GARDENER'S WORD

The crocuses which I grow in a small trough at the top of the garden are looking lovely this year, particularly the purple ones.  I had to protect them from squirrels (which love to dig them up and eat them) by putting a bit of plastic garden trellis over the top of the trough until the corms produced leaves and buds.  Some people are confused by the difference between a corm and a bulb.  A bulb consists of peelable layers, like an onion (which is a actually a bulb).  A corm does not, it's solid.  Apparently, although I haven't tried it, if you cut a corm in half, or into sections, each section should produce roots and flowers — so that would be one way to propagate them. It's easy to appreciate, looking at the above photo of the centre of a crocus that saffron comes from a crocus flowers but not just any crocus.  It comes from crocus sativus (below).  (c)  http://bioweb.uwlax.edu/bio203/s2012/geenen_rach/

Although we've had quite a mild time of it here in West Yorkshire this winter, if you discount the ferocious winds, you cannot trust that the climate won't suddenly turn very cold and wintery.  At the end of March 2013, a blanket of snow covered my garden and everything in it.  Even so, you have to make hay while the sun shines and I've retrieved the dahlias and begonias that I  potted in vermiculite and stored outside in the garden storage box  last November in the hope that they would survive.  And they have.  The dahlia tubers are just as healthy and plump as they were when I stored them.  I'll keep them outside and bring them indoors, or protect them with bubble-wrap, if the weather turns nasty. The above dahlias are 'Fascination'.  The tubers almost fill those big pots (above and below) and to think, when I first bought them, the tubers were tiny and would have fitted into the palm of one hand.  Fascination Dahl...

When I bought my Prunus Avium Stella Gisela 5 last year in May, it was in a very small pot.  While the nurseryman assured me that it could grow for another year in that small pot, I didn't believe him and found that the tree was totally root bound, as dry as a bone, with very little growing medium visible.  I bought a large terracotta pot and planted the cherry tree in that.  The idea was that the weight of the pot would stop the tree from blowing over, but it didn't, not when the cherry tree was in full leaf.  After repotting, I found that the roots were soon filling the pot.  Now, I know the idea behind stunting plants (like bonsai trees) is that you keep them small by pruning back roots and pruning back top growth, but I had also read that a cherry tree, even a small one, needs a larger pot than I had provided.  Furthermore, I read that if you plant such a cherry tree in the garden soil, it does not like competition with the roots of othe...

About this time of year, every year, new neighbours arrive near my home.  They seem to have no manners and wake me up early every morning with their racket.  No, they are not drunken holiday-makers coming home after a fun night out, they are Canadian Geese.   I thought they were Mallard ducks for a time but their necks are too long.  Two arrived this morning and it was delightful watching them swimming on the dam, diving under the water and bobbing back up again and shaking themselves, having their early morning bathe.  I do wish though that they could learn to arrive more silently.  6 a.m. is a little early for me.  I would have liked to have taken my own photograph but the birds are too far away for my mobile phone camera to deal with.   (c) Gillian Day (with her kind permission).  Yorkshire Wildlife Trust: http://www.ywt.org.uk/species/canada-goose While on the subject of wildlife, I had another visitor the day before yesterd...

I understand that although chaffinches (Fringilla coelebs) and bullfinches (Pyrrhula pyrrhula) are similar in colour, the bullfinch is very striking and different somehow.  I checked the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds website and it shows the striking difference between a chaffinch and a bullfinch.    (c) www.rspb.org.uk  - Male bullfinch Difference between Male and Female Bullfinch (RSPB external link)  Note that although the female is less colourful, she still has the same markings as the male, still has a black face.   (c) www.rspb.org.uk  - Male chaffinch Difference between Male and Female Chaffinch (RSPB external link).  Note that the female is much less colourful but has similar markings to the male - the grey head, the white detail on the wings.  I've seen a little bird visit my garden lately which is quite red from its face to its chest and lower abdomen, and I'm pretty certain it's a chaffin...

