Six on Saturday 2020 28-03

Published on by Catherine

We’ve had a couple of days of rain and cold winds this week, but in between showers I’ve managed to get into the garden and finally finish pruning, feeding & mulching the roses. Some seeds were sown, and new plants potted up. While I was doing that my husband was working his way around the borders, weeding and generally tidying up. Although there’s no tall growth in the borders yet, the garden is looking heaps smarter than it did last week.

Prunus ‘Mikinori’

This small tree has grown faster and taller than I expected, but it won’t outgrow the space that it’s in. I think it’s probably just over 7′ tall at the moment, and to be honest, in need of a good prune. I’ve had a few attempts this week to photograph it, but the winds have been strong, and I wasn’t particularly happy about the results – no rich blue skies or a touch of backlighting to highlight the tiny blooms.

The buds of this flowering cherry are pink, and the flowers open to a blush-soft pink then turn white. It’s also a pretty sight in autumn when it’s leaves are rich in autumn colours.

Mikinori’s pink buds

Because of the winds (and I’ve got to tell you – they were bitterly cold!), I resorted to cutting off a stem and took it indoors to try to capture its prettiness.

Not exactly a vase, but it will do
Graceful and delicate
Prunus ‘Mikinori’
Camellia

I was torn between ‘Mikinori’ and this Camellia to be the star this week because I’ve been complaining for a good few years that this particular Camellia does not flower. Trees and shrubs have, over the years, grown up around it and I wondered if that was having a detrimental effect on it. Last week I noticed that it was covered in buds – but I’ve seen it like that in the past – and for whatever reason, the buds fell off and it failed to bloom. There was huge excitement a few days ago when I noticed a few buds starting to open, and when I went back to look at it yesterday I found this beautiful flower towards the back of the plant. Absolute joy!

A pretty Camellia without a name

It flowered at a time when I needed it and was a welcome distraction from the Coronavirus lockdown.  It was just another little reminder that garden therapy is real and works a special magic, lifting the spirits and bringing a feeling of inner calm and happiness.

She will fall to the ground and other buds will take her place

I’ve no idea what variety this is, I’m just happy to see a flower on it. The plant is full of rich fat buds, and I’m desperately hoping that they all bloom. Time will tell but right now I’m delighted with my one, beautiful flower!

Camellia
Chionodoxa

Earlier in the week this little Glory of the Snow would have been my plant of the week, with its vivid blue blooms it is undoubtedly one of the stars of the season. Sadly, it was overtaken by the two above.

My bulbs have not been planted in a full-sun area, and perhaps that’s why they’re generally a bit late in showing, but I’ve made a note in my garden journal to add them to one of the sunnier borders nearer the top of the garden, where I hope they will in time spread and create a larger display than I have now. They deserve a better place to shine.

Tulip Shakespeare

The Kaufmanniana tulip ‘Shakespeare’ popped open this week. It’s described as having “salmon-red petals, blushed with yellows, lighter in the interior” which seems to be pretty accurate. The petals haven’t opened yet, but I hope to be able to get a few photographs when they do.

Tulip Shakespeare
Hyacinth ‘Pink Pearl’

The intensity of the colour of this Hyacinth surprised me, to the extent that I had to go out and check the label. I had expected a slightly lighter, softer shade, but soft this is not. Perhaps it was just that the light was so poor that morning, and it was shining out – I don’t know, but it certainly adds a vivid splash to the spring pots display. It still has a bit of growing to do, and I daresay that it will have its portrait taken again within another few days.

Hyacinth ‘Pink Pearl’
Beautiful bell-shaped flowers & reflexed petals
Campanula portenschlagiana

I grew Campanula portenschlagiana, the Dalmatian bellflower, from seed last year, with some going into the ground, and others to family and friends. What remained were tiny plants that I felt were a bit too small to put in the soil, so they languished in small pots outside the greenhouse until Thursday when I potted them on in the hope that they will grow over the following weeks and months. I’m surprised that they survived the wet winter, but time will tell how well they will perform.

Campanula portenschlagiana
Leftovers from 2019 sowings

That’s my selection this week. I hope you, your families and friends are all safe and healthy. Have a happy gardening weekend and remember the two-metre rule if you have to go shopping for essentials.

