Returned from shopping this morning to find a huge, heavy parcel waiting for me and a quizzical stare from my husband. Inside the large box lay carrier bags of dahlia bulbs, bulging paper sacks of gladioli, plastic plant carriers of baby Christmas Box (Sarcococca humilis) and white Veronica Spicata 'Icicle'.
I had to buy the Sarcococca having walked past a large planting of them near Windsor Castle in early January and being completely bowled over by their fantastic scent. I have one in my garden already but it has been a sickly specimen from the day it arrived, both in drab leaf colour and vigour, and the perfume has never been much to speak of. So, having witnessed this shrub in its full glory, I thought it was time to invest in fresh stock and to reap the perfumed reward. As I have five baby ones to find homes for, I plan to put a group in the narrow border near the back door so that I can enjoy their scent when I go out in winters to come.
As for my 30 dahlia tubers, I plan to home them in some well-enriched soil this year and to pinch them out regularly to emulate the super flowery specimens I see at the allotment and in the Sarah Raven catalogue - they promise so much for the cutting garden, I hope that this will be the year that they flourish.
Can't wait til I have photos to link to future posts like this - in my head I can see my an abundance on my market stall so will have to keep you updated!
You have your Dahlias already received. When I read this post, I thought I want to order some more Dahlias. I have my last year's Dahlias in my cellar, I hope they are still in good condition to replant again. It is always so exciting when parcels with seeds, bulbs or plants come in. Hope they give us lots of flowers in summer again.
ReplyDeleteI haven't yet managed to store tubers over winter successfully - have tried leaving last year's in the ground and mulching them for protection. Will have to wait and see if they reappear. Am very excited about the new lot though.
DeleteI only just got around to identifying the shrub I've inherited - it's a Sarcococca, and today as everything thawed the fragrance bowled me over from yards away! Do you have any idea how to propagate it? I'd love a little hedge instead of one large shrub.
ReplyDeleteYou can divide any suckers from the main plant in spring, or you could take greenwood cuttings from early to midsummer or take semi-ripe cuttings from late summer to late autumn. Or so says my RHS propagation book - a handy bible on such matters.
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ReplyDeleteIsn't it exciting when the plants and bulbs get delivered! I had a plant delivery the other day, a Callistemon I just could not resist buy on sale - even if it might not be tough enough to survive outside (will try my best)
ReplyDeleteSarcococca is a wonderful plant, I have 2 henryana digyana and 1 confusa in my garden, all 3 in flower right now and they smell heavenly! They don't all produce suckers, but those that do, like henryana digyana is easy to just uncover the suckers, pull them a bit and then replant. I have made many plants from my original one.
Good luck with your dahlias, mine are all overwintering out in their location, I never dig them up - but I live in London.
Can't wait til mine reach that stage.
ReplyDeleteAs for your dahlias, do you give them any slug protection? Mine got well munched last year but I didn't use any deterrents. I'm thinking of watering with nematodes this year if it continues to be wet.
I simply use slug pellets, not sure why people poo-poo them, I find them great, even the cheap ones from Asda and Tesco. You have to go and drizzle quite often when it rains, twice a week maybe, but in dry weather they keep longer, depends how many slugs you got!
DeleteThe best advice for slugs is to keep your garden tidy, get rid of weeds and ask your neighbours to do the same. No point in doing lots of work if you have loads of slugs coming over the fence every night! My neighbour couldn't keep up with the work so I offered to 'weed out' the slugs. I filled 2 carrier bags! Since then I have seen very few slugs and that was in May 2011.
I guess it depends if people want to avoid chemicals or not as they worry that it might affect the other wildlife that consumes the slugs etc. I've got some 'organic' slug pellets (which I think are copper sulphate) which is supposed to avoid this - but I'm still not sure! Maybe I should give them a whirl to avoid the paltry sticks which I was left with last year.
DeleteI do suspect though that to get good dahlias you have got to do take effective anti-slug action of some kind or other - whether it be slug traps, pellets, slug-weeding, nematodes or whatever. The tidy garden bit is definitely true.
It's always so exciting to get a box of plants or bulbs! I hope they all do well for you.
ReplyDeleteAm hoping to dart between rain showers this week to get the plants in.
DeleteSarcococca is such a wonderful plant isn't it? We have two smallish plants in our woodland and the perfume is sometimes almost overwhelming, the perfume seems to hang in the air with it being very sheltered, a delight to walk through that part of the garden at this time of year.
ReplyDeleteThat's just what I'm hoping for when these baby ones grow up. Yours sound lovely.
ReplyDeleteVery exciting! New plants holding new promise. I am trying a new way to over-winter my dahlias this year as well, since they did not make it last year. Looking forward to seeing your dahlias!
ReplyDelete~Julie
I'm so glad it's not just me who has problems with overwintering them! Noticed that you've also started following my garden on Pinterest - glad you like it. I've only just discovered PInterest, but it's a nice way to share and bookmark photos and ideas, think I'm hooked... Will try to put regularly updated photos on it but I think it will be March/April before the garden starts springing into life properly.
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