A pair of Woodpigeons flew into my garden today and began taking peanuts and seeds from one of the trays on the complete bird feeding station .   I don't think I've ever seen one before, not that I am aware of.  Such beautiful and graceful creatures they are.  I didn't know what they were at first as they looked like doves or feral pigeons but these visitors have a distinctive white band around their necks and very sharp looking beaks which turn down at the end.  Apparently woodpigeons can suck up water and only a few other types of bird can do that.  I apologise that the photograph is quite poor but I use a mobile phone camera and the zoom isn't great.  If I try to go outdoors to take the photo, the birds fly away.  I know, I keep saying I will buy a better camera but until I find what I want, I'll have to make do.  Soon though, soon.  This is a very interesting article about woodpigeons, if you are interested:   http...

When I was at the RHS Gardens in Harlow Carr the other day I saw this alpine in the Alpine House amid the rocks.  The colour of the flowers is so vibrant, I just had to take a photograph of them.  They are Corydalis solida 'Fire Cracker' and are, according to the RHS, early winter flowering Corydalis solida 'Fire Cracker' This is a link to the Telegraph, giving more information about growing Corydalis solida 'Fire Cracker' and other types of corydalis plants . 

At the RHS Gardens in Harlow Carr, near Harrogate, they have this huge Alpine House where they grow a fabulous range of flowering alpines set on top of a kind of sandstone wall or rockery.  They look really beautiful and every time I have visited, something is in bloom.  But I think this must be a very special time of year because when I visited yesterday, the place was alive with colour. Cleverly the staff grow many of the plants in pots so that they can move them around for the best display, and replace them at will.  It's a lovely place to be, so warm and light.  If only I could take my sunbed along. Alpine House at RHS Gardens, Harlow Carr - 11 March 2014   Alpine House at RHS Gardens, Harlow Carr - 11 March 2014   Alpine House at RHS Gardens, Harlow Carr - 11 March 2014        

In the RHS Gardens Alpine House at Harlow Carr today, Scilla siberica 'Spring Beauty' really caught my attention. There are not so many vibrant blues flowers that we see in our gardens (compared with the number of pink flowers we see) and I had never seen this one before.  Scilla siberica 'Spring Beauty' is a hardy bulb (H5), grows to about 15-30cm (3-6in) high and can be planted in full or partial shade, all types of soil that are well-drained or moist and well-drained, all aspects.  Sounds like one for my garden.   Scilla siberica 'Spring Beauty' - 10 March 2014  Scilla siberica 'Spring Beauty' - 10 March 2014 

I visited the RHS Gardens at Harlow Carr, Near Harrogate, today and there was a lovely display of different coloured heathers (Erica).  In all, I took over 50 photographs as I went around the gardens and most of these I will post under different headings in due course.  The heather display was quite glorious.  Although it's not what I would want for my small garden, heather is lovely in the right place.  I've seen it in very steep gardens where the land has been terraced with rocks and heather grown among them.  Warning: as far as I know heather (Erica) always like acid soil.  If your soil is not acidic but alkaline, you can always grow heather in a tub with an acidic soil or compost.  Heather display at RHS Gardens, Harlow Carr, Nr Harrogate - 10 March 2014 Heather display at RHS Gardens, Harlow Carr, Nr Harrogate - 10 March 2014

I mowed my lawn for the first time this year and while I was out there, noticed how garden plants are waking up and those that should have perished, are hanging on in. For example, the pelargoniums that I left to their fate in a tub, have overwintered and show signs of new leaves.   If we can just continue with this mild weather right up to summer, they'll thrive.  Today the weather has been sunny, not a cloud in the sky, not a drop of rain to damp my spirits, and the temperature has reached the 20s in the sunshine.  It's always a mistake, for me anyway, to get carried away on days like this when I haven't done any gardening since the previous autumn.  Even so, I took advantage of digging up poor old Zephirine Drouhin and replacing her with the loganberry that I had in a tub.  It seems cruel, doesn't it?  It's such a pretty rose, quite thornless, but so prone to disease.  I barely had a single rose from it last summer.   Zephir...