Fuchsia round-up 1: Bland's New Stripe, Angie and Eva Boerg

Last month I wrote a little post saying that I was throwing out all my thirty-odd varieties of fuchsias, but rather than let all my experiences of growing these little beauties go to waste I will be doing several of these fuchsia round-up posts over the next few weeks.  Just because I am moving on to pastures new doesn't mean others don't want to grow them.  Hopefully if you read this so you will be a little more prepared on what you are getting.  I have found many times that i have bought a variety to discover it looks nothing like what I thought it would when it finally blooms.  I had really hoped to be able to have  a picture of each variety but some of mine really gave pathetic shows this year and I didn't manage to catch some of them.  One of the inevitable problems of buying plants on the internet I guess, I always think the blooms are going to be nice and big and turn out to be really unimpressive.  So here we go with the first three varieties:

Bland's New Stripe- An original member of the team from the first year I properly got into fuchsias.  Unfortunately I bought it at time when I would buy virtually anything under the 'fuchsia' umbrella, as this really isn't my cup of tea at all.  Its predominantly the traditional red and purple colours of hardy fuchsias that I don't particularly like, apart from some streaking on the purple of baby pink.  Probably this is because it is actually a hardy variety where as I normally only buy non-hardy types.  Largely I found that my plant resembled pictures I have seen on the web, although I have seen the red sepals tightly curled up and away from the purple where as mine generally just stood up straight on end like they had experienced a terrible fright.  Average sized, roughly two inches long not counting the stamens, there is no frill or excitement of any kind.  If I may be so brash as to say; I find it boring.  I really don't know what came over me when I bought it.  If you wanted a hardy fuchsia for the garden that is a little different, this may be a good one.

Bland's New Stripe- The baby pink streaking down the purple petals is where the 'stripe' element comes from I guess,
other than than its much like a regular hardy fuchsia.  I didn't do an 'up the skirt' shot of this one as there is not much to look at

Angie- Ah little Angie.  This I would probably describe as a real do-er, it was the first one out last year and flowered continuously for months.  Described as a 'bush' variety they aren't wrong.  There is no spreading or trailing, no long unruly shoots.  Angie is most definitely a bush, and an extremely small one at that.  Everything about Angie is miniature, she only grew about 8 inches tall, the leaves are tiny and the flowers are only about an inch long and less than an inch wide.  But in her favour this tiny bush was always covered in blooms but like all good reliable do-ers, Angie is a little underwhelming.  Her purple and white with the merest splash of red doesn't exactly set me alight and she is so small she doesn't have the presence to make a statement across the patio.  But for reliable flowering that won't get out of hand, she's your girl.  Unfortunately Angie never managed to get her picture taken, poor girl.

Eva Boerg- I think.  Most of the labels wore off so its not 100% definite but this seems the most likely candidate

Eva Boerg- Another purple and white variety, and again unfortunately in my opinion, not the most exciting.  When I bought it as a plug plant the image on the packet showed a really dark plumy purple but as I have regularly found when the fuchsias actually come out, the colour of my plant was a little different.  More like a mid pinky purple it is pretty, but still not what I thought I was going to get.  While you might be thinking you've clearly just identified the wrong fuchsia as Eva from the pictures, I remember thinking this when she first flowered.   Eva is what is known as a 'single' flower so is fairly small with no frills.  Like I said, its quite pretty with faintly blushed pink sepals and is my favourite of the three featured here.

The 'up the skirt' shot, fairly open petals, overall 'nice'

Flowering amaryllis

The enormous bud split and the four buds like little aliens started making
 a break for freedom

Freshly released and already red but still tightly furled

My favourite plant discovery this winter without doubt is the amaryllis, I am in love.  I know they are not remotely subtle, which is usually my taste, but at this time of year its nice to have something bold and brash brightening up the room.  I bought one of my amaryllis at just the right time, with already a huge stem and a cracking bud atop it.  The bud immediately started to pop when I got it home.  The amaryllis flower may be an elegant and beautiful thing when its fully in bloom, but the way it unfurled from the bud was not pretty.  The whole process was much like a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis. Despite the bud being ginormous, it was still impressive how much flower was actually packed away into it.  Four rolled flowers struggled out of the one bud, then flopped out horizontally in opposite directions from each other.  Finally each flower unfurled and fully opened into its final lily-like form.  The whole process took several days.

