Garden Journal: 21.2.25

A general update

IT’S HAPPENING!

You know how four days ago I was moaning about how nothing was happening out there? Well now, shhhhh shhhh don’t spook them… things are happening.

Little blue bubbles are rising out of the throat of Muscari ‘Soulmate’. How good would it have been if it had bloomed on Valentine’s Day? I could have stuck it under the grow light to achieve this but didn’t think of it until the day itself.

Next year everyone’s getting Valentine’s Muscari ‘Soulmate’. I love them in these tiny pots - it’s the ‘Vintage Inspired Crocus Pot’ from Petersham Nurseries (link to buy online but honestly you must go in person, it is one of my favourite places on earth).

[ Muscari ‘Soulmate’, 21 February 2025 ]

Wouldn’t it be a great hostess gift for a February dinner party? Ok, it takes some forward planning. I ordered the bulbs on 28 November (£1.95 for 15 bulbs from Farmer Gracy) and planted them in roughly the first week of December. Still. Make some up ahead of time, they’re so small they’re hardly a hindrance to stash somewhere. And you’d be the talk of every dinner party, I reckon (not that I’ve been to any dinner parties in quite some time. I was musing on a post called ‘The Death of the Dinner Party’ for exactly this reason). So much better than some fucking out-of-season-flown-around-the-world cut flowers from the supermarket.

But back to the garden.

Also peeking out - and after I went on and on about it - is Iris reticulata ‘Harmony’. Ooooooooooooh I am SO EXCITED. Here it comes! They are planted with a few Hyacinth ‘Woodstock’. Sadly I don’t think they will all bloom in harmony (heh) but still. None of my bulbs were forced, I bought a lot of them in the sales in December, so they are lagging way behind the artificially-chilled-grown-in-warm ones. This has been a source of frustration but soon will be a source of JOY.

The controversial wallflowers look ridiculous. They’re not properly going, but every few days one puts on a single, little head of tutti-fruity flowers and they are very jarring with what otherwise are fairly empty beds in a very grey, green garden.

[ Iris reticulata ‘Harmony’ with hyacinth ‘Woodstock’, 21 February 2025 ]

Perhaps best of all, walking out into the garden this morning I got absolutely socked on the nose by the scent of sarcococca. PHWOOOOOARRR. I have two now, both still very much in their infancy, one bog-standard ‘confusa’ and one ‘Dragon Gate’ (that for some reason I keep wanting to call ‘Dragon’s Tooth’. I think because the little, white, dangly flowers look a bit like teeth. Though admittedly from a very small dragon). The former just came into incredible, stinking flower and wowey. I planted it in the bad bed by the back door and what a good decision that was. Well done, me.

In fact, the bad bed has had a bit of a rejigging this week. I have moved the Myrtus 'Tarentina' into a pot and now, between the mystery Cornus and the sarcococca has arrived a Fuschia ‘Hawkshead’. I have wanted a ‘Hawkshead’ for a long time (largely thanks to Beth Chatto) and finally pulled the trigger when, in WhatsApping with friends about fuschias, the desire overwhelmed me. I really think it is one of the prettiest shrubs around, and supposedly quite shade tolerant. I ordered a 2 litre pot from RHS Plants for £19.99 because they were offering 20% off shrubs. Of course, paying almost £6 for delivery made the saving seem somewhat pointless.

[ Silly erysimum ‘Spring Breeze Sunset’, 21 February 2025 ]

And speaking of shrubs for shady places, a Viburnum opulus 'Roseum' (the perfectly named ‘snowball bush’, also aka guelder-rose, honestly all these names *eye roll*) also arrived this week. I got a really good, healthy specimen in a 3l pot from Hillier, who were offering £10 off. Alas, again, the almost £7 on delivery stung a bit. If I had been more organised I could have probably combined the two orders. Isn’t hindsight marvellous.

Gosh, a LOT has arrived this week. From the brilliant Proctors Nursery came my persicaria ‘Orange Field’ (with thanks to those who encouraged the purchase), plus two Verbascum ‘Pink Petticoats’ because I couldn’t find the Verbascum ‘Clementine’ I desired for my scheme anywhere. Second choice was ‘Helen Johnson’ but she was also nowhere to be found. I really did do my research. Don’t start sending me links when you see them in stock now, it would be very painful. The train has left the station (in this instance the ‘train’ is my money and ‘the station’ is my bank account, in case that wasn’t clear).

[ Stinky sarcococca confusa, 21 February 2025 ]

As a result of all this rooting around I also thought of another way I can give my paid pal subscribers a special treat - I have created a page called ‘Suppliers’ where I will keep a list of nurseries etc to fulfil all your plant buying desires (at least in the UK). Currently there are about 86 listed there. When I remember, I will asterix next to those I have ordered from myself so that you know they’re legit. We are so spoiled for independent nurseries in this country and we’d do well to remember it or we’ll lose them. You really can find anything. Mostly. Just not Verbascum ‘Clemetine’.

On a trip to the garden centre for vermiculite I picked up a small heuchera ‘Coral Bells’, and a small Erigeron ‘Profusion’, both intended for a pot. Erigeron (is there an ‘s’ on the end for plural? It doesn’t look right) in pots are so wonderful, though I also want to go to RHS Wisley where they have tiny pots of Erigeron in their alpine section which are perfect for planting anywhere you have space. I want to dot them everywhere. EVERYWHERE. especially at the front of my beds and under the municipal tree outside the house. Such romantic froth. J’adore. I would fill the whole world with it, if I could.

[ Tulips on their way, 21 February 2025 ]

Also on their way are two 0.5 litre pots of brunnera marcophylla from Ballyrobert Gardens. There are lots of tiny blue freckles starting to appear along the paths in Battersea Park and I was completely seduced. I considered several brunnera - ‘Jack Frost’, ‘Alexander’s Great’, ‘Looking Glass’ - as well as the true forget-me-not, myosotis sylvatica, and the truth is, I want them all. In lieu of making a real decision, I ordered the most basic variety.

All of this shopping was as a result of realising that aside from the foxgloves (‘Dalmation Peach’) that have gone in I have slightly neglected the shady bed. The shady bed contains a prunus ‘Autumnalis Rosea’, a spiraea nipponica 'Snowmound', and a Corylus avellana 'Scooter', the latter of which I think I’ve actually decided I don’t like and want to evict. There’s a Rosa ‘Open Arms’ trained along the wall which is a trooper given it gets practically no light. There are new, small specimens of geum ‘Totally Tangerine’, astrantia ‘Buckland’, and erysimum ‘Spring Breeze Sunset’, too. I will move in anemone ‘Frilly Knickers’ (I know, I know, frilly knickers again). The snowball bush, persicaria, verbascum, and brunnera will all find a place there, though there might still be bit of space to fill in, I think.

[ Self-seeding poppiiiiiesssss!, 21 February 2025 ]

I still haven’t started sowing my seeds. BUT there are poppies SELF SEEDING on top of some of my tulip pots! Oh my gosh, this is thrilling. I wonder what they’ll BE. Last year was my first time doing seeds, and I had mixed results from trying to sow and transplant various different poppy seeds. Those that bloomed were incredible. Will they have cross-bred with each other? This is so exciting.

Coming to the end of this post I wonder: should I link to all the plant varieties I’ve mentioned? Quite often when I’m reading a Christopher Lloyd or similar I wish I could just right-click on the plant varieties and see a picture. But then I don’t want every post to just be full of links like some mad SEO farm. Let me know what you think.