I will start with a photo of the late-flowering snowdrop Galanthus ‘Polar Bear’ I bought at East Lambrook Manor at the beginning of February – you may remember last month I said that by the beginning of March it was still just a “snout.” By 19 March it looked like this: –
How lovely that I have had snowdrops flowering from early January right through til late March.
Many of my seasonal jobs I appear to have done without taking a photo – mainly the cutting back of the top growth of grasses and herbaceous perennials that I leave overwinter for the bugs to shelter in. This year because it was not as wet as last winter (thank goodness!), and because the beginning two weeks of February were extremely cold, with frozen ground and grey foggy gloom, I had a whirlwind of cutting back in the second half of the month. I also waited until a week after the frigid weather had passed to clear the pond – as I REALLY didn’t want to be putting my hands in sub-zero water, even with my waterproof long-sleeved gloves on. This year it was done on 25 February: –
Here we are mid clear, with the piles of detritus left on the side for the mini-beasts to get back into the pond before they were cleared on 27th: –
Whilst waiting for the water temperature to increase I did prune all the roses – the only shot of which is from 16 February: –
Actually, although it doesn’t look like it, this is also a rose pruning shot from the same day as its one of those situations where ‘this’ has to be done before ‘that’ can be done.
The Rosa ‘Roserie de la Hay’ is holding up all that honeysuckle, rambling rose (Saunder’s White), and Virginia Creeper growth you can see above himself, and before I can prune the rose, all this has to be untangled and moved/tied back to the frame. Not helped by the honeysuckle and Virginia creeper trying to root into the path beneath and tripping us up as we struggle underneath it. I took it as a win that for a change, whilst the roses kept stealing my hat as I wrestled beneath them, they did not draw blood on my scalp!
At the beginning of March, we had a LOVELY sunny day, so we took the opportunity to clear and wash the greenhouse ready for the hotbed to be set up: –
Here everything has been hauled out – the upturned black seed tray had been harbouring: –
A snail hotel! Other wildlife staying in the greenhouse included a very big spider (I did NOT take a photo), and under the big black trays we found an overwintering toad: –
Who I rehomed into the pots outside near the mini top pond. The toad had crawled off deeper into the foliage when I checked an hour later.
Luckily just before the big freeze we had managed to weed and mulch the final vegetable bed at the end of January, so they are at least all prepared for planting out the vegetables that I have started sowing already: –
The hotbed was set up in the greenhouse for me to propagate my seeds in. I told you last year about my issues with using peat-free multipurpose compost for seed sowing, and that I had tried neat coir, which also presented me with problems. I said I would be trying John Innes seed compost this year, and this is what I have bought. The photo below shows the difference between the texture of the best (as in finest textured) peat-free multipurpose compost I have found in the smaller seed tray on the right, and the John Innes seed compost in the tray on the left: –
What I am trialling is putting a layer of the multipurpose at the bottom of the seed tray or pot, and then a layer of the John Innes seed compost on top – both mixed with perlite as you can see – and sowing onto the seed compost, then covering with either more seed compost (6 types of kale seeds, 4 kinds of chard seeds,) or vermiculite (tomato seeds, leek seeds, celeriac seeds). That is all I have sown so far, as for some reason I keep forgetting to soak and sow the sweet peas…. I sowed these all on 20 March, and so far, some of the kale started germinating in a week, though not the Cavelo Nero, which I have resown. Some of the tomatoes started germinating within 10 days. Here is a shot of the hotbed from 1 April showing some progress: –
My thinking with the compost mix, is that the multipurpose has some nutrients in it so that the seedlings roots will go down into that and I shouldn’t therefore have to stress about them needing feeding before they develop their true leaves and get pricked out. I will let you know how that goes!
Turning to seasonal shots of magnolias in bloom, my photos are from 14 March last year as when we visited the same place this year on 15 March not a single magnolia was in flower, a testimony to the colder winter we had this year than last. Though with the warmth we have had round the spring solstice, the Magnolia x Soulangeana’s in the front gardens round here then started to bloom by the end of March. Normally any shots I take of Magnolia x Soulangeana are slightly blurry long shots as the tall trees have their blooms high up – like this one of Magnolia x soulangeana ‘Alba Supurba’: –
Though this one of Magnolia ‘Ruth’ I did manage a closer shot too: –
This one is ‘Ian’s Red’ – a bit of a misnomer I think as it still looks pink to me: –
This one is ‘Peter Dummer’: –
Some that had blooms lower down for better shots included Magnolia ‘Theodora’: –
And a much smaller tree (not that much taller than me) – Magnolia ‘Rose Festival’ a wider shot, and then one with my hand in to show the smaller size of the goblets: –
At the other extreme size-wise is Magnolia ‘Star Wars’ which has some of the largest flowers I have ever seen on a magnolia – more dinner plate sized, and seems to be out later than these, as we saw it a whole month later: –
Also flowering in mid-April is Magnolia ‘Heaven Scent,’ shots showing the flower from above and the side: –
Lest you think I am only hung up on the deep pinks, here is Magnolia ‘Yellow Lantern’ also flowering in mid-April: –
Coming back to this year, my Magnolia x loebneri ‘Leonard Messel’ on 29 March still had fat furry buds like this: –
By 1 April: –
With the warm sunny weather, by 4 April it was fully out, and WHEN the strong north/east wind dropped, the scent was light and lovely too: –
Next month, for no-mow May, I shall be thinking about wildflower meadows, both annual and perennial.
Sheila May