The four individual flowers lowering like helicopter blades into their final positions

This is what I like to call the donkey shot, the first flower down starts to unfurl

Oh what a flower it is!  I knew I would be impressed, and it didn't disappoint.  Each flower is the size of a hand with a lovely open face and long stamen covered in bright yellow pollen contrasting with the vivid orange petals.  These stamen are really rather lovely, just like all lilies are (and yes I know that technically amaryllis are not actually lilies but they look it).  I looked up on wikipedia to make sure that what I wanted to call stamen actually were called that, and funnily enough the example given on wikipedia are amaryllis so they are obviously a great example of a good stamen.  Bold and brassy this plant most certainly is, demanding attention.

So excited about that second bud!

Look at those anthers!  They couldn't get any more pollen on them if
they tried

Although the colour of this amaryllis, which I unfortunately don't know the variety of, is undoubtably lovely in these dark dull days, I personally think it is the form that makes it so striking.  I don't know why an amaryllis feels the need to grow such a long and strapping stem but it gives the plant great structure, commanding attention.  The way the four flowers face away from each other helpfully gives it no bad side, and a lovely symmetry.  The genus name for these bulbs is Hippeastrum which comes from the greek words for 'knight' and 'star' and refers to the star shaped weapon knights used to wield which is such a cool thing to be named after.  The formation of the flowers reminds me of the loudspeakers on school sports pitches that I have seen in films,  Like little floral gramophones.
Having said that it is the form that is impressive there is something about the colour that I can't get my head around.  When put in the light, these orangey red petals are actually glittery.  Not pearlescent or iridescent as you can find in nature although I can't think of a flower that actually has either of these two qualities off the top of my head, but actually glittery with a golden yellow sparkle present right across the petals.

Now you can clearly see the little yellow glittery dots in this picture right?

So now the first flower is out my attention is turned to the second spike that is rapidly making progress. This plant literally grows before your very eyes and it wont be long until its out.  I can't help but think of triffids, not because this plant looks remotely menacing, but because of how fast it grows and how thick the stems are.  My other amaryllis is also making progress so I will update in due course.

Merry Christmas

How did this time of year come round again? Unlike many people I am not a terribly christmasy person, I wasn't designed for parties and am too keen on maintaining some kind of waistline for all the food.  I was actually on a christmas night out on Saturday and was in a club thinking, why am I not at home in my pyjamas?!  But the good news is the winter solstice passed on Sunday so I do see this point in the year as a corner and now we are moving back towards lighter evenings and nicer weather.  I can not wait.  I hate getting back from work in the evenings and spending all night cooped up indoors like a caged animal, faced pressed to the window glass, desperate to be out amongst marrows.  Not that I have marrows.
However, I will rally and have a glass of something nice on the day.  I thought I would share with you a christmas tree, a real one this time not one made of dogwood, but not just any christmas tree.  Behold, the biggest living decorated tree in the UK:

35 metres of light, so pretty in the dark, excuse the quality I couldn't get it any clearer
 because of the lack of light and I wasn't enjoying the threat of being run over

A giant redwood standing 35 metres tall is decorated from a cherrypicker with 1800 lights for the whole christmas season.  It stands tall and bright light a beacon across the fields and is visible from the nearby road.  Pilots flying into the nearby airport can even see it from the air and use it to help guide them in. Im lucky enough to get to see it quite often and its always impressive.  I thought it would be nice to get a picture to show you, but the problem is Wakehurst Place, the location of this tree is shut by the time its dark and I get out of work so I had to try and take it from the road.  As usual, there was me, hastily parked up and stumbling up a steep grass verge in the dark to get my picture.
Unfortunately the tree is not as impressive in pictures as it is in real life because it is difficult to grasp the scale of it, but you can see a few other trees in the foreground to give you some idea, and Im about 100 metres away, it would take a good 7 minutes to walk to the tree so that shows you the size.
Anyway I wish all my readers a very merry christmas, I hope yours is full of joy, and probably plenty of food.  Now bring on spring so I can post nice pretty pictures again rather than bulbs!

