PotsandPlots

I’m back for round two of Six on a Saturday. Garden posts seem to gain more traction than book posts! The garden is slowly waking up during another wet but slightly warmer week. The evenings are definitely getting lighter, and the plants are ready to burst forth.

Six on Saturday is curated by Jim at Garden Ruminations, and you can find the participation guidelines here.

1: The iris reticulata are out, and following close behind, though for the photo, they’re in front, are some Narcissus ‘Tête-à-tête.’ Hopefully, there will be more narcissi in the coming weeks!

2: Last year, I had a very healthy sedum plant growing in a pot, when all of a sudden it collapsed. Vine weevils! I had problems with them before, with some heuchera in a pot, but hadn’t realised they could hit sedum plants too.

It looks like the core of the plant has survived, after copious amounts of flicking off of grubs and repotting. I shall be putting this in the ground later in the year.

3: My amalchier tree is the pride of the garden. It looks amazing for about two weeks in the spring and another two in the autumn. The rest of the time, it’s quite boring. When we first moved into the house 19 years ago, my dad, who lived for his garden, planted a slow-growing ivy next to it, telling me it would grow up the tree. “Whatever, dad,” I thought to myself – I had a one-year-old at the time, and the garden was not something I worried too much about.

Now, it provides some lovely winter interest, and every day I look at the ivy, I think of my dad, and hope that he’d be pleased that the garden bug finally took hold.

4: Last year, I enjoyed some freshly planted alliums in a flowerbed I have towards the end of the garden. I love alliums, and I was thrilled with them. I’ve struggled in the past in other parts of the garden to get them to return, and until this week, I’d seen no signs they were going to here either. This week I found 2 shoots. Hopefully, more will follow.

5: Still not lots doing outside, so here’s a few succulents currently enjoying the relative warmth of the conservatory.

6. The final picture is the synthesis of the blog. A book about gardening. This is about a son and his relationship with his dying father, who was a keen gardener. This book may break me, but I found Gospodinov’s Time Shelter enthralling (if somewhat hard going), and I’m looking forward to reading this one.