Six on a Saturday-24.3.18

Well it seems that Spring has arrived. On my journey to work the rabbits are back out along the wooded edges and the daffodils are coming out in greater numbers. Today is my birthday and the first day of the school holidays, so a day for relaxing. I’m continuing with the six on a Saturday garden blogs concept from the Propagator.

My first, as already mentioned, is my daffodils. I planted a number last year as Amy likes them. While I’m not massively found of them they do add a good splash of colour for Spring and I do like them as another herald of Spring arriving.

The next I think is a camellia. I’m not certain if it is a camellia or an azalea. It came with the garden and I’ve never tried looking it up to work it out. Either way I know it needs ericaceous compost. I gave it a surface layer in Autumn and gave it a liquid feed a few weeks back. This seems to have done it a world of good. A lot more flowers than last year. It’s suffered a bit with the frost, but for a few weeks I’ll get to enjoy the white blooms.

My windowsill propagator sensed Spring was here too. As shown last week my hollyhock seedlings and sweet peas are coming along well. However the morning glory seed were showing no sign of life. Then Monday one poke out, then a few more as the week went on and now were looking to have plenty on the go.

This will be my first year attempting morning glory. They came within another pack of climbers. In the UK it is grown as an annual as it is too tender for our climate. It is a climber with trumpet shaped flowers. The blue flowered varieties are the ones I’ve seen most often, but this pack has reds and oranges on. We’ll have to wait and see if I manage to keep them going to find out what colour they go.

Earlier in the week gold leaf gardening gloves were slightly reduced in the Amazon Spring sale. I’ve read about Gold Leaf gloves before. They are the only RHS approved gloves, recommended because of their durability combined with suppleness. I generally don’t wear gloves. I like the feel of soil and dislike the hindrance of not being able to feel what I’m doing properly. But I have a few plants which irritate to the touch and having planted new roses I want to try to take better care of them than the previous owners had. So, while they were on offer I thought I’d treat myself. While pricier than my previous sets I’ve ended up replacing the last few after short periods. We’ll see whether quality work out better. Having arrived they do feel as good as the reviews said. I’m sure in future I’ll give them a proper review when they’ve seen some wear and tear. The leather feels lovely in comparison to my previous rubber gauntlets I’d equipped myself with for roses.

In the last week I’ve finished the RHS botany for gardeners. This is on kindle sale this month for 99p. It was well worth the 99p. As it’s mainly text it was fine reading on kindle. Many gardening books don’t suit the kindle format, but this was good. It covered a wide range of subjects from Latin and taxonomy to cell structure and propagation.  It was an interesting read that I think I could reread in a year or two. It’s given me abetter understanding of why gardeners do jobs particular ways.

And my final contribution of my six, my hebe cuttings. I’d started the cuttings just in water and they rooted. I had no idea whether they would. I had an inkling that they would and thought I’d experiment to see if I could cultivate another bush or two from cuttings. They seem to be doing well in the pots, but I think they might need moving to a bigger pot now. We’re going away in a weeks time, so I’d like to do it before then, so I can ensure they have a decent watering before we go.

As mentioned at the start of the blog it is feeling more Spring like and the rabbits are out and about. I’m aiming to manage a decent photo of a wild rabbit this year. I’m getting closer, but  still nothing amazing yet. Here is one from yesterday I’ll leave you with. Hope you’ve enjoyed my six. In a few weeks I think I’ll have a lot more in flower to comment on. Hope you’ve enjoyed my six.