Six on Saturday: Having a Ball

Having been forecast a damp day yesterday, it was a pleasant surprise to find the rain held off till mid-afternoon, leaving just grey skies for the day out we had planned. My order of bulbs from Peter Nyssen had arrived a couple of weeks previously and as the order is shared with a number of friends I have been making sure they were distributed as quickly as possible. One friend lives about 45 minutes drive away and as driving is increasingly difficult for them we decided to have a ‘day out’ and combine the bulb drop-off with a couple of visits. It seems such a long time since we have enjoyed such an activity and although there were still Covid-19 restraints to work around we enjoyed our visits to Bolsover Castle and Felley Priory. We have visited the latter before, but in snowdrop season, so it looked very different this time with the main borders still full of colour. I will try and post some photos in due course, but in the meantime readily admit to snapping up some very choice hellebores from their nursery, including the extremely attractive ‘Anja Oudolf’ – promoted at 2 for £20, I went to pay for two of them and was told they were just about to change this to 3 for £25, so of course I chose a third one as well…rude not to!!

Having escaped with just a few mm of rain yesterday, it seemed unlikely we would avoid the 24 hours of rain forecast for today, although at least it has only been persistent light rain, rather than the expected heavy showers – light, but still wet! Wet weather jobs were definitely recommended, and although I briefly considered planting the new hellebores, the few minutes spent planting out Uncinia rubra plug plants alongside the new ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ roses proved it wise to err on the side of caution and leave them for another (drier) day.

In the shelter of the greenhouse I potted on some Bellis perennis plugs, which will be added to pots once planted with tulips. Although a few flowers are already appearing on some of the plugs, as a whole they will flower over a very long period, some even continuing to provide extra colour in summer pots until the later plantings get established. Such a pretty plant, and such great value.

Also in the greenhouse I inspected the latest cuttings in the hydroponic propagator – it still astonishes me how quickly some of them root, just a few days for some of the salvias. I have avoided going overboard on cuttings in case garden openings are still limited next year, and I don’t want to be left with pots and pots of extra plants to keep watering if they are unlikely to be sold.

As the tomato plants in the greenhouse get closer to being removed, having a good clear out and tidy up would be a sensible activity before winter comes. As many pots as possible have been moved outside in recent weeks but, conversely, existing pots of young penstemon and salvias will need to be brought inside for protection. And it’s nearly time to sow the Winter Sunshine sweet peas which bring early pleasure and fragrance from April onwards:

The post title suggests I am having a ball – and indeed I am, as this ball is the start of another project – if my plan works that is, which it may not. Otherwise it will require the as yet unidentified Plan B…

So that’s my Wet Weather Six on Saturday, the meme hosted by Jon the Propagator who invites us to share six photos from our garden each Saturday, and posted through gritted teeth by means of the new WordPress ‘block editor’ which suddenly became the only means of posting, the old ‘classic editor’ now unavailable to those of us with a ‘wordpress.com’ blog. Alas and alack…