More from the garden

We got another of those little pots of miniature roses last Christmas, and as usual separated, pruned and potted up the individual plants.  Most of them came on well in the conservatory, and after a week or so hardening off outside in their pots they’re now planted by the front door.  Some of the older ones had died or failed to thrive, so have been replaced: the rest got a good prune, some top dressing and a word or two of encouragement.

In the new bed at the back, the top dressing has pretty much disappeared, so a lot of the newly planted subjects have rather exposed roots.  I’ve treated each to a shovel or two of muck, and hope they respond.  It’s that nice time of year when most days bring something else into flower.  Today it’s the daphne odora and the ornamental cherry.

For years we didn’t realise we had a flowering cherry, since its flowering season is very brief, and must have coincided with our spring trips to France.  Margaret and John gave us two daphnes some years ago as tiny plants, and they each proceeded to grow to a good metre in diameter.  They are not specially long-lived, and indeed one of them packed up last year.  But the survivor is threatening to block the path to the little greenhouse, and is starting to produce its richly scented flowers.

I’ll try again to propagate from it: previous attempts didn’t succeed, so I’ll consult the RHS before I try again.  Other candidates for propagation are the potentillas, which are getting a bit unruly, and the cistus, which have become, variously, very leggy or dead.

The tomatoes are growing fast: some of the Sweet Olive plants already have flower trusses, so I’ve taken out the side shoots with a view to propagation.  We have rather more San Marzano plants, so I’ve contented myself with taking out and discarding the side shoots.  In the propagator, the runner beans are starting to germinate, and we have a few tagetes seedlings from some oldish seed I found in the garage.  No sign of life from the rudbeckias so far: I may be forced, believe it or not, to put my hand in my pocket and get some plug plants.

The Mother of Parliaments, eh?

PMQs, ever a bear garden, now sees the latest Rt Hon First Lord of the Treasury for the time being resorting to red-top style name calling.  His right wing is forcing him to move yet again towards breaking international law on human rights (the Universal Declaration on which was a British invention, long before the UK’s membership of the EU and, of course, entirely separate from it, then as now).  The only other European countries derogating from it are those havens of liberal democracy, Belarus and the Russian Federation.  Not, as the Rt Hon Mr ‘Cleverly’ puts it, a club of which we should be aspiring to membership. 

This utterance may perhaps damage Mr ‘Cleverly’s’ chances of filling the new deputy PM vacancy, so truculently created by the previous incumbent’s resignation to avoid dismissal.  This follows some five months of enquiry by a silk, whose fee will have cost the taxpayer a score or two of doctors’ salaries.  All entirely wasted, since Raab might in other times have been expected to resign or be sacked long ago.  But some might say he lacks the decency to do the former, and his ex-boss the balls to do the latter - not that I could personally express a view.

Integrity, Professionalism and Accountability, eh?  Well, I suppose we can hope.

Easter greetings….

 …to those who observe such things.  

The tomato seedlings have come on well, so we picked up some compost from the stores yesterday and did some potting up.  Six Sweet Olive plants, a variety that has served us very well in the past, and a dozen San Marzano.  The latter are a bit of a gamble, since they ought to be grown indoors in these latitudes, but since our terrace is quite a sun trap, we thought we’d risk it.  There are a few more San Marzano plants to pot up, so I’ll have a look for pots once I’m properly awake.

We were afraid that we might have lost the magnolia Susan in last year’s drought, but here she is, flowering fit to bust.  Annie’s camellia over the fence is doing pretty well, though the rain has browned off a lot of the flowers.  The magnolia stellata and white camellia at the front has been been pretty good, but heavy rain and strong wind have taken their toll.  Next in line is the viburnum plicatum, and it is budding nicely.  Elsewhere in the white inventory, the spiraea are beginning to flower, and I see flower buds on the potentilla raised from a cutting nicked from outside the Tonbridge sorting office.

The Fritillaria meleagris are doing better than ever this year, I think.  

I gave the grass another cut yesterday, but I think the mower blade has had it.  It’s only a couple of years old, so given how expensive it was, I’m kinda disappointed.  I’ll perhaps have a go at it with a file.  Or more likely, I’ll look up the serial number and get one on line.

Claire

Claire would have been 101 today.  Here she is, back in 1979 in Brazil, conducting an impromptu choir of the Brazilian secretariat of the UPU congress.  Also in the rather poor photo are, I think, Pam and the late Pat Lalvani.

Claire was always game for a party, and her last year or so in lockdown must have been a sore trial to her: she died shortly before her 99th birthday.  Thanks to her generosity, there are fine new curtains at Forges-l'Evêque, and her stamp will be on a new reception area for our local Citizens' Advice operation.

Spring ctd.

Pleasant drive yesterday for lunch at a pub in a nearby village, with lots of new green foliage to admire as we went.  Quite a bit of flooding along the way, and there were sandbags near the door of the pub and quite a lot of standing water outside in the street.  Decent food, and splendid company with Celia and Andy.  They sent us home with a pot of French tarragon, which is now in a decorative pot ready to delight us later in the year.  

There was also some gardening traffic outwards.  We got Ben to split a huge iris sibirica last year, and the clumps have just been lying on the soil since.  They had started to sprout, so we’d to decide what to do with them: we already have a lot of them in the garden, so could accommodate only two more at a pinch.  I bagged up another six and put them out at the front with a ‘free’ sign on a stick.  Within 24 hours all six are off to new homes. It’s nice to think that, over the years, we have shared a lot of favourite subjects with friends and neighbours: one of the pleasures of gardening.