I have collected pot planted spring bulbs together on an outdoor table where the combination of colour and form cheer a winter day in sunshine or gloom. This week I’ve also visited a snowdrop garden, sown my sweet peas and fiddled about with a labelling machine.
Snowdrop collector
National Collection of Snowdrops
Last Sunday I went to a National Garden Scheme garden open day, where the owner holds the National Collection of snowdrops. The owner grows 2000 different cultivars in his smallish front and back gardens.
I really liked the way he had constructed this outdoor shelving to store his many precious snowdrops that he was raising in pots.
Woodland snowdrops
Galanthus woronowii ex Habsburg
Galanthus woronowii ex Habsburg
The NGS open garden had a wonderful little plant stall and of course I was tempted to buy a couple of new snowdrops. Last week in my Snowdrop Special, I focussed on three snowdrop species. Well, here is a fourth. Galanthus woronowii is a lovely species where the leaves are a glossy green colour, rather than the pale green glaucus leaves found in other species.
I bought this substantial clump and planted them straight out into my woodland garden. They look like they’ve been there forever.
Crocus sieberi ‘Ronald Ginns’
This crocus is delightful and whilst it is said to perform very well in the garden, it also looks stunning in a dainty pot on a table top. I love the deep orange throat and the purple speckled petals.
I bought these bulbs from Pottertons nursery at the Alpine Garden Society’s bulb day last autumn. What I love about spring bulbs is that a few minutes spent in the autumn throwing some bulbs in a pot and the joy on a cold winter morning is immeasurable.
Iris reticulata – pretty cultivars
Iris reticulata Katharine’s Gold
Talking easy spring bulbs, Iris reticulata look amazing but are so simple to grow. This year I have a few different ones but flowering well this week is pale yellow ‘Katharine’s Gold’. From the name I imagined these would be more golden yellow. Look closely though, you can see a golden flash on the petals.
Iris reticulata Katharine’s Gold
Also looking good this week is one called ‘Blue Note’, again not exactly what I expected as it’s actually a very deep purple colour. When you stand in the sunshine though you can just see blue shimmers and tones.
Iris reticulata Blue Note
Sweet pea tubes
Sweet pea tubes
I took the plunge this week and sowed my many packets of sweet peas. As usual I’d bought too many but I fall in love too easily with sweet pea varieties . I used sweet pea tubes to sow into, an added cost I believe to be worth it, as the roots of sweet peas really do grow straight down.
In order to make the tubes easier to fill, I fold them in half and then half again to form a square tube (is that still a tube?) and then sandwich them tightly into plastic trays.
Plant labelling machine
A big revelation for me has been using a label machine for plant labelling. Permanent pen seems to be semi-permanent on plastic labels. Wooden ones just rot and cheap plastic ones can become brittle over time and can snap.
These metal labels are indestructible but are difficult to mark on so I tried out my old labelling machine. Not only do they look really neat but they are also waterproof. I hung a few on shrubs over the winter and the labels still look as good as new. This is certainly a more expensive solution than most but I suspect I’ll loose fewer around the garden and am less likely to get plants mixed up because of illegible labels. I’m a convert.
Red Hot Calendar
The hospice charity that I volunteer for likes to produce a desk calendar every year and I’m happy to give them some pictures to choose from. This week they gave me a few for family and friends and I saw which picture they had chosen.
This is a bobby dazzler of a planting scheme. I saw it last year at the Savill Garden and thought it was knockout. A combination of a red hot poker Kniphofhia ‘Alcazar’ and a tangerine coloured single dahlia which I forgot to note the name of. It was several metres square of ret hot fabulousness.
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.
Lots looking good there. I like the snowdrops shelves, may be ause for the pile of bricks and decking stacked in a corner of my garden. Loving my irises. I’ve still got Katherine’s gold to come.
Katharine is worth the wait for sure! The shelves are a good idea for nursing new plants when your garden is small. This is a fairly narrow space between the house and the neighbour and he’s put it to good use.
Alitags make excellent aluminium labels, strong and durable (I’ve used them for 30+ years) Pencil lasts very well on them but I also use the printed labels.
I grow a lot of snowdrops and find the photograph of the shelves of potted snowdrops so unnatural.
Hi Paddy. I know what you mean about the snowdrops. He also grows many out in the garden but I think the need to maintain the national collection means he has reserves and bulbils growing in pots too.
Lovely variety to your Winter scene. Excellent.
Thanks Tim. Each year I’m glad I took the time to pot up a few bulbs and it’s allot less backbreaking than planting them in the garden!
What a pretty crocus that “Ronald Ginns”!
I have already started my sowing of sweet peas and with new varieties this year, I hope to have different colours that I will be able to show you next …
The crocus really is so pretty. I look forward to seeing the sweet peas you’ve chosen Fred. It can get addictive.
The Crocus sieberi ‘Ronald Ginns’ are very pretty. I’ve not seen metal plant labels before, they sound like a good idea.