If you want to join in with Six on Saturday around the world, here are the details:

ABOUT SIX ON SATURDAY

Six on Saturday is like a weekly journal. Take six photographs and post them to Twitter and/or your blog. You can get all the details from The Propagator who kindly set it all up. If you want to join in and see what everyone else is doing in the garden, just follow the link!

All photographs copyright of Catherine Wood unless otherwise stated.

 

 

32 thoughts on “Six on Saturday 2020 28-03”

    1. Thank you. Plant perfection doesn’t exist in this garden – sometimes it’s a case of being selective with the subjects that make it to the camera!

      If you keep doing other things then perhaps the blueberry plants will survive long enough to give you some lovely juicy fruits! 😁

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    1. Thank you Noelle, sadly the blossom won’t last too long – this garden is a windy place. Before too long the blossom will be like confetti in the sky. It’s lovely to be able to enjoy these little treasures while we can.

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  4. Beautiful photos as always. I’m pleased your camellia flowered – it was worth the wait. All but one of my Chionodoxa seem to have disappeared, unless they’re either biding their time (they’re in a rather shady bed) or the S&S have finished them off. I must plant some more in the Autumn.

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    1. I hope the slimy, crawly things haven’t munched your Chionodoxa! They’re definitely worth replacing if they don’t appear this season.

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    1. Thank you. It does have some lovely perfumes in summer, though at this time of the year, much of the fragrance is carried away by the winds.

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  8. Lovely Cherry, presumably named for Mikinori Ogisu so you’d have high expectations; lovely Camellia, love the almost translucent petals, I thought it might be Dahlonega but the leaf is completely wrong; and lovely Chionodoxa, perhaps mine are C. luciliae, has the colour come out right in the picture? Mine are a bit deeper blue.

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    1. You’re right about the colour Jim, and I’ve been out and snipped a few, brought them in and colour-corrected to a point that is as close as I can get it. The tips of the flowers are deepest in colour and more violet than blue, especially as they open then change gently to a paler violet-blue and then to a grey-blue at the throat. All this of course is dependant on the light we view it in, and then ultimately the screens we’re viewing on. 😁

      You’re absolutely right about the name of the cherry – named after Mikinori Ogisu, and the Camellia would have been bought in a local nursery, so I’m thinking that it probably is a fairly run-of-the-mill variety, definitely and sadly, nothing exotic.😁 But my flower is still holding on and hopefully I’ll have a few more soon.

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    1. Thank you. Wet and grey days are a feature of life here 😁 but right now…it’s a glorious spring day…though freezing cold! Hope your sun shines for you soon!

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  12. Beautiful photography as ever. The cherry is a vase is stunning. Wow! I think I should prune my cherry tree – I tend to ignore it but it may just improve its shape…

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    1. Thanks Katharine. I’ve ignored my cherry for too many years and it really needs a good haircut (though I rather think we will all need that if the lockdown continues for quite some time…) 😁

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    1. Strangely the campanulas didn’t die off at all during the winter. The foliage in the pots is last year’s growth, though they are starting to show some new growth as well. I’m a bit surprised as I’ve read that they don’t do well in wet winters.

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  14. So much beauty in your garden at the moment – mikinori, that camellia (o my goodness, it’s perfect, so hopefully will produce more), & that shocking hyacinth which I quite like. I like your idea of making notes for next year. I do this as well, but in a blank book so it’s not organised & things get forgotten. How do you organise yours?

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    1. I wouldn’t say that there’s a great deal of organisation in my note-taking. 😁 I use notebooks – usually pretty journals from Paperchase, and I write down what I need to do next, ‘how-to’ notes, what plants I like etc (especially when Chelsea is on tv). I tend to come across them when I flick back through.

      I file on my computer. I take screenshots from anything I’m watching Gardeners World, Chelsea etc and put them into folders for Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring etc. I just scroll through them when I’m looking for ideas. But my best source is the photos I take – I tag them and they’re named by year and month. If I search for 201903-garden it will bring up all my shots taken in March 2019. But like you – I forget about a lot. Needless to say, the files and ideas are way more than the actual planting (or space) in the garden!

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