THE NORTH WIND DOTH BLOW

The North wind doth blow and we shall have snow, says the nursery rhyme.  Although the snow was just for a short while on Tuesday, that North wind has been unpleasantly cold for much of the week.  Any double narcissus with their blousy heavy heads have been bent double and I'm not sure I even want to mention the sad state of the Magnolias, so I won't.  Instead,  here are some flowers which have taken the bad weather in their stride.

1. Woodland Blooms

The woodland bulbs with their smaller flower heads are unfazed by wind and frost.  

The Erythronium Pagoda hangs its delicate yellow heads....

and Narcissus Thalia hangs its delicate white heads...

These daffodils (their name -  'Bestseller' if I remember correctly, though it seems a tad unlikely) have bulked up considerably since they were planted many years ago.  I remember planting these with the children when they were younger.  I remember it mainly because the ground was rock hard and it wasn't exactly fun.

2. Wild Flowers in the Garden

I'm encouraging a carpet of primroses and violets to cover an area under the trees.

I have to admit this does involve weeding out the unwanted plants like the wood avens.  There are two things that I would like to say about this.

1.  I'm concerned that hand weeding a woodland floor is certifiable and that the nice young men in the long white coats will be along shortly

2. Sarah Raven sells a woodland seed mix that actually contains wood avens.  Am I therefore hopelessly behind the times?

There was once one cowslip growing inconveniently in a grass path.  Each year there it would be.  A shame to remove it, yet not really wanted just there.

So now I have a whole patch of them - all not really wanted just there.  

3. Auriculas

I bought two of these from a market stall and I've split them over the years to make more.  They look so delicate and quite unreal - like they are made from cut paper.  

4. Tulips in the Knot Garden

These groups of tulips were planted in Autumn 2019, so this is their second year of flowering.  I chose varieties which were supposed to be perennial.

This is Apricot Pride. 

And these are Recreado (back) and Burgundy (foreground).

Also flowering in the Knot Garden are Erysimum Bowles' Mauve and Aubrieta 'Whitewell Gem'.

Grown from seed sown April last year.  I can't believe how large they are.  Isn't nature wonderful?

5. Potatoes

These could have gone in a little earlier, but they did get planted last weekend.  The varieties are all second earlies because that was what was left when I went to order them - Charlotte, Wilja and Desiree.

At least it looks a little less grave like this year.

6. 'Super Value Plugs'

I'm only showing you this so you can learn from my experience.  This is what mail order 'super value plugs' look like.  The pen is there to give you some scale.  They are truly miniscule. It's quite fun to pot them on but I'm rapidly running out of seed trays and greenhouse space and quite frankly does anyone need 70 alyssum? 

That's all I have space for this week I'm afraid/thank goodness (delete as appropriate).  There's plenty more to see on the Propagaor who kindly hosts Six on Saturday.