GARDENER'S WORD - IDEAS AND TIPS

Yet another day of glorious sunshine and if it is cold out there, I don't feel it.  I put my quilted coat on and went out into the garden.  The idea was to read.  After an early morning frost, the sunlight has made everything seem alive and ready to put on a show; or if it not 'alive', it is at least preparing to wake up from a winter's sleep.  Instead of reading, I planted the Lily of the Valley that I bought yesterday.  I feel a bit duped.  Out of a packet that said there were 12 rhizomes, there only appears to be about 6 showing signs of life and the rest looks like peat.  Oh, well, it does say that they spread so hopefully they will do just that.  I planted them in a pot filled with compost and put them in a shady place.  While repotting a tub of tulips which was a disaster (not enough drainage and so it just became totally waterlogged with rotting bulbs) one of my beloved rose bushes managed to give me a thorny 'kiss' an...

Spring is in the air!  At least it was yesterday, and it is today.  I cannot speak for tomorrow.  It's a time for me to start thinking of my garden and what I want to grow this year, apart from my roses.  Yesterday I visited the RHS shop in Harlow Carr and, with the sun shining down through the glass roof of the garden centre, I was inspired to buy.  Last year the begonias that I grew in the semi-shade under my kitchen window were so wonderful, so giving with their lovely green leaves and seemingly never-ending display of showy flowers, that I just had to have more.  I already have tubers for peach coloured begonias so this time I bought 3 double whites, and 3 Giant Pendula Yellow.  They will have to be planted around April, but I will probably start them off indoors.  September 2012, my tuberous Begonias I also bought some Lily of the Valley (Convallaria Majalis) rhizomes.  I've never tried growing them before and I can only...