New Season

New season’s shoots.
Things are starting to move with an inevitability that invites over-optimism and leads the unwary to purchase plants for the garden that simply will not reliably survive before April, so don’t be tempted to be part of the “double bubble” so beloved of Garden Centres, when gardeners buy early, lose all, then buy again when the weather finally really does warm up. Be patient and save money – after all, the way the economy is going saving money, what there is of it around, is going to occupy all our minds this year, next year, and maybe longer into the future. Any sensible gardener knows plenty of ways to save money: save seed, take cuttings, share both with other gardeners and be pleased if they share with you – oh, and grow a few veg if you can fit them in.

Winter flowerers
The doughty winter flowering heathers are doing well and provide ongoing colour and interest. I always look forward to my Erica Arboria that glows with new foliage in the winter and early spring and then sends forth subtly scented, minute flowers. It’s a bit on the big side of you let it; this one has a hair cut after flowering, which keeps it honest.
Spotty Shade
Acuba, the spotted laurel, has never really been a favourite, but it has it’s place there’s no doubt, as this one has, lending a splash of much needed colour in a shady spot. The berries are just between green and red but will soon turn. The birds leave them alone and that may please some, but not me, I like my berries to be eaten by the birds, to be made the most of.

Everlasting Pots
The permanent pots are beginning to fulfil their annual promise. This pretty blue iris comes up reliably every year, even in it’s tiny pot, and the primulas the same, although they usually fall prey to the busy beaks of the local sparrows, bless their little hearts, though I’ve never quite discovered what the attraction is.

Progress
I’ve just cleared the remaining leaves of last year’s Kaffir Lily bulbs and found the Camassias that I’d briefly forgotten about, gaily growing beneath, they’re about 4 or 5 inches high and doing well.

Early Beginnings

Sparrow Perches
Climbers rarely look good at this time of year especially if they’re early spring flowerers and mine are no exception, however, sparrows seem attracted to the Clematis Alpina that clambers all over a variegated summer jasmine that adorns my garage wall. It may be Clematis Alpina “Pamela Jackman” but as it’s been in situ some years I can’t be sure, suffice it to say at this time of year it looks less like a Clematis more like a bad hair day. One thing I’m sure of is that it flowers reliably first in Spring, with a second flush in later summer. I only cut it to tidy, so it fades to hundreds of fluffy seed heads in autumn which hang on through winter and also seeds around freely, to the extent that I’m frequently pulling it out like a weed. Where the Sparrows come in is, at this time of year, they sit and shelter in it and sun themselves if the opportunity presents itself, but most significantly they peck away at the seed heads. I like to think they’re feeding, though I’d be surprised to find much nutrition in such tiny seeds. Perhaps they just enjoy tearing the heads to pieces in a relatively comfortable environment, like they do with primulas in the spring, especially the red ones.

The Hellebores look promising, or at least the foetidus, they’re almost out; the more picturesque are not quite so forward. They may not be as spectacular as some spring beginnings, but at least they are beginnings.