The garden still still looks a bit grey overall. There’s lots of interest popping up at ground level, though. My father had a favourite saying “small but perfectly formed” and the things that follow all match that description.
Primula
Primula are amongst my favourite spring flowers. It’s hard not to be beguiled by their simple beauty and impressed by how rugged and tough they are. They shrug off the cold weather like a polar bear. I’m growing a few choice varieties in my rock garden and despite the colder temperatures of the past few days, they have continued to develop well.
This variety, primula denticulata var. alba, is a clean snowy white. In the next few days the stalk will continue to extend upwards and the petals will open into a ball – the classic drumstick primula shape.
Meanwhile, the common primula vulgaris is looking equally bonny. This one is self seeded in the steps that run through the centre of the rockery.
Rockery trowel
It was my birthday a couple of weeks ago and my parents in law were wonderful and gave me some money to spend in the garden. Yesterday the first few items began to arrive, including this fabulous new rockery trowel bought from Crocus. Many of the nooks and crannies of the rock garden are pretty difficult to access and with plants jostling for space, having this narrow trowel will help me to plant without too much root disturbance.
Saxifraga porophylla ‘Karel Capek’
A year ago this weekend I was taking in the colourful wonders of the Alpine Garden Society spring show in Theyden Bois, Essex. One of the plants I brought back with me was this teeny little Saxifrage. It looks so dainty and yet there it is flowering away in the cold and wet with the joyous abandon of a rose on a summer’s day. This has doubled in size in a year and now measures a whopping 4cm in diameter.
I am so taken with the porophylla group of saxifrages that I have put in an order for a few more from Potterton’s Nursery. They stock many beautiful varieties. I will be using the new rockery trowel to plant them when they arrive.
Rock garden tulip
The schools go back on Monday, my daughter returns to the studio to study for her arts based uni course. My life will be creeking slowly back to some semblance of normality. When I saw this miniature tulipa humulis Violacea Black Base starting to extend above these crocuses I thought it looked a bit like a school teacher welcoming the pupils back to the classroom. Lockdown is even influencing how I’m seeing my plants.
Corydalis solida ‘G P Baker’
Andrew at Kind Hearts and Corydalis garden blog has been treating us with his emerging corydalis plants over the last few weeks. Here’s my tiny corydalis with a couple of hawthorn berries for scale. This is a gigantic 5cm in diameter and is nestled in the shade of the woodland garden. The flowers are a fascinating shape and a beautiful deep coral colour.
This was another purchase made at the AGS spring show a year ago and here’s a picture of it when first planted.
Hepatica nobilis ‘Rubra Plena’
A heart-leap moment last week when I realised this charming hepatica planted in the woodland last spring had emerged once more. The leaves had completed died away with only the label showing where I’d placed it. It’s a striking pink colour and is one of three flowers to pop out of the ground. The leaves should follow.
I planted a few other hepaticas last year and they are yet to appear. Will they, or are they lost forever? I’ll keep looking because this pink one seemed to appear overnight. Small but perfectly formed.
This seasonal diary is part of a weekly link-up of garden bloggers from around the world, called Six on Saturday. For more information and links to other blogs crammed with gardening activity, check the blog of host The Propagator.
That hepatica is a gem!
Thanks Paddy – it is gorgeous.
Some lovely stuff here! Your denticulata is so much more advanced than mine, and I like the pure white colour too. That’s a beautiful Saxifrage – I treated myself to an order from Pottertons recently too (some very nice Oxalis). Fantastic nursery.
Thanks for the mention, George Baker’s looking good!
Hi Andrew – Pottertons have such great selections and very reliable mailorder. I was reading their catalogues for weeks before I could decide what to buy. I do miss going to shows though – seeing the plants before you buy and getting the chance to chat to the nursery exhibitors is so valuable.
A lovely selection of little, perfectly formed plants and a swish looking rockery trowel. That Saxifrage is a beauty.
Hi Graeme, I’ve gone saxifrage crazy – I’m a saxifan. I just used the rockery trowel and it sinks beautifully through the soil. I’ll have to make sure I keep it sharp.
Some beauties indeed. A few weeks back I joined the Somerset branch of the Alpine Garden Society just so that I could attend a zoom lecture, and I only went and joined the main group last week! As for Pottertons they are one of my favourite suppliers too. Their selection is very good and packaging excellent.
Hi Noelle – so pleased you’ve joined the local and national groups of the AGS. They really are excellent and the talks have been a bonus during the lockdown. Then of course there’s the seed exchange too. Maybe we’ll be on the same talk one day?!
I planted a Hepatica years ago and it slowly got overrun by my Phyllostachys bamboo. Incredibly, it’s still alive, doesn’t flower much and I cant move it because it’s too tangled in the bamboo. Another that I planted in carefully prepared ground never thrived and now seems to have died after about three years. Should I buy an expensive double form and plant it in the middle of the bamboo?
Hi Jim, I’m always amazed at the prices of some of the Japanese hepaticas but then they are fairly rare over here and are undeniably beautiful. It sounds like the bamboo location is perfect for them…
Wow! Amazing capture of this hepatica!
Thanks Fred. It’s all very well sharing pictures of these tiny plants but I now have very wet knees from trying to get the photographic angles right!
Lovely little dainty flowers this week. I’m a big fan of primulas too, I spent a couple of hours last week digging some up to pot on and save them from being buried under our new garden path. They self-seed so happily but not overwhelmingly, and I love seeing the different colours of the flowers that emerge. Nifty trowel – having the right tool for the right job makes all the difference, doesn’t it?
Hi Sel, yes the trowel is a good’un. It’s very sharp. The new garden path sounds interesting – I’ll head over to your blog now…
The saxifrage’s mound of tiny leaves is beguiling. I think the planting of the tulip and crocuses together is incredibly effective. The sizes, shapes, and colors are similar enough to relate while drawing the attention to the contasts, enhancing their unique charms.
Hi Erin, yes the leaves of the saxifrage are part of its charm. It looked so vulnerable when I first planted it in the rock garden because it was so small but it is doing so well.
It’s wonderful how some plants appear all of a sudden and surprise us, like your hepatica. That saxifraga is a little gem – no wonder you’re adding to your collection.
Hi Hortus – I’m a bit of a saxifrage addict at the moment. This one cost £3 at the show and most of my new ones are only £4. You can gather a nice collection for the price of a large shrub!