A winter sweet pea planting

Re-hydration in action, look what a little water can do

I would not normally even consider sowing sweet peas in the winter.  Monty Don, that great stalwart of British gardening and a man I would gladly marry in exchange for access to his greenhouses, once conducted an experiment on his show Gardeners World to see whether sowing in winter gave you some great advantage.  Apart from slightly earlier flowers, he concluded that it did not.
However, in my case I can see other advantages in winter sowing.  Anyone who read about my efforts last spring will know that on the whole it did not go well.  For such a simple thing to grow, after all sweet peas are often touted as the beginner's flower, I managed to make a right royal mess of the whole sowing process.  I made some fundamental errors that I guess we all have to make to learn, but that I will endeavour not to repeat this year.  By sowing in Winter it will free up germinating space for another batch in spring, thereby giving two bites of the cherry.  Or possibly two opportunities to mess it up.

Seeds in a glass jar post soaking

In an effort to ensure germination across the board I have followed the backs of the packets to a tee, although I remember covering last years with newspaper until they germinated and I have forgotten to do that this year.  Oh well.  The packets said soak the seed overnight in water before planting, so thats what I did.  Only I remembered I needed to do this only after I was already in bed so I actually got back out to soak my seeds, such dedication.
I soaked two seeds of each variety of the eight that I have.  There is limited space in my germination area so I didn't get too carried away.  The packet said use warm water, I guess that gets the process started, so I placed the jar by a radiator to try and keep the water warmish all night.  A nice little layer of paper over the top to stop sneaky midnight drinks by the cat.  I was surprised how fat the seeds actually got over night.  They went in looking like very dry black peppercorns and came out in the morning about a third bigger and beautifully smooth, like they had enjoyed a round of botox overnight.
Being devoid of a greenhouse my germination spot of choice is the handy windowsill in the internal garage.  Space, as I said, is limited by it being a small window and also the current home of my narcissus and hyacinths.

I always find an empty washing up bowl great for putting holey damp pots in so your brother's stuff doesn't get ruined when you rest all your seedlings on it

Im hoping that they will germinate fine in there as it is an internal garage so it never gets too cold so they won't freeze, but it also isn't heated giving me long straggly seedlings.

Growing narcissus in pebbles

The pebble method, clean, reusable, whats not to like?

I thought I had covered the planting of narcissus in every which way that was possible, but it turns out I have not.  While on the internet researching how to plant narcissus, the mother stumbled across a video in which a lady planted in pebbles.  Thinking about it now, I do not know why she was on the internet researching that in the first place!  She knows how to plant them, I doubt the theory has changed a vast amount, a narcissus is fairly constant in what it likes.
Anyway in this video this nice American lady plants narcissus in nothing but pebbles in a glass vase.  Planting in bulb fibre is hardly messy, but planting in pebbles is definitely a cleaner, less fuss option.  Also unless you have a packed winter planting schedule, more than likely you end up with half a bag of bulb fibre kicking about, superfluous to requirements.  I imagine that if you plant in pebbles you just turf out the bulbs when they are done and keep the pebbles for next year.  After the first year investment in pebbles it becomes a cheap planting option, which appeals to me greatly.

The bulb ideally does not want a furry coating of mould, this was probably the worst affected bulb

