The unfurling

Ok I know I have already done a post or two on tulips, but lets face it, this is their time to shine and don't they just!

This one is a new one for me, when I checked to see what its name was I appear not to have written it down, this is a disaster as I want to buy more so if anyone knows the name please tell me.  So cross with myself, I always write down what I buy in case I do want to get more.

Anyway, the tulip with no name, or Clint as it is now known as unfurled beautifully

 

 Didn't he.

Much ado at the Malvern Show

For the first time in many years I went to RHS Malvern Flower Show this year.  I went with a non-gardening friend who I had not seen in quite a while so it seemed a good opportunity to catch up, look at plants/gardens and have some retail therapy (plus the odd glass of fizz).

Several years ago when watching some gardening programme or another, someone said that all the RHS shows have their own distinct character and place.  (this is not me being discrete by the way, I have no idea which programme or who said it, I just remember the sentiment).  I have found this very much to be true, they do differ and this is a good thing.  It means that one is not better than another, it means they are different, so I go to Chelsea to look at the show gardens, enjoy the floral tent, amaze myself at the statues and hugely expensive stuff you can buy and maybe have the odd glass or two of Pimms.  Oh and I usually buy my gardening gloves at Chelsea, no real reason why, its usually at the time of year when I realise I need some more.  When I go to Malvern or Tatton I want to buy stuff.  I generally want to buy plants but sometimes there is other stuff on my list.  I went to Malvern to look at obelisks and to look at ferns in the main.

 

It is easy to get judgemental about planters shaped like carrots, but they amused me greatly.  I tried to think what I might grow in them, I could only think of carrots.  I don't think they are deep enough really for carrots.  I did not buy one.

I did buy this - a doohicky, it is beautifully balanced and I think I shall enjoy many years of doo-hickying with it.

and look, look, I bought a fern and also a Cornus canadensis that when it was planted out provided me with a couple of nice root cuttings too so I think (hope) I will soon have three of them.  These were my only plant purchases.  I was being good.

We wandered around looking at the show gardens, some of which I liked more than others.  I always think a key part of looking at the show gardens is exactly the same as when I visit any garden.  I might not like all I see, I might not like at all some of what it done.  Generally though there will be something I can like and from that I get to know what I want and do not want in my garden.  Anyway, the show gardens.....

I loved this one, 'Reposer Vos Roues' by Villaggio Verde.  Now I am a devil for liking the little details and what I really liked was that the hanging basket dripped into the watering can below.  The planting was well executed, the design worked.  The sun shone on it when we were looking at it and it was glorious.

Boathouse No.9 by Mark Eveleigh could be superficially yet also accurately described as charming, as indeed it was.  Again the detail is what sold it to me, the planting inside the shed was just beautiful yet maybe easily overlooked by many who focused on the boat and the external plants.  I wanted to poke around in the shed.

I loved these cypresses, I have long wanted to have such a row in my garden but I have no real place that would work for them.  I admit to not being certain which garden this was, I think it was one of the several cycling themed gardens.  Anyone would think that last year we had the Olympics!

'Serving Thyme in the Garden of Gallifrey' by HMP Hewell, a great dalek, how you can you not love a planty dalek?

This was judged the best in show: 'There's a place in the woodland...where East meets West' by Peter Dowle.  It was a good garden, I admit to not being sure what made it best in show, but as an example of its type it was good.

'The Natural Burial Site Garden' by Felix Dennis Estate was excellent.  I really liked this, I loved the simplicity and the naturalness.  There was a large wicker coffin by the sign for the garden.  As ever I showed my total maturity by pondering whether it would be a daft idea to want to hide in it and grab people's ankles as they read the sign.  I think it was an opportunity missed.

However, this garden I really really liked.  'Return to the Med' by the Garden Design House.  It received a silver-gilt medal and I thought it was worth more than that.  Obviously I don't know why it didn't get gold but the planting was some of the best I saw at the show.  It worked, it looked well executed, it had good colour.  This was a very good garden and worthy of note.

So a good day was had, nice to catch up with an old friend, also nice to bump into a twitter friend and enjoying finding out that we get on as well in the real world as we do in the ethereal one.

As we left I had to buy what I had spotted on the way in.  Close to the gate there was a stall selling obelisks, structural stuff and also some stone decorations.  I stopped to look at the obelisks (remember, they were on my list), they were a reasonable price but would be difficult to fit into my small car so I noted them but kept looking.  On the ground was a pair of stone heads, I liked them on sight.  I looked at the price hoping that would put me off, but no, they were a reasonable price.  I knew I could have bought them there and then and collected them on the way out, but I decided to let fate play its part.  If I had bought them on the way in then I would not have been able to buy much else and I did not know what else I might want to buy.  I declared that if they were still there on the way out then it was meant to be and I would buy them.  Well of course they were still there when we reached that stall so after testing them for weight to make sure we could carry them they were purchased.

