first frost, not many killed

There was a very light frost, just the merest dusting of silver on the grass.  The dahlias haven't blackened and collapsed, so it couldn't have been very cold.  Their last flowers are rather poignant.  Winter is going to get you, flowers, any day soon.

My bare root plants arrived from Mr Fothergill.  Back in early September I succumbed to temptation, and ordered a few things from their plant catalogue.  Who could resist purple flowered Iberis sempervirens?  They came as plug plants in the middle of last month, and were potted into 3 inch pots (that must equate to something in metric terms except that I think of it as a 3 inch pot, as probably do all other gardeners).  I checked this morning, and a few roots were showing through the drainage holes, so they've made it out of their mesh bags.  Today's delivery was a box of three Geranium sanguineum in a new (for G. sanguineum) purple colour break, and three white oriental poppies that promise a second repeat flowering in summer, after the traditional spring one.  All of these are destined for the front garden, on the light sand, where G. sanguineum seeds itself with great determination, and I am so grateful that anything wants to grow in the sand that I let it.

The bare root plants were packed in bags, with almost every scrap of soil washed off them, and looked alarmingly small, if you weren't used to that sort of thing.  They were the same size as the ones we get at work, and I treated them the same way, putting them straight into 2L pots.  They should have formed a potful of roots by early next summer.  My conscience impelled me to get peat free compost, the last time I bought any, and I'm still getting the feel of it.  It has the knack of looking dry on top, while the pots are still heavy when hefted, and I can see that accidental overwatering could be an issue.  (I like 'the pots are still heavy when hefted'.  It sounds like a translation from a gardening version of Beowulf).

Still to come are the frost proof gazanias, though I think I'll pot those too, and plant them outside after the winter.  Gazania are almost frost resistant, as I found a couple of survivors yesterday when I was weeding the gravel by the entrance, that were planted last year.  One even had a flower on it, better late than never.  I also found what were definitely seedlings of Morina longifolia, that strange plant with scallop edged bristly leaves and whorls of pink flowers.  Next year I'll add some Puya to the mix, which are currently growing in the greenhouse and taking up rather a lot of space after a seed packet gave a good rate of germination.  I ought to try selling them on e-bay, but shrink from the hassle of packing and posting.  How exactly do you package a rosette forming semi-succulent, armed with backwards facing spines designed to trap sheep, so that the plant can live on the juices when the unfortunate animal expires in its clutches?  That sounds almost as much as trouble as dealing with irate e-bay customers, whose parcels have been lost or taken hostage for the weekend in a warehouse twenty five miles from their house, by some delivery company.