Unfortunately I lacked all the necessary ingredients for this method- bulbs, pot and pebbles.  The mother's bulbs were already safely tucked up in their bulb fibre, chilling in the garage, so I thought I would just make a note of the method and try it next year.  However, if you watch the video, the lady says to save some of the bulbs for successive planting through the winter months.  That being the case I couldn't see why, if I could get hold of some, I couldn't still plant them.  Bulbs aren't aware when they were bought after all.  Luckily I got hold of some narcissus 'ziva' from crocus.co.uk and at 20 per cent off no less as the season was getting long in the tooth.  Apparently it pays to buy late!  The pot and pebbles were purchased the same day as my Amaryllis bonanza.  Unfortunately the garden centre did not appear to sell pebbles specifically for 'that narcissus pot you have planned' so I bought really small grade pea gravel.  And this is where the theory on it being a 'cleaner' method falls apart.  Being largely intended for a pathway the pebbles were covered in sandy dirt so after digging them out of the bag I had to give them a good washing.  In December, in the freezing cold, joy.
While the lady said you could keep the bulbs, I doubt she meant tucked up in the jiffy bag they were sent in for several weeks.  When I got mine out I discovered they were gently moulding, oops.  Clearly this was not a good sign, but I didn't have anything to lose in planting them, they will either grow or they won't.  The mould was on the outside layers of the bulb so I just peeled the bulbs like onions.
The lady planted her bulbs in a glass vase, and I now know why.  Its very difficult to tell when you have put in two inches of pebbles, or how much water to put in when you can't see the level.  In the first pot I nestled my bulbs in first, then added a few extra pebbles to secure them and then poured in some water.  Problem is, I couldn't tell how high the level was and if its over the bulbs they will rot.  So I had to pluck one out and check the level and then replace them.  The next pot I thought I would be really clever and put the water in first, but then I just couldn't get those bulb bums nestled nicely in the stones.

So the motto of the story is; get a clear glass vase.  I will be keeping my peepers peeled all year for some.  Then I will have two other pots to plant something else in, yay!

Dogwood christmas tree

Look its me in the bauble!

We normally buy a real christmas tree, they are just so much nicer than fake ones and smell amazing.  Plus if you are going to go to all the hassle of decorating it, you might as well get a nice one.  However, we don't have anybody coming for christmas and real trees are expensive, shockingly messy and I do find taking the decorations on and off a bit of a bore.  I know, what a bah humbug.  Every January when Im waging battle with the hoover on the billion pine needles its left behind, I think maybe next year we won't have one, just have a little rest from all the christmas fun.  Well that year is this year.  Nobody was that fussed so we decided; no tree.
And we were happy, until a friend of the mother's told her how she had constructed herself a sudo-tree out of yellow dogwood branches that she had strung lights through and it was all very pretty.  The mother was rather taken with the idea of this and it so happens that we have a dogwood in the garden.  Ours is a far more christmas appropriate red rather than yellow, which can't, in my opinion, have looked that christmassy.

Please ignore all the other stuff in this photo, our living room is for living in, nobody
is under any illusions it is going to appear on a pinterest board any time soon or, between the covers of
Elle Decoration.  The point is the Dogwood is pretty, I think all white lights might be better but mine, alas, are coloured

Always up for a challenge I agreed to help attempt to make a dogwood christmas tree, although I actually ended up doing most of it.  So there I am, on a bitterly freezing cold day in December standing in the border wearing my gardening trousers which are far too big and therefore slip down to reveal an inch or two of flesh beneath my coat.  Literally freezing my posterior off.  We were looking for youngish stems as they remain bright red rather than the aged wood, and with good branching.  I managed to find about four good stems.  The mother tried to coerce me into giving the dogwood a prune at the same time but I was like its freezing, it can wait.

Moody bauble

We put the stems into a large jug that the mother's had for years and is quite substantial and so is unlikely to fall over, but just in case I also filled the jug up with pebbles to weigh it down and secure the branches in.  Or that was the theory but I found the branches had a mind of their own and flailed around until we ran some thread around the bottom of the stems tying them all together and adding a little stability to the mix.

Random giant nut

For decoration I kept it simple just attaching a red or gold bauble to the end of some of the branches and stringing lights up and down the branches.  I think the decoration needs to be kept simple, it seems a complete contradiction to use plain simple stems and adorn them with a thousand baubles and tinsel.  How a pair of giant nuts crept in I don't know but I guess they are vaguely appropriate?  We went for height as the branches are not dense and it doesn't take over that end of the room, but it does add a christmassy touch to the room with the fairy lights.  And no pine needles.  Taking this down should be a breeze, although the mother has plans to get a cutting off one of the stems for that friend with the yellow one, apparently she can see the appeal of red as well.