Actually, they were quite heavy, you know how something seems ok until you've walked a short while and then they start to get heavier and heavier - that.

So, please say hello to Natasha and Elsie, fate decided I would buy them and I love them dearly already.  They will be found a special place.

and should the need arise, I even found them the perfect wig.....

Wordless Wednesday - bug on white

A moment of beauty

At any set time I have a favourite flower, this might be a time of year or even a time of day, but at that particular moment in time, I can look at something in my garden and say 'at this moment you are the one'.  At this moment tulips are taking up a disproportionate amount of that favour.

Let's face it though, they are very beautiful.  They are fleeting, here one day gone a few days later.  They have their season and they are gone.

Apparently tulips are the symbol of perfect love.  There is something of perfection about a tulip.

Tulips originate from Persia, they are grown now extensively in Holland and various other parts of Europe.  At one time the Dutch got over excited by tulips, its much reported I have no need to go further into this.

There are some myths about tulips:  one from Iran is that when a young solder dies patriotically a red tulip will grow on his grave.  Another is that a Persian legend of a young man who threw himself off a cliff when he heard his love was dead.  Tulips grew where his body fell.  Sadly apparently his lover was not dead as a jealous rival had lied to him.   So not many cheerful myths on tulips unfortunately.

They are, however, a moment of beauty.

Call that a rhododendrum?

The last part of my welsh journey which ends where it started and resided at, Portmeirion.

I have written about y Gwyllt previously, it is one of the best bits of Portmeirion in my view.  It is wild, it is managed and yet left pretty much to its own devices.  This is no bad thing, because of the maturity of the planting in general any new planting tends to look rather raw and sometimes a bit out of place.  It is still a wonderful Victorian plant collectors showpiece and here you can see plants do what they do best.

Forget your idea of a neat bushy rhododendrum, this is what they do in the Gwyllt:

They grow to be mahoosive!  They sprawl, they tumble to the ground and re-root and carry on.  The seed everywhere, this is actually a problem and they do have to be managed to prevent them totally clogging up everything else trying to grow.

Their stems create the most wonderful shapes and dark spaces.  They are incredible plants that most gardens would not have the space to let them grow so wildy, so to see them like this is an education and a joy.

and whilst I am on the subject, skimmia are usually pretty ordinary shrubs aren't they? (well, I admit I don't rate them hugely, sorry if you're a fan).

But this looks like a skimmia relative (well I think it is, someone will correct me I'm sure)

It is clearly the skimmia's better looking cousin.The leaves are just glowing in the light.

As a tree I think it is wonderful, goodbye small stubby shrubs, hello to growing as you should: tall, proud and a bit wambly.

Wordless Wednesday - kiss me

The Trial 8 - we got through the winter and into Spring

Its been a while since I did an update on my trialling of plants for Thompson and Morgan, but now that Spring appears to have arrived suddenly there is stuff to report on again.

First there are the daffodils.  I planted them in pots so that I could keep an eye on them and know which ones they were more easily.

I really like this daffodil, it is tiny and delicate and it seems like the fragile stems will not really hold up the flower heads.  It is wafty and beautiful, great for a pot by the front door and I think I will buy some for next year as I would like more.  They would do well at the front of a border too I think.

Daffodil 'Yazz' is not a colour I would choose to buy myself, it looks a little deeper orange than it actually is in this photograph and its a little too peachy for my liking.  However it has grown well and has a bit of a scent, if you like the colour then this is a good daff.

This one is 'Prom Dance', it has wonderful scent and again is a great one for a pot by the front door (yes the postman has to wade through many pots to get to my front door).  I liked this one a lot too.

After all that careful potting up and labelled, the label faded on this one, it might be called Regeneration, it might not be but whatever I shall call it Reg.  It has a really good scent and a good colour.  All the daffodils flowered well and for a long time.  I think every bulb bloomed and you can't say much better than that.  These have been good.

Now to the pansies.

The colours are dark and I like dark.  The ones I put in pots have flowered all winter.  This one has been snowed on and frosted and still it keeps on going.  The ones I planted in the borders pretty much disappeared, I blame slugs.

 

The primroses have also been excellent and in the last couple of weeks have suddenly burst into colour.  I would say that I prefer the pale yellow wild version best, and to a point I do, but these have been such welcome colour that I have been really pleased with them.

The concrete planter that I never know what to do with has benefitted from the pansies and the primroses.

This is Acer 'Orange Beauty', I have three of these, one in the front garden, one in the Wild Garden and one in the Spring Border.  It is only about six inches tall but has survived a couple of frosts and is growing well.  This is the one in the Wild Garden and it must get more sun than the other two as it is slightly more advanced.

I finish with my Spring Border, this has really come into its own this year and partly inspired by the Thompson and Morgan plants.  I loved the colours so much and I wanted to expand this garden so these plants have urged me on to find them a home.

I think they have made this border sparkle a bit.

I have also sown various seeds for the trial, once they get going a bit I will report back.