Of the four or 5 clumps I have of this warm blooded arum, this is the only one with ‘flowers’ this year, the bud opened this morning. Faintly and sweetly scented.
Elsewhere birds are singing and squabbling – two wrens were having a tiff earlier. Nest building is in full swing.
Daffodil clumps are beginning to build up and provide a better spring show. I bought some on sale last year from Sarah Raven so they went in late, I have quite a few of the sweetly scented small flowered daffs to yet open, Trevithian, Peublo, Geranium and Martinette (some of which from the previous year I had left in pots and was one of the first daffodils in flower this year).
I love Elka which is a small pale daff. Thalia has just started to come out but is taking a while to establish. Sailboat and Jack Snipe are also in full flower (Topolino is just going over). The old double daffodil Pencrebar is just about to open. The buds of the long established clumps of N poeticus in the copse at the bottom of the garden are tall but still tightly budded.
The wood anemones I’ve been distributing are just starting to show, those that were already here are in flower, a little battered by last Monday’s Storm Katie inundation. The increasing splots of primroses, a luminous line at the edge of the copse also bear a tide line, many of the flowers have slightly muddied faces.
This is going to be a geranium and fuchsia dominated summer (at the expense of dahlias). Last week some lovely healthy geraniums arrived from Fibrex and an interesting selection arrived from Other Fellow fuchsias. All are now potted up and jostling for space on windowsills and in the conservatory.
A first rash of seed sowing a few weeks ago netted some very quick ups and then downs again with damping off. I need to nurture the remaining few Zulusianskya and there’s only one Amaranthus left – hey ho. Nicotiana alata seems to have shrugged off the damping off more robustly once the pot was taken out of the propagator. Tomatoes and peppers were sown on Friday.
In or out today? The last of this year’s bought-in mulch needs spreading but rain is threatened.
