Making the Best of It... (Was 'Blog from an Untidy Garden')

[tonyg]

When I started this thread a week ago I knew I was risking being exposed as a careless, untidy gardener.  Now that you have seen it at its worst there is only one way we can go!  Thanks to those who have left messages of support, hopefully you will also add words of advice when I have decisions to make or when you see a solution to one of my many problems!  I have had one message (it was a friendly message) suggesting that it would have been less risky if I had left everyone thinking my garden was a sea of crocuses.  Well, the first pic tonight is for you, David

A week is a long time in politics, or so they say, it is also a long time in a garden when spring finally arrives.  As luck would have it the much warmer and sunnier weather coincides with a very busy time at work.  The crocuses are past their best although there are still a few to post here and in the crocus thread.  Having posted a Crocus vernus from seed collected nr Wengen last week, tonight I have pictures of Crocus vernus vernus from Andorra.  I collected the seed in the mistaken belief that it was Crocus nudiflorus which also grows in the same valley, the Val D'Incles.  This is a very distinctive form.

I also grow a wide range of Narcissus species in the Access frame.  These have rapidly progressed in the last week.  Narcissus tazetta is a lovely thing, all the more so when you get up close and catch the heady scent.  This is a seed raised form, although the label says it should be Narcissus pallidiflorus, it is a nice surprise to add Narcissus tazetta to the collection.  The pale form of Narcissus pseudonarcissus ssp eugeniae  (is it correctly named?) has incrased from one to three flowers this year.  Hopefully it will continue this rate of progress.  Narcissus cantabricus fma petunioides is a gift from a forumist.  It is a very fine form.  Thanks Alex!

[mark smyth]

Your Narcissus pseudonarcissus eugeniae is the same as Anne's which means mine are wrong yet no-one at the daffodil show today pointed it out

[Ragged Robin]

Tony, your crocus frame is glorious - really a sea of crocuses   

Very interesting to hear where your crocus originated from as seed and to see your success.  Love your Narcissus tazetta and hope to smell mine soon - do they set seed from commercial bulbs?

Looking forward to seeing more of your flowerings 

[angie]

I agree with Robin your crocus plants are amazing, cant wait to see more.
Angie

[indigo]

Well I think your garden is great, it's lived in and yet you grow all sorts of special stuff in your pots, well done you.  Super pics

[tonyg]

Welcome Indigo and thank-you for your kind comments.  Even in its wild state the garden does look better in summer than it does now .... although all the pots of bulbs look rather bare then  

[Lesley Cox]

Your Narcissus pseudonarcissus eugeniae is the same as Anne's

And very lovely it is, too.

[Lesley Cox]

I was going to put this note in the "Moan moan..." thread but have decided to put it here, as a terrible lesson to those with untidy gardens.

I have done the most incredibly stupid thing. I emptied my outdoor pot of the yellow form of Frit rhodokanakis, in order to give one away with some others to post this week. Did it while hosing a raised bed. Then I started to pull on the hose to get it off the gravel driveway before Roger came in and drove over it (it's a new one) and while pulling the hose with my right hand, the left hand, holding the pot with the frit bulbs was sort of jerking up and down in time with the hose pulling. Then I realized that the pot had lost most of its bulbs (they were already separated from the compost). There had been 3 fat flowering size and half a dozen smaller. Now there was only 1 large and a couple of smaller. Of course I have searched the driveway which is covered in gravel much like the bulbs themselves, greyish, whitish, and found nothing at all. Also have searched the long grass at the side of the drive and found nothing at all. I'll go on searching tonight until it gets dark and again in the morning but I fear, that through my own carelessness and the fact of an untidy long grass area, they are gone for good.

LET THIS BE A LESSON TO YOU ALL, WHO LET GRASS AND WEEDS GET OUT OF HAND!!!!!

So my recipient will only get a little one I'm afraid.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

What a shame Lesley ! 
And a beautiful Frit is is too !! 

[Ragged Robin]

Lesley, what a tragedy to spill your beautiful Frits but won't they appear where they have fallen maybe next year?

Hose pipes have a life of their own like vacuum cleaner hoses - I have fallen foul of both too in the past 

[mark smyth]

Lesley it was the same for me when I dropped Crocus and Narcissus seeds. I have gravel also. Drop a small Crocus corm and it's instantly hidden also

[tonyg]

Oh Lesley   My most mortifying moment with a plant occurred in a car park years ago when I was a regular n the show bench.  I had won a class with a Dionysia aretioides and was packing the plants away after the show.  Put the dionysia down by the car, loaded a couple of other pots into their spaces.  Hailed by a fellow enthusiast I turned too quickly to return the greeting and dragged my foot across the cushion    It did create a few cuttings to give away (and several show goers benefitted) but ...... Oh Tony

And yes, I too have inadvertantly split seeds ... into neighbouring seed pots  
And the balanced glass frame covers occasionally meet with accidents
I'll quit here - while I'm behind!

[Lesley Cox]

I don't mind dropping seed so much as that has a germinating chance but if I don't find these bulbs they'll shrivel up and die. The grass is too long and rough for them to root into it and if they're still on the driveway they'll either be squashed or just dehydrate badly. I'm still looking though.

The other day Teddy grabbed the pot with the year's harvest of Ranunculus parnassifolius. He loves to toss things in the air. It was on the carpet and I did manage to find a few.

[Lesley Cox]

I HATE hoses. As you say Robin, they have a life of their own (like lawnmowers) and leap out of one's hand and squirt up one's skirt, truly the main reason why I always wear trousers. And they get caught on things, especially if there is a joiner in them, and they twist and choke off and have to be untangled and are just BEASTLY!

[tonyg]

Moving on .... One of the more successful parts of the garden is a raised bed outside the living room window.  8ft by 4ft edged with railway sleepers.  It was constructed three years ago (..I think!) with plenty of garden compost dug into the natural sandy soil topped up with copius amounts of recycled potting compost from the bulb collection.  I have shown plants from here on the forum over the last couple of years.  After the winter it looks as though I will need to refresh some areas but I will wait a few weeks before doing anything drastic.  Bulbs are still emerging and some herbaceous plants will awaken now the days are longer and warmer.  
Pictured below:
Scilla species, open to offers as to which one.  
Campanula cochlearifolia, two seedlings planted out last year.  Note the very different colour of the foliage.  One had while flowers, the other common blue.  
Degenia velebitica has suffered in the winter, one of the old plants ha srotted at the neck.  However a few seedlings should ensure that it is self sustaining.
It will soon be Easter, the first Pulsatilla will perhaps flower during the Pasquetide.