We had a pretty wet and windy start to April but now there is a lot more sunshine around. There is still a chilly breeze though, and with clear nights there is still the chance of frosts.
Sadly the Duddingston Kirk Garden Club has ground to halt now but the good news is that Jock Tamson’s Gairden (JTG) is taking over our annual plant sale (May 2nd in Duddingston Kirk manse garden). I have loads of seedlings and cuttings to take along for sale so a lot of my time has been spent tending to them. Right now that means hardening them off by taking them all out during the day and bringing them all in again in the evening. Once the plant sale is over I should have a lot more room in the conservatory and the patio tables.
In the conservatory the cactus bumps have flowers on them which I didn’t expect. I thought the bumps would have to get larger before they flowered. Hey-ho. Oxalis triangularis is just starting to bloom now with its very dainty flowers and dark purple foliage. One of my neighbours brought some old pots that she no longer wanted and would I want any? I spotted this deep red one that goes really well with aeonium Voodoo now that it has its deep red, summer colours.
It is the time of year that the vine weevil grubs are chomping their way through plant roots so we have given the whole back and front garden, patio pots, conservatory and the plants for sale, a nematode treatment. This at least keeps them at bay. I just need to keep the earth moist for the nematodes to do their job.
I love wandering around the garden at this time of year spotting all the new shoots and being thankful for the plants that have come through the wet winter. The emerging fern fronds (fiddles) look especially nice and they are all very different. My favourite one just now is the very hairy looking Polystichum polyblepharum. I love ferns!
All around the garden are little purple violets that have just spread wherever they want. I do have to keep an eye on them or they would just take over. The same goes for the ajuga and the periwinkle.
As for the forget-me-nots well they are popping up everywhere too. The rain seems to have washed them down to the edge of the borders. And under the rhododendron is a patch of dicentra formosa ‘ bacchanal red’ which has to be kept under control or it would spread everywhere. The yellow erythroniums are needing dead-headed now to prevent them seeding everywhere as I already have 3 large patches of them. One patch is under the crab apple which is now blooming away. It hasn’t produced any more branches to the back of it so it is going to be drooping heavily to the front once the blooms have been replaced by the heavier crab apples. I have to keep an eye on Harry otherwise he would just hack it back! Although someone of FB told me about a method call Notching which can induce the bud bellow the notch to start to branch so I may try that next year and see what happens.
The berberis is in full flower now and if you peek up the right hand side of the garden you can see it with the white spirea flowers in the background and a few yellow tulips behind it and just in the foreground are the narcissi actaea pheasant eye. Most of the narcissi have gone over except for a few Segovia on the patio, the small narcissi pipit in the stumpery are still in flower. Narcissi Pipit are always the last to come through.
The view from the patio just before the cherry blossom fell and the narcissi had gone over,
Most of the tulips have gone over but the ones in mum’s planter are still in flower. They look nice next the narcissi Segovia and the pink silene Flos-Jovis Peggy. The wild garlic looks pretty too.
Just beside the conservatory door to the patio is the skimmia japonica which has a really nice scent when in flower. It is just about over now.
Somehow I have managed to have anemone coronarai Bordeaux popping up in pots in amongst the plants I actually planted in the pots. I don’t think they seeded themselves there so I must have re-used to compost that the anemones came from to top up the pots? Gardeners World had a bit about an anemone grower who said the corms get bigger with age but that you get the best flower from the smallest corms – well I never knew that so I will keep that in mind.
And remember the marsh marigold being eaten by something – well I found the culprit and it totally demolished the plant! Bloody wood pigeons! This may also be the creature that has broken a few of my nepeta plants. I have found a lot of broken off stems but nothing eaten. It may well be a cat too as it is also known as cat mint but we get lots of cats in the garden and only this year has there been a problem. I have had to put upturned baskets over them to protect them. Such a pain. But now, I am off to enjoy some sunshine while I can.
