There wasn't much watering to do after all the rain, but I checked inside the tunnels and found a few dry things. Then it was on to tidying up the herbaceous section for the rest of the day. At this time of year that means lining things back up in neat rows in alphabetical order, removing the odd weed, and some deadheading. It is quite gratifying, producing organisation and neatness from a slightly fuzzy muddle of plants.
Some pots of bulbs labelled 'Alba' had all come up with one blue plant among the white, so they went on one side for the manager to have a look at. Viola 'Irish Molly' had greenfly, so that was another note, and some of the hellebores had gone mouldy in the base. This is a problem I've had occasionally at home, and it can kill the plant by degrees, as one leaf or stem and then another goes soft at the bottom, keels over and dies. Helleborus x hybridus seems much more resistant than some of the others. I had to take a couple of 'Ivory Prince' off sale, plus plants of H. x sternii, H. x ericsmithii and 'Silver Dollar'. In the garden I have found H. x ericsmithii a superb and reliable grower, but it can get very sad in a pot.
I helped some customers find particular plants they were looking for, and they were all so happy and grateful, it was quite touching. I know that it can be difficult to find help in shops nowadays, but it still isn't that rare. The last time I was in Tesco, looking for amaretti biscuits, a member of staff looked them up on the computer for me and pointed out the shelf where they were, among the biscuits, where I had looked straight through them. Mind you, that is partly Tesco's fault for moving things around, since they used to be on the top shelf, the last time I bought them, and had shifted down to knee height, one shelf from the bottom.
The only customer not to be happy and grateful was the one who came in holding two flowers for identification. One was Gladiolus byzantinus, and she wasn't happy because we didn't have it, while the other was some kind of mauve flowered Centaurea (I told you they were the new thing at Chelsea), and instead of being at least mildly impressed that we could tell her instantly that it was a Centaurea, she was huffy because I couldn't guarantee exactly which variety it was.
The trouble with going away for the weekend and then in to work on Monday is that there is nothing to make into a packed lunch. No bread or rolls, or fruit, or small tomatoes of the size that can be eaten in one mouthful. I had to make do with a pack of oatcakes and a lump of cheddar, (which at least helps us avoid any more wasted cheese. It was a pleasant, quite strong cheddar from the farm shop, which had started to go mouldy in the fridge along one face only, making me think it might have been cut with a knife that had previously been used for a blue cheese. I discovered it in the cheese drawer when I was cleaning the fridge for our housesitter, and cut off the blue bits and put it in a fresh bag, which seems to have done the trick in halting the rot).
The housesitter says it was fun, and as well as watering the pots gave the Systems Administrator's MGB a wash, because it made him sad to see it dirty, and has now offered to help with a spring service, if required. As it needs to get through its MOT and he has just started work at a classic car specialist garage that is an extremely kind offer that could be very useful. I think of him, and the young lad that had the gumption to take the initiative over the misplaced wedding suits, and conclude that the middle aged shouldn't get too sniffy about the youth of today. Many of them are every bit as nice and as sensible and responsible as we believe that we all were, when we were young.
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