My Little Garden 6th Feb 2021
On the first day of the new month the sun was shining, and I couldn’t resist a little trip out to photograph some signs of spring (or late winter to be more accurate). I ventured to the limit of what I feel I can call local, although that seems very much open to interpretation! The grove and woodland walk at Arley were very quiet and extremely muddy, but it was absolutely worth the effort to see the wonderful snowdrops and the hellebores. There are a few photos on twitter @renaissancegd if anyone want to see them.
I also arranged to see John Bents Weeping Ash garden while I was picking up some items at Bents garden centre yesterday. John’s garden is regularly open for NGS charity and his snowdrop collection is a really special one. He very kindly gave me a few for my own garden including one of the early flowering ones, so I’m hoping for snowdrops by Christmas this year.
That brings me to my first ‘Six’ of February 2021 and where else could I start but with the snowdrops.
- Snowdrops
This is the tallish and elegant Galanthus ‘Jacquenetta’, which came from Weeping Ash last year.
And the one below is another double from the new clump I planted yesterday.
I was also very pleased to see that the other snowdrops that were planted in the green last year are showing signs of life. It didn’t help that I had forgotten where I planted them, but they do seem to be emerging a little late and are still quite small. Hopefully photos of Galanthus Flore Pleno will follow in the next couple of weeks.
2. Kitchen Windowsill
A bunch of daffs and some sort of iris this week, from a well known supermarket that sells it’s bulbs in very pretty cardboard containers. I had some hyacinths as well but they are just about finished now. Maybe I’ll get one more pot ……
The iris were going over a bit when I got round to taking this photo but at their best they were very pretty. Maybe I should get one more pot of these too …..
3. Container Bulb Update
Everything that’s in a pot is showing signs of life. I am expecting the Iris to flower first and this is Alida, which I haven’t grown before, but was enticed by the lovely shade of blue in the online photo.
4. In the ground Bulb Update
A few more crocus have emerged this week. All yellow so far but a very welcome sight.
The narcissi are also showing signs of life. These are Jetfire looking very muddy after all the rain.
5. Foliage
This is one of my evergreen favourites in the back garden. It does a good job of hiding the fence and provides a bit of winter cover for the birds. The leaves have pretty markings of cream and pink and to my mind it is much more attractive than the more common Photina ‘Red Robin’.
6. Seeds
The seeds that I ordered about 10 days ago arrived very promptly last Saturday. Now I don’t grow normally grow many annuals as there’s very little space left in the garden, but last year I was so pleased with the zinnia and cosmos grown from seed that I’ve decided to experiment. Only time will tell if it’s a good idea, but some of these seeds are destined for a couple of very large rectangular containers. I remember seeing a photo on twitter last summer from someone who had done something similar during the first Lockdown when the garden centres were shut, so I’m copying the idea. It won’t be an expensive mistake if it doesn’t live up to expectations but I’m really hoping that my 4 grams of Bee Friendly Seed Mix which includes “Phacelia, Borage, Calendula, Larkspur, Eschscholzia (California Poppy), Cosmos and Cornflowers….and others” will look good.
It has to be said that this Higgledy Garden chap certainly knows what he’s doing as you can see from the photos of his cut flower patch last August.
And with that little blast of summer colour to finish with, here we go into week two of February which is apparently destined to bring us another beast from the east. Something to look forward to!
For more ‘sixes’ take a look at the blog of The Propagator who is the creator of this weekly collection. There are also many more excellent photos and blogs on twitter under the hashtag #SixonSaturday
