Friday Flowers

A couple of pink flowers I forgot to mention last week, foxgloves and nectaroscordium.  Both beauties with their height and delicate colouring.
Foxgloves seed themselves about quite happily, but I grow a few white ones from saved seed every year to top up the pale colours.  We topped up the nectaroscordium last autumn too and I now have around fifty in my sunniest border.

Floral Friday

My garden goes through phases of colour, at the moment it's mostly the blues and purples of irises and alliums, with spashes of pink from persicaria and dianthus.  Waiting in the wings are the deep, moody reds of rhododendrons, paeonys and poppies.

In other news, I have submitted two pieces for publication in Ink Pantry Publishing's second anthology of work by Open University Creative Writing students.  It will be several weeks before I know if either of them have been accepted!

Is it Spring at Last?

We're past the Ides, the equinox is just around the corner and finally there are signs of Spring.  Magnolia buds turning from grey to green, one or two flowers opening on the forsythia and bright green leaf buds on the quince.  We've had groups of snowdrops, including my lovely Wendy's Gold, a whole mass of crocuses opening to greet any fleeting rays of sun, hellebores, early daffs and mini irises.  But it hasn't felt like Spring till now.
Walking through the garden this morning I spied a few violets adding their colour to cyclamen and aconites, and the great delight of fat, pointy buds on my clumps of those glorious Rip Van Winkle daffs.  Topolino and Tete-a-Tete are already out and, of course, they are lovely and most welcome, but they can't compete in the joyousness stakes with the unique, multi-petalled, golden heads of Rip Van Winkle.

Early Irises

I was going to post some more of my books today, but the sun is shining and this little beauty caught my eye.
Iris 'Katherine Hodgkin' is the result of a 1960's cross by an amateur gardener who named her after the wife of a fellow plant enthusiast.
My other early iris, the winter flowering 'Mary Barnard' was collected by the lady herself near Algiers in 1937.

Golden Treasure

My posh snowdrops opened out in the sun today.  I bought one bulb of Wendy's Gold from the RHS garden at Wisley a few years ago.  The delightful plant has obligingly, if slowly, increased every season since.  This year I have a group of four flowers all showing the same beautiful golden markings.
Wendy's Gold was first found by Bill Clark on the site of an Iron-age fort.  It was brought into cultivation by Joe Sharman, another galanthophile and a nursery owner.  He named the plant for Bill's wife.

Where Did all the Snow Go?

Overnight rain has washed all the magic from my garden.  They do say, if a little snow remains after a thaw, then it's waiting for more to come.  That was certainly the case ten days ago, but this time it's different.  The tiny patches left now don't look at all promising.

So faced with a dry day and soil which is cold, but not frozen I've spent a few hours spreading manure around my roses.  This is good thing for three reasons.  It kept me close to the warmth of the house - all our roses are on the front and side walls.  I was able to source the manure while it's still on a discount - our local supplier's offer finishes at the end of the month.  The roses really need a boost, they're not overly fond of our soil and I failed to find time to pamper them in this way last year.

Another Treasure

Another of the very early daffs flowering in my tiny greenhouse at the moment.  This one is called romieuxii and is a beautiful pale lemon colour.  Like cantabricus it is a native of Morocco.

Today's poem comes from an activity in which we were given a long list of wierd titles and asked to write to a few of them.  The one I chose first was 'What the Cow Thought About the Rain'.  My inspiration was the old country belief that cows sit down when rain is on the way.

There’s a smell in the air,

a change in the light.

A promise of rain

that just might

fall.

I’ll first choose my spot,

safe under that tree.

Then race there,

who wins?

Me.

Ruminating, while sitting

on my warm dry grass.

Waiting among daisies

for the shower to

pass.

Hidden Treasure

One of the bulbs flowering in my tiny greenhouse at the moment is a very early, very lovely, daffodil called cantabricus.

Whilst whizzing through the poetry section for A215 I came across one or two activities that I thought I might enjoy.  This little verse arrived when we were asked to write in 'another voice'.  The voice is of the blossom on my Prunus autumnalis, subjected to the very low temperatures we've had overnight this week.

