We did intend to get out and dig for England over the autumn. I got help for the some of the hard digging and created a new bed at the back of the garden. We could have lots of climbing roses there, I thought. We set off in earnest to the fancy garden centre and before long we had a trolley loaded with bulbs of all sorts, as well as the sedum have been looking for. At the till, we realised that that we had nearly 200 bulbs of narcissi and tulips, but no coherent planting scheme. That plus a time-starved week ahead and we decided to we put all the bulbs back on the shelves with a plan to return the next weekend when we knew which bulbs we needed. Next weekend never came and eventually we missed yet another November with no new bulbs. A right disgrace. Anyway, I can at least share that Spring-Summer 2012 is going to see lots of tulips of the Parrot variety, not in our garden though, but most certainly in a lot of gardens up and down the country.
The last new addition to our garden were six beautiful sedum with pink blossoms. We just about managed to plant them between days of blustery weather and very wet soil. Sedum are winter hardy and provide a carpet of ground cover, just what we need to fill up the gaps in our front bed. We did pick three bare root roses from David Austin, but they too remained potted over the winter - cannot be a good thing, but hopefully not a crime.
On a more cheerful note, the warmer than usual November meant that the oriental poppies continued to grow and both plants appear to have established well.
We also bought some cyclamen at the garden centre at a deeply discounted price and the label said it would not last the week. A little TLC, a large pot, indoor placement and a whole month later, the cyclamen are thriving and bringing fabulous colour against the bleak hues of winter.
Earlier on we had a sunflower bloom from a seed past its expiry date, well, a year or so past its expiry date. Should try my luck with the other seeds next year.
Last night we brought our geraniums indoors at 1.00 am, just before the next major frost. They continued their display well into December, probably confused by the warmer winter as the poppies were.
Signing off for the year now, with a lot of promises and
plans for the next year. Hope the birds will be fine over the winter.
Certain types of plants, the poppy included, have a mechanism called nyctinasty, that allows them to open during the day and close at night. Scientists know how this occurs, but are not entirely sure why. Flowers and plants have their own circadian rhythm that allows this opening and closing. Experiments have shown how flowers and plants can open and close in complete darkness with change in light, temperature or other external stimulus.
