It’s lovely how one phone call can lift the spirits. Friday was the coldest day of the year for my garden and I was thinking about presenting a six shades of brown. There were some truly great contenders but in the blink of phone screen my mind set changed and some colours came into focus.
One
Shouting most loudly to be included this week is the lovely hellebore double ‘Pretty Ellen’. Even with the downward aspect of the flowers the colour gives a warming glow to a shady corner of the garden. I think I should have more of these and so I shall look into how to propagate them. I imagine it will be a slow process.
Two
The viburnums in the back garden are fairing rather better than those in the front garden. One is a large and oldish looking tree which has the pinker flower and the other is a smaller tree with more consistently white flowers. Both are much loved by viburnum beetle – which I’ve never seen, just the holey evidence of their presence.
Three
It may be cold out there but the rosemary bush has a gentle dusting of pretty purple flowers.
Four
The iberis sempervirens that covers the rocky wall of the north facing border is also beginning to flower.
Five
The leaves of Arum italicum looking beautifully glossy and untroubled by slugs. I read that these combine well with snowdrops. My snowdrops are being very shy this year. It looks like I may have lost some which is very careless of me. I think it will be another week before a snowdrop picture graces one of my posts.
Six
The last of my six gives the clue to my delightful phone call. Last weekend I tackled a good part of the cutting that back that was needed. Roses were pruned, geraniums and alchemilla mollis cut back and the builder’s bag that is serving as my temporary compost heap was overflowing. I was longing for the day when the brick structure would be demolished. I pushed over a few of the less stable bricks and poked and prodded the rest. Hurrah, no more waiting. My delightful builder has two free days and will arrive next week with an array of suitably destructive tools and a skip. I will spend the weekend ferreting out all the debris that accumulates in the garden and down the side of the shed. All will be well with the world.
For more stories from gardens around the world go to the links on The Propagator site. Now there’s a man who loves his compost!
