New Years Day 2006
By Sandy Leven



Ben Ledi and Swans on the River Forth on New Year's Day 2006

After watching the rain lash against the living room window last night, as Journalists beat Politicians on Celebrity Mastermind, I was unprepared for the gloriously sunny New Year's morning which greeted me when I looked out this morning. I thought I had overslept [ friends, who walk their dog early every morning, say I always oversleep!] but it was the bright sunshine waking me up. What better start could there be to 2006 than blue sky, whispy clouds and lots of sunshine. Admittedly it is very cold outside but without the cold the frost would not have turned everything crystal white. The greenhouse and alpine house glass looks like it has been etched by Lalique.
Inside their contents are more precious to me. Years of planting, sowing, repotting and tending little treasures gleaned from friends, nurseries, plant sales and especially our SRGC bulb exchanges are stirring in their pots.

Just like Hogmanay and New Year's Day themselves, my plant collection is a mixture of fading glories and new expectations. Years ago I sowed seed of what purported to be Cyclamen hederifolium x africanum. Four plants grew, I gave two away and kept the other two. They look like their parents, with their ivy shaped leaves with nice central markings but their habit is different. All the hederifolium finished flowering weeks ago and while there are still a few lingering flowers of one or two africanum the two hybrids are still looking good; one especially so. It has dark flowers of good substance and this is another bonus. At this time of year all the hover flies and bees have disappeared and there is nothing to pollinate the cyclamen flowers, so they stay in good shape for much longer. Eventually the stems sag and the lower stalk droops over and has to be removed before mould sets in.


Cyclamen hederifolium x africanum 1/1/06

Another reason that they may be doing better this winter is that I eventually bought a decent thermostat to keep the greenhouse minimum temperature at 3 degrees Centigrade. [Celsius sound like Roman general]. Previously I relied on the thermostat on the heater and it was always to warm. Last new year Asphodelus acaulis looked like a plant of exotic pink crocuses. It was anything but acaulic! This year the buds are tight in the heart of the plant.



Asphodelus acaulis buds 1/1/06

Another effect of this lower than normal midwinter in greenhouse temperature is that my Narcissus romieuxii are slow to come into flower. I know that their cousins are doing well in Aberdeen but I have only one romieuxii flower open. The buds on the other dwarf narcissi are there and will flower in due course.


One Narcissus romieuxii in flower 1/1/06

In the alpine house which is never heated there are also mid-winter movements. I managed to re-pot most things this autumn and am taking a renewed interest I, some plants which I had forgotten about. Ian Christie gave me a few bubs of a very special Snowdrop.

It is a hybrid between Galanthus nivalis and G. plicatus. The plicatus side of the cross can be traced back to the Crimea. After the war a noble Scot returned to our shores with a few bulbs of G. plicatus. He would have been impressed by the size of the plicatus flowers compared to the local nivalis. Imagine my delight to find that this superb snowdrop had opened its first flower bell this morning. It has big flowers but the striking feature is its magnificent leaves. They are 'z' shaped in cross section.
To me they seen very close to the description of G. plicatus itself. The sun on the leaves emphasises their geometric shape.




Galanthus nivalis x plicatus 1/1/06

A couple of years ago after an Easter holiday in western Spain I brought back a little cutting of a mountain Erodium. I liked it because while all the other plants of the same species had dark blotches on their flowers this one had no blotch. I had to look at it for quite along time before I realised why it was different. It rooted quite readily and grew into a good sized plant. While the plant in Spain was completely prostrate in my alpine house it became bushier. It sets seed and few of these have germinated in the sand plunge. There is no blotch on plants from seed either. It's wonderful ferny leaves are divided over and over until each 'leaflet' is exquisitely narrow. Seedlings germinating beside their parent remind me that spring will soon be here.







Erodium ?petraeum 1/1/06

Before that We have the SRGC Digital Day , on 21st January, to look forward to and it won't be long till the early Bulb Show on 18th February. Both events are in the Victoria Hall in Dunblane. So, although the year has hardly started my SRGC gardening life is unfolding.

The yaer has got off to a good start on the computer Spellchecker. It wants to make nivalis 'invalids'.
I hope all my plants don't turn out to be invalids!

^ back to the top ^