So cold, last night.

Stars fearsome bright,

clear points of light.

Frost creeping over us, hurts

stiffening pink frilly skirts

Blue Monday?

The third Monday in January has always been voted the most depressing day of the year, but this year it falls on the 21st, which means we are already one month on from the shortest day.  That's got to be a cheering thought.  So maybe not so depressing this year!  My new year resolution was to blog more often, maybe today should be the start.

We're snowed in, but that's OK.  We're well stocked and the enforced rest has given me time to catch up with my OU work.  My TMA came back, with a higher mark than I expected, so I've decided to whizz through the poetry section, surprisingly I've managed one or two reasonably interesting short poems in response to a few of the activities.

I ventured down the snow covered back garden today to check on my greenhouses.  All is well, everything is surviving and some of the early bulbs are even flowering despite the freeze.

Autumn

Autumn colour has come late to our garden this year.  But over the past weeks it has arrived in profusion.  From really fiery reds to golden buttery yellows and every shade of russet-orange in between.
We have late flowers dotted around too.  Electric blue salvia uliginosa, deeply golden goblets of sternbergia, autumn crocus in shades of lilac and a beautiful palest pink schizostylis.
At last I have a proper potting shed.  I can now move all my potting paraphernalia out of the greenhouse into the shed.  This has given me enough space in the greenhouse to add more staging which I have started to put to good use already with autumn sown sweetpeas and root-cuttings from my favourite Japanese anemones.  Late cuttings I took from some tender plants are now advanced enough to come out of the greenhouse and be the first proud occupants of my new cold frames.
On the A215 front ... I've had my first TMA result.  Percentage was OK, but I thought some of the tutor's comments were a little subjective.  Our tutor group forum is still dismal, which is a real disappointment! 

Slow Progress!

Bulbs all planted, well except for the tulips.  I'm holding on to those until next month.  I've put the ones which came singly into pots, can't risk losing those outside. 
I have two greenhouses, one small and one tiny!  I've decided to convert the tiny one to a sort of alpine house, so I've cleaned it all out and started to stock it with the potted bulbs.

We're into the third week of A215 now, the work is as interesting as I had hoped, but the tutor group forum is depressingly inactive.  Only a third of the group have posted anything, and that only in answer to prompts from our tutor.  No-one is posting any of their assignments from the workbook, so there is no discussion happening.  So at the moment it's just me and the big red book.

Another Equinox

Study materials for A215 have now arrived. An all encompassing 'Student Cafe' forum has opened - much too crowded.  Already the attention seeking, would be dominant, male student has emerged.  We had one on A174, different guy but same tactics.  Covering the board with his threads and posting on as many others as possible, as many times as possible, even when he has nothing of any use to add to the discussion.
I shall wait for the individual tutor group forum to open before I bother posting anything.

Meanwhile I shall concentrate on enjoying the early autumn weather.  Bulbs of all sorts are arriving daily.  I must find time to plant at least some of them.  I have autumn crocus that should have gone in weeks ago, alliums, by the bucket load, daffodils and fritillaria, some quite unusual which come as single bulbs and need special care.  I also have a whole host of tulips on order but they won't be here for a few more weeks yet.  Come next spring and early summer my garden should be an absolute feast.

Blue Moon

We have the second full moon of the month tonight - officially known as a blue moon.  Very fitting, in many ways, that it should coincide with Neil Armstrong's memorial service.
This month has been a bit of a curate's egg ... good in parts.  After all the rain we've finally had a couple of weeks of sunshine and my garden is looking almost happy again.  We've started on a major redesign of a couple of areas so there are bare patches, which I hate, but it's only temporary.
Coming up next month is the start of my next OU course, the long awaited A215.  After that is an embroidery course at West Dean which I just managed to scrape into and need to start preparing for quite soon, if I'm not going to be out of my depth.

Rain Today?

We've just survived Friday the 13th for the third time this year and now they throw St Swithun's at us!  Will it rain?  It's looking OK at the moment, dry but overcast.  But will it turn to rain later?  Who knows, forcasts differ.  All anyone will commit to is that, since April, we've had the wettest drought on record!