Goodbye fuchsias

Just as a good fuchsia should be, huge and frothy, the only problem is the photograph the interesting bit you have to include a wrist

A few years ago I became completely obsessed with fuchsias.  At its peak my collection probably totalled fifty plants with probably thirty five different varieties, it was really getting out of hand with pots all over the patio.  Really they are completely responsible for getting me into gardening and starting all this, but sadly their endless fascination for me has come to an end.
Quite simply there is too much work involved in watering and overwintering for the amount of flowers you get.  As all my varieties are non-hardy I have to spend a considerable amount of time out in the freezing cold in November trussed up like a turkey wrapping pots in bubble wrap.  Then there is a big ugly igloo in the corner all winter that I have to continually nip out to for brick rearranging purposes to keep the whole thing tethered down.  Its just too much like hard work.
I have quite a few varieties that are pretty special, but I also have more than a few that are pretty ordinary as I was not the most selective of buyers, buying any variety I could get my hands on.  The sheer volume of pots means I can't enjoy the really good ones as much as I would like.  After much deliberation I have decided to let them all go.  I will of course be sad to lose the nicer ones, but they all need some serious work at this point.

I don't even remember seeing this one this year which is a shame as it was a variate.  The name escapes me at the moment

I have overwintered my fuchsias every year because it means I have larger and more developed plants, but the show this year really wasn't very impressive, as I think they all want digging out and replanting in fresh compost, and to be quite honest I really can't be bothered.  In fact there were so few flowers this year that I would struggle to identify the really good ones, so its easier to just lose the lot.  Also I have a few pots where of the two plants originally in there, one has died so either I need to repot the other or put another one in.  More work.  I would rather use the pots for more vegetables next year, or annuals, and then tidy the whole lot up and put them away for the winter.
Last year I selected some varieties that weren't doing it for me anymore and left them out to freeze in the cold rather than giving them space in the bubble wrap igloo.  Did they die?  Of course not.  No, they persevered on, helped along by a mild winter while several of the good ones rotted in overly damp conditions in the igloo.
While I may be getting rid of my stock, I still appreciate their beauty and Im sure others will to so over the next few weeks I will run through some of the varieties I have had, good points, bad points, pictures if I have them etc.

I really shouldn't post pictures from earlier in the year in the middle of winter, its depressing

My discovery of Amaryllis bulbs

That is some serious stemmage going on there! And a cute baby stem

I don't profess to be a horticultural expert, I get by, but my knowledge is on the whole better than most.   So when my work colleague complained that the plant she had bought to pep up her desk had died, I was able to tell her after a quick prod of the soil that she had over watered it.  So it saddens me that until very recently, ie two weeks ago, I was completely unaware of the existence of Amaryllis.  How, I don't know, because what a bulb!  I am mystified as to how it has escaped my notice up until now.
I only came across it when I was trawling the internet having discovered hyacinths can be black, and was investigating what colours other than the usual blue and insipid pastels there are.  Sorry hyacinths.  Somewhere was a picture of a mighty amaryllis; tall, statuesque, and faintly ridiculous.  Suddenly I had a need for one and bemoaned the fact that I thought I had missed my opportunity for this year.
It turns out, I had not.  We went out later that very same day, not specifically to get an Amaryllis, because that really would have been a bit obsessive to be like "I must have one!" and zoom straight out the door.  I actually went to get a new car headlight bulb and popped into Wilkinsons for a bargain.  Wilkinsons, if your not from round these parts, is a shop that sells household items like bleach and laundry bins for very reasonable prices usually.  I didn't find any bargains on this occasion, but there right by the entrance positioned almost as if they knew I was coming was a stand of amaryllis.  Like a pig for truffles I was straight in there, rifling through the prepackaged boxes for a colour I liked.  I went for blah, attracted by the hint of pink on white, and for four pounds was thrilled.
My amaryllis purchasing did not end there though.  After Wilkinsons we stopped off at my usual garden centre for pebbles and glass vases.  It was a complete bun fight in there, an offer was on and the hoardes had descended to buy their christmas baubles.  On a hunt for another pot for bulbs I found more amaryllis and thought in for a penny, in for a pound.  These were far more advanced with a full spike at least fifteen inches long, and a second spike on the way.
So now I have two which should come out in succession over the christmas period.  I actually can not wait and will be back with pictures of the huge flowers as soon as they are out!

The enormous flower head getting ready to burst!

Growing narcissus paperwhite

The sexy garage windowsill making an appearance again.  The sticks were going to 
have string put round them but the mother changed her mind and took them out.

