~ Looking Back

A mention if February before March is well underway. It certainly lived up to its reputation of being a wet month. As well as what seemed vast volumes of the wet stuff it was an extremely stormy month. Three named storms - 'Dudley', 'Eunice' and 'Franklin' battered us within the span of just over a week. Fortunately there was no real damage in the garden although there was a lot of garden debris to clear up. We had battened down the hatches beforehand which was just as well. It was a month when doing anything in the garden would sometimes have been to akin to taking part in an extreme sport. However there was little in the way of really cold weather and only a handful of light frosts. I haven't seen any February weather statistics so will be looking out for them.

Seed sowing started in the heated propagator starting with the tender cobaea scandens at the beginning of the month. I've sown the purple flowering one. This climber takes a long time to come into flower so an early start is advised. The seedlings are already like triffids but it will be May before they can be planted in the big wide world outside. They have moved out of the propagator and are now on the kitchen windowsill. I hope to prick the most well advanced ones out into individual pots next week. From there they will need a lot of tender loving care and mollycoddling if it is cold. Another early sowing was some rudbeckia 'Sahara' which were sown during half term week here, again in the heated propagator. They have germinated but fortunately grow slowly and caring for them is not as demanding. They have now become a must sow each year. That was the extent of my February seed sowing although my fingers were itching to sow more seeds.

I have indulged in some online horticultural retail therapy treating myself to some spring treasures. First to arrive were a trio of pulmonarias - 'Spring Awakening', 'Stillingfleet Meg' and 'Blake's Silver.' I have a vague inkling that I may have purchased the last one in the past but have no idea what happened to it. In the same box was a diminutive almost invisible epimedium 'Purple Pixie'. I'm relieved to say that it eventually showed signs of life and continues to grow. A trio of hellebores have also descended, a pink from the excellent 'Ashwood Nurseries' and two much smaller but sturdy plants from 'Twelve Nunns Nursery' - both Harvington doubles. All three hellebores were very well packed. You can photos of two of them in this post.

The one remaining pear tree has been pruned. We had two but one has never flourished so the decision was made to remove it. The Charlotte potatoes have now moved from shed to the spare bedroom where they are now chitting on the windowsill.

The snowdrops continued to sing throughout February, along with crocus, iris reticulata, hellebores, cardamine quinquefolia, cyclamen coum, muscari and towards the end of the month little daffies showed their colour. Towards the end of the month the green garden waste bin was emptied for the first time this year, always a welcome sign that spring is really on the way.

IAVOM ~ Mainly Ephemeral

 

I picked my flowers for 'In A Vase On Monday' yesterday in the sunshine as the forecast was for heavy rain today which has turned out to be spot on. It was good to enjoy a weekend of calm and sunshine and to blot out the outer world albeit for a short time. My vase contains some familiar friends in the shape of :

• The dear little narcissus 'Téte-à-Téte' which stand up well to all that the elements throw at them and just make me smile whenever they come into flower each year.
• Some lilac sprigs of the perennial cardamine quinqufolia. This plant will forever in my mind unfortunately be associated with the compost toilet at our allotment, which was officially opened by our then local M.P. in April 2012. I bought the plant at a plant sale run by the local Cheshire and Friends group of The Hardy Plant Society. I had a rushed round the stalls and grabbed this plant and a few others, before rushing back to the allotment where I was charged with the task of meeting the M.P.  It was a small plant at the time with just a couple of fading flowers but it now has morphed into a substantial lilac carpet. It comes up early in the year and then completely vanishes underground in the summer. It has looked its very best this year. The attractive ferny foliage quite often gets nibbled by some unknown beastie but not a single bite has appeared this year. At least it's one plant that I will always remember where I got it from. 
• A couple of iris reticulata 'Clairette' flowers.
• Some galanthus 'Blond Inge' flowers. This is small snowdrop which sometimes misbehaves waywardly as  the yellow markings can sometimes appear as a murky shade of olive green as you can see in the photo below. It has the reputation of either being difficult to establish or clumps up well. I have found it to be the latter so it must be happy where it is planted. It is in danger though of being smothered by an arum mamoratum sub. italicum,  so I must take some remedial action before that happens

Many thanks to our hostess Cathy who blogs at 'Rambling In The Garden' and kindly invites us to share our vases each Monday. I'm looking forward to seeing what it is in other participant's vases today. I doubt if  the contents of my vase apart from the narcissus will last say length of time in the warm of the house hence the title of this post. Still I will get considerable pleasure from gazing upon them for a day or so. 

Wordless Wednesday ~ Galanthus 'South Hayes'

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.