As you may recall from a recent post, we had a lot of rain and chilly weather recently. And, I mentioned that I was hoping some plants which had got a bit damaged would be able to revitalize themselves. Well, the garden has thrown up a few surprises this past week .
Because of the week of full sun and then the few days of non-stop rain, things are flowering and growing. One of my rhododendrons has started to flower, the experimental garlic propagation has resulted in young shoots (we’ll have to wait and see if anything edible actually comes of this experiment), there’s new growth and flowers on old almost dead-looking branches and… the plants I stepped on have recovered! I’m quite relieved.
So, yippee!
A bee came around to visit the Rhododendron flower the same time I did!
My experiment, of plonking some supermarket bought Garlic cloves into a container in my herb garden, has started to show some growth activity.
Two years ago I bought some Hyacinth plants (already budding) from the supermarket. I knew they’d flower that year since all the energy had been stored in the bulbs. So, I planted them in a container outside and they were lovely. I decided to leave them there and see if they would recover from the forced growth in a couple of years as my Amaryllis did. (Here’s the back-story to the Amaryllis saga, and here’s the flower budding journey). It’s been 2 years now since the forced Hyacinth bloom, and there’s been a little action. Maybe next year they will do it properly! My Amaryllis recovered in 2 years, but it was indoors and getting regular doses of tomato feed. I think I’ll transplant the Hyacinths to one of my new flower-beds and continue to monitor it from there. I have hopes for next Spring!
I sowed a lot of Calendulas last year as I wasn’t sure how many seeds would fail to germinate. It turns out that these Pot Marigolds are pretty reliable (and edible as opposed to the French Marigold (Tagetes) and I had a lot of flower power from them last year. I wasn’t sure how things would go on last year’s plants this year, though. So, I’ve sown more seeds. Well! Look at these pics right here! The blooms started appearing in late March on the old growth. I’m so excited!
I haven’t been taking too many pics of the herb garden yet as it’s just mainly pots of earth looking all boring. But, as with the garlic shoots, there’s been some action on the Parsley and Chive front. As the chive leaves are still quite thin and just look like pencil lines of green in the photos, I’ve only posted the parsley progress. They were sown in pots on the outdoor potting table so it’s interesting to see how germination in the cooler air is a bit different to germination on a warm, kitchen windowsill.
I have Aquilegias (or Colombines) planted next to each other in various beds. It’s interesting to see how some grow big and tall but yet one next to it might not be the same. This one by the garden shed is lush and full and I love looking at it. The foliage is pretty and the flower stalk is just the icing on top for me.
I had the hardest time with my Aubrietia seedlings a few years ago. As germinating seedlings, they were slow growing and needed pricking out while still quite fragile. Then I really watched them and coddled them for months, trying to get them to grow and be healthy before transplanting them to the rockery. The focus was slightly stressful, but they looked lovely their second year! Sadly, I don’t recall noticing them much last year. But, they started flowering in late March this year! Such a great surprise and still flowering now! Their purple is almost fluorescent. I get such a happy boost when I see them. That’s some super bright flower power there! (get it?)
I do some structural work on the garden every year. That’s one of the things that happens when you ‘erase’ all the rubbish and create a blank slate for yourself. A few years ago we made a trellis on one side of the garden shed for some honeysuckle climbers. It’s been growing (and climbing) reliably well each year. The vine has crept to all parts of the trellis but it needs to thicken up now. Gardening really does take care and patience!
In my desperation to keep plants alive in the front corner garden project last year, I remember frantically sticking things in when the weather was turning colder. I think this is a type of Fuschia but I really can’t remember. I’m glad I didn’t cut it back though, the leaves are sprouting on the old growth! It’s so lovely to have non-green foliage for a bit of colour interest in the garden.
In a previous post, I had mentioned that I thought I’d stepped on some lily shoots while working in the garden, and that I hoped they would bounce back and recover. I finally got up the nerve to take a peek at the scene of the disaster yesterday, and these are those same shoots, looking healthy and lush. I’m not quite sure they’re lilies though. I do remember sowing Allium seeds, but I wasn’t sure they’d germinate! Usually Alliums are bought as bulbs. I, however, had saved the black seed-heads from the faded allium flower one year. I do remember tossing them into the centre of the main flower bed in the front-corner garden project so maybe these are Allium shoots as they collect nutrients to build their bulbs for next spring? I’m not sure. But, it is great fun to have this kind of anticipation literally on your doorstep! I’ll keep you posted on what ends up happening to these shoots.
I‘m really sure of this! It’s a Lily appearing under fading Crocus foliage. I have a few of them in a cluster. I do remember planting some of these bulbs in the front-corner of the garden at the end of the rose hedge – I haven’t seen any shoots from there yet though. You win some, you lose some. I’m going to keep looking though, maybe I’ll get a surprise!
I got a couple of clumps of this from someone in the village last year. For the life of me I can’t remember the name. I have a similar looking plant that I’d bought at a farmer’s market some years ago that looked and bloomed just like this with sort of indigo or dark blue flowers. That plant is growing at a different pace to this one though, and its leaves germinate red before going all green – these didn’t. It’s a watch-this-space for this plant too!
Here’s an Aster seedling that has survived being battered by massive raindrops. The foliage looks great even though it’s on a very thin stem. I intend on planting them in the container the Hyacinths currently occupy, but that won’t be any time soon with that fragile stem.