I had not planned for this post to cover both the planting process and flowering, but since when did flowers pay a blind bit of attention to any plans you have for them.  Again like the hyacinths, I also did not have anything to do with the planting, but we do not need to cover that nap once again.  So the mother planted them in my absence.
I shan't go into great depths of how one sticks a narcissus bulb into some compost, or bulb fibre as is the case here.  I think I have more than covered the art of the bulb plant in my last few posts, and its not a vast topic to begin with.  I believe she buried the bulbs a few inches down, then placed the pot in the garage in the cool, under the same bit of newspaper that the hyacinths were under.  It was a bit of a bulb fest under there for a while.  Like all bulbs the period in the cool allows them to develop a nice wad of roots to support flowers later.

The narcissus flower bud beginning to swell up, but looking remarkably like a little pea pod

When about five inches of green shoots had emerged above the surface of the fibre they were placed in the light on the windowsill in the garage.  It was at this point that I had my first opportunity to get at them to take some pictures.  They may have only been outside in the garage but its not exactly easy to shimmy past the car to get at the pots.  Little flower buds had already formed even though there were still only a few inches of shoot showing.  I think the flower buds look a little like pea pods.

The flowers were pure white with contrasting ochre pollen, which was very nice,
 if you got near enough to see them 

Each stem has multiple flower heads, of perfectly formed, if small flowers

Then only a mere matter of days, not even a week later I think the mother had brought them inside as they were threatening to flower, and there is no point at all letting them do that in the garage.  Boy had I forgotten how much narcissus stink, in a good way, but an overwhelming powerful pungant pong none the less.  Unfortunately the father had just bought the mother a lovely bunch of stocks, which I did not appreciate as these are one of my favourites and I had a terrible cold at the time, but no flowers for me.  The two rather strong scents combined together to create a rather heady mix.  Sitting in the lounge began to feel like you had whipped out a chair and were attempting to watch TV in the middle of a florists.  I did not find it relaxing.

Due to the time of year the sun goes down at like half three I actually had to take them from their home in the lounge to upstairs where I could get the setting sun

The rosey glow of the setting sun has produced some rather nice spring coloured pictures

You may have thought that with such a bounty of smell the mother would have been delighted with her narcissus, but alas, she was not.  In fact she was rather disappointed because the flowers turned out to be really rather small.  "More like paperclips than paper whites" she said.  Turns out she was unaware that the name 'paperwhites' refers to more than one variety, as was I until I took to Google.  I don't know which particular variety we have but its a very strong smelling tiny flowered one.  So small in fact that she complained she couldn't see the flowers from the chair across the room.
The other reason she was disappointed was because they grew very tall and insisted on flopping about. The mother wonders wether she left them in the garage too long and should have brought them inside earlier to flower when they were shorter.  Either way, they have required considerable support.  The mother saw these metal rings that you stick into the soil in your pot and the narcissus grow up through and it keeps them contained and in place.  But she thought, nah string will do just as well so has tied some round at a couple of points to try and keep order.  Instead now the whole lot just flop in the same direction and require propping up against the wall.

Those stamens really stand out all bright and fresh and zingy don't they?

Despite these two small problems I have enjoyed these fragrant little joys, so much so that we have more bulbs and have planted them in a different way, but more on that another time.  We have thrown these particular ones away now as they were shrivelling, when the mother put them out she cut the string and all the stems splayed out like crazy hair, reminded me of mine!

Just to demonstrate the great height the stems achieved, and the complete
 lack of stability, hence the string

Winter Wakehurst Walk

The other weekend I was feeling terribly cooped up, bored and frankly spendy as I hadn't left the house all weekend.  As the garden was sodden I couldn't get out there so we headed to Wakehurst Place, the National Trust property, for a walk.

The fact that this was even possible was a miracle as it did not stop raining for about two weeks, it was even raining when we headed up there, but a quick detour into the shop gave the sky enough time to briefly dry out and give us a walking window.

