Relentless

Six on Saturday is a weekly diary hosted by The Propagator & contributed to by gardeners all over the world.  For links to other SoS blogs, check out Mr P's comments & the Twitter hashtag, #SixOnSaturday.

Shed felt.

The rain & wind've been relentless, with more happening today.

The whole world's now a quagmire, meaning Mlle DoodleFace (aka Mud Puppy) needs a daily bath.  Because of the weather, said bath happens indoors. 😱

The shed felt meant to replace the roofing lost pre-Ciara, sits by the back door.  Plants I'd hoped to've hardened off, are still inside.

Myself, I went from cabin fever to cabin despair after the hyacinth saga took an unexpected turn.



1.  Alas, poor Memory, I knew her well.

Recap => mystery blooms appeared in my pots a coupla weeks ago, both white & blue.  They looked like hyacinth, which I've never had in those colours.  The narcissus Thalia in the same pots hadn't made a showing, so I concluded there'd been an order mix-up until Mr P said his Thalia weren't evident either.

Then the 'hyacinth' opened into Russian snowdrops . . .

 . . . that had been purchased in the green & planted 3 short weeks ago.  Granted, they were more yellow than green at the time, but considering there are only 3 types of plants in these pots, one would think I'd've remembered them.

It's rare for me to feel disheartened, but rather than seeing any humour in this, I felt like the world's dumbest SoS-er.

Today, I feel there are worse things than not being good at what you enjoy.


2.  Peas, peas, peas.

I can't remember which storm thwarted my plans to harden off the sweet peas, but they've now grown into flimsy 8" stems, even after being nipped.

Sweet peas.

The edible peas'd been staggered to follow their sweet cousins in a week or so, but outgrew their tray instead.

Last week, Wild Parenting talked about planting in tins, so the edible peas got transferred into our ubiquitous pet food cans.  I juggled things in the potting shed, bringing in folding chairs for more surfaces, & now all peas, edible & sweet, are in the shed.

Edible peas.

Please God, the storms'll give me a week or 2 to get the peas out.


3.  Choco mint pellie blossom.

This pellie got featured here a fortnight ago when it came into bud for the first time ever.

My camera doesn't produce reds or pinks well w/o manual adjustments (which I haven't a clue how to do), but this bloom is bergenia pink.  The benefit to the colour being washed out in this photo, however, is that the markings show up better.  The pellie itself has become monstrous because I didn't cut it back last autumn.  I need to get a plan for it eventually, but at the moment, it's covered in buds


4.  Grape hyacinth.

The first grape hyacinth has arrived, only the one so far.

My neighbour's are guns a-blazing.

This planter stays in bloom nearly all year, self seeded nigella taking over next, then calendula in turn.


5.  Akebia.

My chocolate vine is in bud, some of which are nearly open.

This seems early to me.  What do the rest of you say?


6.  Clamour of Clematis.

I'm on a mission to get climbers up all the brick walls in the garden, hoping to cool it down in the summer.  Rambling in the Garden mentioned last week that Thorncroft Clematis had a lucky dip deal on vines that've lost their labels.  I got 3 for the price that one labelled clematis would've been.  The nursery sent suggestions as to what they thought the vines might be - all pretty stunning.

Like Mlle DoodleFace, they must languish inside until the current storm passes over.

That's me done talking for this week.

Thanks for stopping by.  Hope to see you again, soon.