I haven’t yet planted any Iris reticulata, but Katherine’s Gold looks ah-MAZ-ing!! Now I’m off to read your Snowdrops post that I missed last week!
Hi Laura – hope you enjoyed the snowdrop post. I think there are 17 different species of snowdrop and thousands of cultivar so any post like this can only scratch the surface. Iris reticulata are a must for next year. They’re so reliable. I’ve seen some planted out in grass too so some of these I’ll take out of the post and plant them in the lawn to see how they do.
How lovely to have your photograph (which is beautiful, by the way) used in a calendar.
I like your idea of using the labelling machine – though I might not have the patience to use it myself. I’ve been using a Staedler garden pen since early last year, and the detail seems to be holding. Labels are still easily read, but you’re right – plastic labels tend to break after a while. Plus, I’m starting to feel guilty every time I buy anything plastic these days!
Yes, I guess plastic labels are another form of plastic pollution and I share you guilt. The joy of the labelling machine is that I make them indoors in the warm in front of the TV and pop out in the garden to label things up. With my Alpine Garden Society seed packets (all 23 of them) I made the labels up in advance and took then out to the greenhouse when I was ready to sow.
Making them up in advance is such a simple, sensible thing to do! Why have I never thought of doing that? lol
I have cuttings I need to pot on and I’ll be starting to sow seeds within a few weeks. My goodness, I could even make up the labels right now, at my desk and in the cosiness of the house. No more freezing fingers trying to write labels in the greenhouse! 😁
Thanks for the idea!
“Ronald Ginns” is delightful. I have planted Crocus sieberi this year but I don’t think they were named. Just coming up so I shall try and get a photo next week, if Ciara doesn’t spoil them. Like you I love potted spring bulbs, so easy to do and so rewarding. Katherine is on my list for the autumn!
Hi Jude – yes I’m responding to you as Storm Ciara rages outside. So far she has claimed a rose arch, which is badly leaning and will probably need replacing. I look forward to seeing your crocus pics soon!
Thanks for the information about the labels. I’m not going to use the plastic labels outdoors anymore because the writing (in pencil or permanent pen) always disappears for me too. The photo on the calendar looks super.
Thanks for the comment on the calendar – I’m so happy they chose to use it as it’s a jolly photo and one I think it’d be hard to get bored of. I’m definitely going to move away from plastic labels. I guess it’s just another form of plastic pollution and the metal ones will last so much longer anyway.
Your bulbs are way ahead of mine Katharine, no crocuses in sight just yet – I guess I still have it all to look forward to. I tried making sweet pea tubes out of card before but found they started to get a bit soggy and mouldy before being planted – any suggestions?
I’ve found toilet rolls etc do go soggy and difficult to handle sometimes but they usually do last long enough to plant out. The black proprietary sweet pea tubes are pretty robust and definitely do last well but of course cost a bit more. I found these ones at £2.50 for 20 in my local independent garden centre which compared well to prices online. ps bulbs in the garden are behind those in pots in my garden too. They’re always worth the wait though and I look forward to seeing yours in future SoS posts.
Most of the alpine type bulbs I’ve grown in pots are now coming to an end, what do you do with yours between now and next year? Do I you plant them out, leave them outdoors in their pots, start with fresh bulbs next year?
Hi Jim, I do a mixture. I went to a bulb day run by the AGS and they recommended inspecting and repotting anythings you grow in pots each autumn and repotting or planting out in garden as is your preference.
The Katharine’s Gold were from last year and I left them in their pot and lifted them out in the autumn to take a look. I pulled off any bulbils and have potted them separately to see if I can grow them on. They have leaves but no flowers this year as is to be expected. The original Katharine’s Gold bulbs have flowered again beautifully. Most other things I planted out in the garden (mainly crocuses and anemone blanda) and planted new ones in pots in autumn. There’s a limit to how many pots I have or can face managing so adding the the beauty in the garden by planting some out makes sense to me.
Wow 2000 different varieties of Snowdrop and to think when you stand above them they all look the same lol. Crocus Ronald Gimms has gone on my spring bulb list for next year along with Katharine Gold which was already there. Once again a very informative blog.
Thanks Paul. Ronald now has many admirers!
Like all the snowdrops. I hope they’ve survived the gales. At 6am I was dismantling my auricular theatre! Interested to hear how the labels fare over time
Yes Ciara was a bit of a worry. I took my pots down from the table and tucked them away in a sheltered corner. Glad to hear you did the same with your auriculas – I hope they survived OK and now Dennis is on his way…
I have a label machine just like that but have regressed to using pencil on sanded down plastic labels, it lasts better than pen.
Having Ciara still stomping around the garden, I do wonder how that outdoor shelving survived (altho anyone who puts that much energy into his plants, certainly wouldn’t leave them to chance). All of your spring blooms are so lovely! That reticulata is scruptuous! (The calendar photo is gorgeous as well.)