To be honest, visiting the shop was pretty much the main reason I went.  They have some nice seed displays in there, amongst pricey books and lots of displays of things you certainly don't need but ultimately end up wanting.  Plenty to nosey through and wile away a wet and miserable Sunday.  How I long for the Spring.  Somehow, buying seeds makes the spring seem nearer, and although it clearly doesn't, I am so prepped and ready for when spring is finally sprung.  Three packets of sweet peas came home with me, none of which I needed as I already have like eleven packets.  I very nearly bought the same variety twice, which just goes to show how much I liked it.  I should be planting some sweet pea seeds soon ready for next year so stay tuned for a sweet pea selection post and a bit of planting coming soon.

As it had been so incredibly damp and dreary I didn't really expect very much but actually we had a nice little trot round.  There were some beautiful vivd colours in some leaves, as arty farty as that sounds.  I didn't take many photos, but even these few will break up the bulb monotony that has been going on round these parts recently.  Its so nice to have pictures that are not of round brown things.
The bark rubbing off revealing the red wood underneath and the moss growing over the top I thought made rather a lovely combination of colours, turning the tree into a gradiated colour chart.  Obviously these are just 'visual delights', Im hardly about to plant a giant redwood in my garden any time soon or suggest that anyone else does.  The staff at Wakehurst have recently spent quite a while stringing lightbulbs round a redwood like this from a great height in a cherry picker. I will try and get a picture when they flip the switch in the near future.

Everybody loves a rusty leaf, me included.  Theres not much to say about this tree, other than Its a lovely shade of yellow orange.

Despite having been to Wakehurst many many times, I have never noticed before how many Japanese maples they have there.  Of course at this time of year they really make their existence known with their marvellous blood red leaves, if you get the light behind them they almost glow.

I presume this is not all one plant, as there is a combination of dead seed heads amongst clearly alive leaves and even the odd bright yellow flower.  I have no idea what either plants are but together they make quite the textural scene.

So after this brief escape from planting, its back to the bulbs for me!  Nobody grew anything strolling around on a Sunday afternoon after all.

Planting Narcissi

You may have noticed a definite trend in my last few posts; lots of planting and little of anything else which pretty much sums up this time of year, all prep and no results.  I used to really like this time of year as it conjures images of crispy walks, evenings snuggled up by a crackling open fire, dog at your feet,  cocoa in hands.  In reality its cold, there's never ending rain, I don't have an open fire or a dog and nothing is doing anything exciting in the garden.  Its dull.

I can't remember, as I obviously didn't think to write down which bulbs I put with which,
oh well a little surprise for spring 

Peach Swirl bulbs, unsurprisingly brown and crusty

So to cheer myself up I am definitely thinking about Spring and making sure I have buried all the right bulbs for a great display.  In the past this would definitely not have included daffodils as I have always vehemently abhored them.  I think this is for exactly the same reason as why I hate things like bagonias and pansies, they are just so predictable and unoriginal.  Call me a snob but these kind of plants always say to me that the gardener just went into the garden centre, bought the most recogniseable plant they could and really didn't have to engage their brain at all, and thats just boring.  Daffodils are so over relied upon in the spring to bring a little colour to our lives that you end up being bombarded with them and I for one get sick of seeing them.  But it doesn't have to be this way I have discovered.

Our salvation in this situation are the more refined narcissus varieties.  Yes I know that technically a daffodil is a narcissus but there is a vast difference between the standard yellow garden daffodil and the frilly, eggy yellow little swirls that the mother grew in a pot last year.  I loved them, as always a sucker for a frill.  Im pleased to say that particular variety were dried out over the summer and are back in a pot ready for a good performance next year.

The varieties that came in small brown bags were hawera, minnow and sundisk.
We will have to wait until spring to find out what they look like.

I am so bored of pictures of bulbs

But me being me, I had to have more.  I considered buying some really nice narcissus bulbs on the internet, but they are really expensive!  Not having a proper job or vast income just at the second that was a luxury I just couldnt justify.  Luckily the garden centre also do some pretty decent varieties that wont make you cry at the till.  I  had two purchasing sprees, one at the same time as when I bought my agricultural sand when I bought three smaller tet-a-tet varieties, and then another splurge when I bought several proper packs.  Despite being half the price I think my garden centre buys are still some pretty decent specimens.

