Learning together
A postcard arrived this week which made me smile.
news from the spiderplant…
On the other side of the card is a photograph of a very happy looking curly spiderplant with many many babies. It wasn’t the only feedback this week. I spotted a post on Instagram of a very happy looking Sophie with an armful of the most beautiful dahlias…saying “can a girl have too many flowers?!” The answer is obviously no but what I also loved was her comment:
“This little creamy dahlia in the second pic is my first year seedling success and is flowering like mad. Last September I collected dahlia seeds after listening to Philippa @justdahlias on @ourplantstories_podcast, sowed them in Spring and now I’ve got even more dahlias….”
Here are the two episodes with Philippa about dahlias:
You do realise that this is how it all started for Philippa, and now she has a whole field of dahlias!
And then there was another Instagram post from Bridget of two different but equally beautiful passionflowers and she said:
“Well this is very exciting, finally after three years and various garden issues I finally have passionflowers back in my garden! Betty Myles Young and Snow Queen are now climbing around my shed and hopefully they’ll be very happy. Many many thanks to @riverside_passiflora for the advice and @ourplantstories_podcast for arranging such a fascinating conversation.” (Here’s the conversation if you want to try passionflowers next year.)
It is so so lovely to read about your successes. I have always wanted the podcast to be somewhere we can learn from others who are passionate about plants and happy to share that passion and knowledge. If you have been inspired by an episode do tell me.
I have just been ordering bulbs from an AMAZING catalogue. I was given it when I was curious about daffodils so went to record an Offshoot at Taylors Bulbs back in July.
This is the link to the catalogue online. (With free p&p) I have just ordered ‘Jenny’, a daffodil I first spotted at Great Dixter, several years ago but have never been able to find. The catalogue is full of such treasures but if you are thinking of ordering, I suggest you take a look this weekend because several of the collections and some of the bulbs are already sold out, though I still found plenty to order! But even then, I think my selection was influenced by conversations I have had on the podcast. Anne from Natural Surroundings reminded us that we need to try and have something in bloom at all seasons so I ordered some crocus - Ruby Giant (tommasinianus) that will bloom in Feb. I was thinking of the advice of Emma, who cares for a National Snowdrop collection, when I ordered some galanthus, picking some elwesii and some woronowii.
If you want more ideas for plants that will attract wildlife to your garden next year, then do listen to the Offshoot episode on Tuesday, with Anne as she gives us a tour around some of her 22 small gardens in Norfolk, naming some of her favourite plants. I’ll put a list on the episode page with some photographs from my visit.
In other news, we have sown a wildflower meadow in Finsbury Park, beside the Museum of Homelessness garden. I think we all concluded that it was a lot more work than perhaps anticipated but as Jess said, the thing about community, is the right person always seems to come along just when you need them.
the new meadow
In our case it was definitely Lee. A self-confessioned perfectionist, he got us to scarify and rake the entire patch, measure out with strings the 2 x 2 metre squares, and calculate the correct amount of seed for the squares. We combined that with some of the strewings gifted from the Inner Temple. Then the whole area was, once it had been watered, netted and pegged and secured with bricks. This seed is out of bounds to pigeons and squirrels! Lots of people stopped as they passed to ask us what we were doing and to talk about how they like how the garden is looking. So now we wait and see what comes up in the spring. I’ll keep you posted.
You are always learning with gardening, for me that is the fun part.
Have a lovely weekend
Sally
x
ps: I can see I have put a lot of links in this post but hey if you want to collect dahlia seeds or plant passionflowers or want to be reminded about daffodils or snowdrops as you are ordering them, then you might want to re-listen.