I have nothing further to say about last week. I’m moving on, as is my garden.
So, six things scraped together from the wreckage for my contribution to The Propagator’s Six on Saturday meme. The non-UK contributors are going to have to do the heavy lifting this week methinks.
One.
I wonder how many weeks I can go on putting a Camellia in as one of my six. This is adorable… No this is Camellia ‘Adorable’. It was starting to open when the frost hit, which meant some damage to the edges of the emerging petals. What then happens is that it opens anyway, pushing the damaged petals round the back where you can’t see them. I wish they all did that.
And then I look at the picture and it hasn’t escaped damage and the colour is a bit off because it’s a dull day and …… oh well, it’s made an effort.
Two.
Crocuses. I’m sure we used to have blue, white and yellow; most of those left are white, and they’re popping up in other places too. There’s a patch of Crocus tomasinianus in the front garden that’s getting swamped by a spreading bush, I must move them. At this time of year there’s an awful lot of bare ground and I’m in the market for things to fill it.
Three.
These are Primula ‘Wanda’. The name gets bandied about a lot these days but this is the plant I remember from childhood when we had it along the edges of various flower beds. On Monday our local garden club speaker was Caroline Stone, who is the National Collection holder for double primroses. She lives quite near so if she can grow them, I don’t have many excuses. Like crocuses, they would help to fill some of the early season gaps, then benefit from the shade of other plants later in the summer. They’re less tolerant of drying out in summer than wild primroses and they need dividing at least every two years. Caroline mentioned Barnhaven Primroses, now in France, as a supplier. Resistance proved futile, an order has been placed.
On Tuesday morning I rounded up the pots of ‘Wanda’, cleaned them up and fed them. They will be planted out and looked after properly. Honest.
Four.
Honesty. Honestly. I bought seed of Lunaria ‘Corfu Blue’ from Special Plants a few years back and they have seeded themselves about, as they do. They’re like foxgloves in that they produce big rosettes of coarse leaves which can easily smother small plants. I saw one yesterday threatening (*) Wulfenia shwartzii. They are fabulous in spring and the dry seed heads stayed in a vase until we tired of the dust they were collecting.
((*) was the moment when I went out to pull it up and to check the name of the victim plant.)
Five.
A vegetable for a change. Onions. ‘Rumba’ sets, in cells. I used to plant onion sets direct on the plot. They were OK but the bloke on the next plot’s were better. What he did differently was to start them in cells then plant them out when they were five or six inches high and well rooted. They go out when conditions have improved, the bulbs aren’t hanging around drying out and shrivelling for so long. My onions were better than his for the last two seasons. Not that I’m competitive or anything.
Six.
Epimedium x perralchicum ‘Frohnleiten’. Not doing its thing yet, but needing to be cut back before its new shoots make doing so difficult. The cold wind really caught one end of this clump. I do try to grow some of the many new hybrids but they are slug fodder and struggle; this thing is hard as nails.
I’ve been at the Spring Flower Competitions at Rosemoor today. This is usually an event dominated by Rhododendrons, Camellias, Magnolias and Daffodils but after last week it was opened up to pretty much any surviving plant. If you think coming up with six things for a blog is a challenge, spare a thought for the people trying to keep a flower show on the road. I was judging camellias; some latitude was called for but on the whole they were astonishingly good in the circumstances. Rhododendrons and Magnolias were almost completely absent, Daffodils were excellent and there were some impressive displays of foliage.
This was the bloom we decided was the best of the Camellias.
Interesting way to propagate onions! I agree with you about the honesty- it can be a bit of a nuisance but in my garden (where it self seeds every year) it brings a welcome burst of colour in early spring so I love it. I’m about to try primroses for the first time. Jane
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That prize winnng camelia is lush! Did you have much traumatic damage from your rare snow event?
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This snow was no problem but -5 with a near gale will have done damage that isn’t apparent yet I think.
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Fingers crossed. I just planted out my onion sets. They were also in modules but since November. They got a bit soggy as the modules were not draining well. They seem ok, good top growth and nice roots. Hope they don’t rot off…
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I’m in no rush to plant anything on my allotment, not that I have anything to plant. Spuds will need to go in soon I guess.
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Uh oh. You’ve made me very nervous with your photo of Epimedium. Where is my Epimedium, anyway? I’m going directly out to the garden to have a look. Otherwise, I enjoyed your post. Very good idea with the onions!
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I keep getting reminded of things by other people’s posts. Hope your Epimedium’s ok.
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I was thinking about cutting my Epimedium (variety name escapes me at the moment) down earlier as it’s looking well past it’s best but I couldn’t see any new shoots yet and then the rain came again!
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Dry here at the moment, waiting for me to get my coat on!
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Your camellia is still stunning if a little frayed around the edges and I love the colour of your honesty.
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The camellia is recovering well, looks better by the day.
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Your Camellia ‘adorable’ is just … adorable! 😍 Barnhaven primroses are the best here in France. I just have a double blue that is lovely too…
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I hope I’ve ordered them early enough to get a showing this year. Really looking forward to getting them.
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Like the others, your Adorable stole my heart. And that best of show . . . ethereal. But you know, year after year, I spend the whole summer keeping my primroses hydrated & never once thought to use them as underplanting for summer plants. Such an obvious solution. One of those moments when I wonder, how do I even remember to breathe, I’m so . . . duh. Gotta laugh. So my primroses thank you, most heartily.
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I’m giving more and more thought to getting the most out of a relatively small area by having one thing follow on from another. I’m hoping the primroses will tolerate, even thrive on being buried by late season stuff, then come back the next spring better than ever. It’s pretty much what the wild primroses do. They will probably need the odd drink, if it gets very dry.
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The onions look great. I would like to plant some up this spring. Great six!
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Of course gardeners are never competitive..says she drooling over the primroses. Do let us know how the onions work out!
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I have visions of myself going out and buying a sack of onions to pass off as my own; avoiding the humiliation of failure after broadcasting to the world how good they would be!
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