I hope to get more than one year out of these bulbs, I want to add to them rather than replace next year and I could see that if I went for pots containing mixtures, or one big daffodil explosion of a pot as the mother suggested, then next year I would have no idea what varieties all the bulbs were, I guess it shouldn't really matter, but it does to me.  We don't exactly have endless free terracotta pots, a situation the mother didn't help by stuffing a hydrangea in a nice big one while I was taking a nap one day.
My solution was to put one big bulbed variety with one small bulbed one.  I can't say any of the varieties were a match made in heaven, but some times you have to work with what you've got.
Planting daffodil bulbs is not rocket science and follows the pattern of most bulbs; compost, bulbs spaced out at the correct depth according to the packet, more compost, water.  Unfortunately some of my bulbs I bought loose and therefore had to do some research/guesswork as to the correct depth.  At the end of the day, I very much doubt the bulbs are down there with tape measures if I am an inch or two out.

I will wait until spring to critique the frilliness, colour and growing style of my chosen varieties as I don't have much to go on at the moment, and we all know that the packets can be misleading. But all the bulbs are now all tucked up snug in their soil.

Planting Spring bulbs

The first layer-narcissus, the mother really likes to nestle the bulbs down into the compost by gently screwing their bums down into the soil to they are snuggly nestled in

So bulbs all chosen its time to discover how the master (the mother) manages to cram so many bulbs into one pot.  Yes, all those bulbs I featured in my last post are going into just the one pot.  You may think, thats clearly not going to work, but it will!   All that is needed is a large pot, a bag of compost and, a billion bulbs, and a furry little helper.  Oh and the sun, she never plants this pot unless it is a sunny day and on cue ten minutes in, out it popped.

Any time your doing anything in the garden, the puss has to muddle in

Yes she always likes to get involved and at this time of year sitting on the patio would result in a cold bottom, so she snuck onto the compost bag while the mother nipped off to do something.  The way this works is the mother writes on the front the depth in inches the bulb would find preferable, then basically totally ignores it.  There simply isn't room to put them all in at their own desired depths, with enough soil at the top and bottom and between each layer, so the depths are taken with a pinch of salt.

One naked Tangerine Dream who accidentally got shucked during the planting process.  Rather than leave the shucking in the pot the mother felt the need to clear it out, because she likes 'a tidy pot'  

So a nice wedge of compost went into the bottom of the pot, then the narcissus as they wanted six inches,  then the tangerine dream tulips went in on top of a thin layer of compost.
The Shogun and Gavota tulips both wanted to be at three inches so they had to endure sharing the same layer, lets hope they don't mind sharing the bed, as it were.  The section on the packet describing the distance to leave between each bulb and the next has to be completely ignored at this point because those bulbs have to really get in there, rub shoulders and snuggle.

Shogun and Gavota tulips 

The essence of this is a little like putting nuts in a layer cake.  Again the crocus and muscari had to share a layer two inches from the top, cramming in tight, but they will be fine.  I know it looks like there wont be room for the lower bulbs to fight their way through the tightly packed upper layers, but somehow they do, don't ask me how.  You may think why not spread the bulbs out amongst several pots, but thats the real joy of the mother's spring pot.  It bursts out, a riot of textures and colours, and it is impossible to part the upper layers to see the soil below.  Im not actually much of a traditional 'spring bulb' fan, although they are slowly winning me round, but in context of this pot I do think they work really well.  More in this case, is definitely more.

Thats a lot of bulbs to fit into a layer but we managed it, crocus and muscari

The finishing touch to the pot is a nice layer of pansies on the top to give colour all through the winter until the bulbs pop out.  Again, not a real fan of the pansy as a plant generally, but these 'citrus mix' in bright yellow, cream, orange and white where so bright and cheery, I relented and allowed them in.  I find pansies very uninspiring, but the mother rummaged through the whole display to find a pack with one of every colour and now they are planted they don't seem too bad.  At this point we should just be sitting back and waiting for the spring, but something is sprouting up little green snouts out of the soil, not the plan so I will keep a beady eye on what the bulbs think they are doing.

The pansies, although not really flowering at this point at least add a bit of green, because pictures down into a pot of bulbs in soil are only so interesting

And finally a treat, and another bit of green, this little guy was wandering across my compost clearly off to somewhere