Business as Usual

The blogging birthday celebrations and then the snow have recently got in the way of real gardening posts, of which I now have a backlog.

I had the usual mixed emotions arrival of a box from Hayloft Plants last week (ooh, exciting! now, what was it I ordered? grrr, now I have to go and plant up whatever they are ….)

Opening the package showed that I had ordered some phlox, which I must confess to having forgotten about. Every so often Hayloft email me and say ” buy 10 phlox for £10″ or penstemon or hellebores or something equally tempting, and I say “yes please, thank you very much, it’s a bargain”, which of course it is. The quality of their plants is always very good and they are good at replacements if anything dodgy arrives or if something fails to thrive. The phlox were no exception and came as healthy roots with a few green shoots already showing, 10 different paniculata varieties from the more common ‘Bright Eyes’ to new introductions ‘Purple Elite’ and ‘Ice Cream’.

It didn’t take long to write the labels and pot them up, and I have kept them in the greenhouse as there are already numerous trays of seedlings to fall over in the house, due to my continued taking advantage of the warmth being generated here. I am guessing the phlox should be OK despite the negative overnight temperatures outside, along with the recently sown peas and broad beans, and my first foray into dahlias.

It may be cold and snowy and windy outside, brrrr…… but inside it’s business as usual.