First frog spawn seen this year

Ideally I should cut these back and remove the cat protection to reveal the glorious bulbs underneath, but of course there aren’t any because when they should have been planted the nepeta were in full song. Solution: raise bulbs in pots and plant these out now? Supermarket bulbs in pots are not really big enough, but they may be better than nothing this year.

9 Feb 18

I planted 6 sprouting plants each of ‘Tête-à-tête’, ‘Minnow’ and ‘Jetfire’ from Homebase. Each plant consisted of at least two bulbs. Also some dwarf viola bedding.

30 Mch 18

Very good result, particularly considering all the frost and snow we’ve had this year.

The snowdrops I planted in the green last spring are small but healthy. These positions, especially under the hydrangea, should be suitable for some time. I should choose a few more spaces which I’m going to retain for spring bulbs and add some more snowdrops there.

All the lower leaves fell off cleanly, leaving these two. They look slightly odd, but they seem to be healthy and are not shading the bulbs beneath, so I’ll try leaving them

Pair of adult frogs seen for the first time this year. Sunny, but still quite cool.

Phyllostachys aureosulcata from Homebase in large Sankey ‘Smithy’ plastic pot. (Large version of the pots I use for Brugmansias). Label claimed it had AGM, but RHS said this only applies to the spectabilis form which my plant may or may not be. Anyway, it looks great.

1 Feb 18

It seems to be standing up well to the high winds we’ve been having recently

8 narcissus ‘Dutch Master’ and 10 narcissus ‘King Alfred’ planted in the middle of B2. Very late, but hopefully better than not at all.

I want something fastigiate that will grow in a big tub. The site gets the sun for the second half of the day, but is exposed to the occasional strong wind. Unfortunately, the car is nearly always there when I am at home.

15 Dec 17

I chose a plant of Phyllostachys aureosulcata

and planted it in a 50cm cylindrical plastic pot, which will hopefully keep it upright in the wind.

Yes, I know they won’t last.

33 narcissus ‘Tresamble’ planted here. The day lily leaves will be gone by spring