Season stretchers

When the garden is a fairly blank muddy canvas from December to February, it is easy for the spirits to sink.  Borders brimming with flowers seem a million miles away at this time of year and it's hard to believe that they genuinely will return - even when I look in the greenhouse and see pots of sturdy ammi and ever-larger cerinthes, just waiting to leap out of their pots at the first sign of a lengthening day.

So it was with a quickening pulse that I seized upon some Christmas roses (Helleborus Niger) when I spotted them on my way back from a family park trip.  A bit of a bargain at just over two pounds a pot.

Tucked into a shady bed under the apple tree, they add a glimmer of brightness which will keep me going until all the cowslips and primroses in that patch get a shift on, later in the season.  These Nigers are a welcome addition to my hellebore family - I have Corsican hellebores from my own parents' garden - my dad gets fed up of them as they love his garden not wisely, but too well. There is much muttering about 'them green things' as he digs their straying seedlings out of his well tended vegetable patch.

The strangely named green hellebore 'foetidus' is already putting on a show of its first flowers, but no fetid smell is apparent. This one came from my sister, so adds more family connections to the hellebore gang.  I also have several 'Orientalis', which I have nurtured from babies after scooping them from their casually scattered birthplace at the feet of my mother-in-law's plant, and these now yield a sturdy and regular crop of flowers throughout spring. Cutting back their leaves (which get a bit grotty at times) to reveal the nascent flowers helps to display them at their best and stops them getting leaf blight in abundance.  Another job to add to my current tidying list.

I will just have to wait for my new plants to start breeding and then I'll be able to pay all my relatives back with hellebores in kind!

Knitting nicely

I love this time of year when the beds finally start to wake up from the winter slump of mudness.  At last there are things to look at and the garden is starting to look plump and juicy.

During the colder months, I had a rather large purge on old, unproductive plants that wouldn't earn their space as cutting plants, so I do have rather larger gaps than I have had for ages.  All the more space to plant in - hurray!  I also have empty strips round the edge of the lawn where I widened the border whilst waiting for spring to arrive.  Into these have gone stocks, snapdragon and sweet william seedlings and I've also direct sown some larkspur and sweet rocket into this newly revealed space.  The new bits have, however, needed the addition of plenty of manure, compost and leaf mould because as is typical of lawn 'underlay', they were full of rubble and old manky things.  The things I've planted there so far seem to be thriving, so hopefully the spaces will be no more in a couple of months time.

Bare, well dug soil is all very neat and tidy, but I love it best of all when not a jot of earth can be seen and everything is covered in rambling, scrambling plants which knit together to form lucious leaf and flower tapestries.

Tulip 'Dolls Minuet' with lungwort and sanguisorba leaves

 

Euphorbia bursting out all over

Honesty, primulas and the finely cut leaves of  Japanese maple 'Dissectum'

The great thing about photographing the garden is you can frame these beautiful little patchwork squares and treasure them.  It also allows you to avoid the bald bits which lurk just outside the viewfinder!  Right then - off to do some more sowing to fill them up with more knitters - if the seeds don't blow away in the gale force winds which are howling around today.

I love George

I've made a new discovery this year - iris histrioides 'George'.  The first two flowers are out and are lovely objects to ponder as I do the washing up.  Despite the subzero night time temperatures, they are there every morning, as perfect as ever, their deep purple petals defying the frosts.

They seem very happy in the raised bed I created last September - they relish the gritty, well-drained conditions and cope happily with the shade cast by the neighbouring house  for the latter part of the afternoons.  Originating (via Sarah Raven) from the mountains of northern Turkey, they are tough characters and their immaculate blooms are apparently impervious to rain, snow, sleet and frost. It's hard to believe these flowers have been held for the best part of two weeks already and still look perfect.

Early and fabulous though they are, there is a problem. They are, to put it bluntly, short-arses.  It's not that I'm size-ist, it's just that they are only about 10-15cm tall and are planted amidst rows of emerging tulips, which will engulf them over the coming weeks. That's the price paid for putting bulbs in as they arrive,  rather than doing a single bulk order and planning out my planting more strategically.  So....  once their show is over for this year and they've had a bit of rest, I will move them over to the other side of the garden and plant them in the narrow border down the side of the drive which needs cheer at this time of year.

I think they will look much nicer planted in informal groups, adding a bit of colour, and keeping my rose and baby Christmas box plants company.