Spending for the future with added snowdrops!

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The last couple of days I`ve been buying compost for planting seeds, multi-purpose for, well all sorts of things….and John Innes no3 for any top dressing and planting roses and shrubs. I bought some iris bulbs and a climbing white rose from Poundland. I wanted to give the rose a try to see if it could join the Arthur Bell rose and the honeysuckle to climb over the arch we installed last Summer. If it grows I will certainly have had my monies worth. Yesterday I ordered a rose, `Madame Plantier` from David Austin to plant in my north facing border. I came across an article by Monty Don that was all about planting in the shade. I`ve read articles about it before and I have a book about it but apart from the odd helpful tip I`ve not found anything of substance that appealed to me. Monty recommended this alba rose which is a tall shrub or short climber, I think I`ll keep it as the former. I really need something that will stand out in the darkest part of the garden and this rose fits the bill. There is a flush of cream/white flowers in Jun and July which last about six weeks or so. I can`t wait for it to arrive so I can plant it.
This Spring and Summer I will really work on this border as it never seems to look as nice as it should whatever I do. One end of it is a bit waterlogged and the other well drained. I`m determined to get it right one way or another.

Yesterday afternoon I potted up the dahlia corms in multi-purpose compost and left them in the greenhouse. I still have a few dahlias, cannas and begonias to pot up but I`ll leave that to the weekend when its meant to be drier than the last couple of days. This afternoon I brought in the propagater, dusted off the cobwebs and turned it on to see if it was working, luckily all seems ok with it but a friend of mine told me that the cable on hers had been chewed by mice. Why they would want to eat electric cable beats me, it must taste nice I suppose but surely they could find something a bit cheaper to gnaw on.

I was really pleased the other day to see that the snowdrops have come up for the first time. For the last couple of years I have tried to grow them but each time they came to nothing. Last year I bought some already potted up but in the sale as the flowers had all but finished. I planted them under the magnolia among the hardy cyclamen and other assorted bulbs. They could do one of two things live or die. I was convinced they had done the latter when much to my surprise I saw them poking their little white heads through the cyclamen leaves…Oh joy, I have my very own snowdrops at last! It all but made my day. :o)

Sandra x

• 16 Feb, 2010
• 9 likes

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