Six on Saturday 20/02/21

Saturdays come around so quickly! Yet again there hasn’t been a lot of suitable gardening weather but I did spend several hours in the glasshouse potting cuttings on, removing things that haven’t made it through the winter (very few of these, thankfully) and having a general sort out. Very satisfying. The main job outstanding in the garden is a border that needs stripping out, digging over to remove the bindweed that has made inroads from next door and then be replanted. I’ve removed and potted up most of the plants but the soil is still far too wet to work on. One day……. In the meantime here are six more positive things happening in the garden.

• I have a little ‘Froggy’ pond in the front garden, under the wall by the pavement. During the first lockdown it became quite an attraction for local children as they watched the frog spawn develop into tadpoles and then into froglets. I had a bit of a clear out around it a few weeks ago as a Phlox and some Crocosmia had got a bit (lot) out of control so the pond is rather exposed at the moment. It was still frozen last Sunday but thawed throughout Monday daytime. It was very noisy out there Monday night resulting in a large clump of frogspawn by Tuesday morning. Another couple of clumps appeared Tuesday night.

• Last week the Hellebores were flat on the ground for several days due to the cold. I’m always amazed at the way that they bounce back. This one is below the fern wall, under which I’ve put the pots of Sempervivums to keep them dry(ish).

I bought the above Hellebore three? years ago but most of mine are self sown seedlings that I’ve moved around. These are growing in a north facing border alongside the glasshouse and under the Amelanchier.

Self-sown Hellebores

• The first of the Narcissi have opened this week

N. ‘February Gold’ in the herbaceous border

• Despite the cold and wet there are signs of new life everywhere in the garden. I haven’t cut the old flowering stems off of the Hylotelephium yet but the new stems are emerging. The glaucous leaves hold raindrops for days.

H. ‘Red Globe’

• Among some of the Snowdrops the dark red stems of Lamprocapnos spectabilis are pushing upwards.

A wet weekend is forecast so I’m going to sort through the seeds and start making sowing plans.

Thanks for reading my Six and don’t forget to read all of the others at https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/

Have a great weekend.