Now that the Systems Administrator has finished clearing the posts from by the blue shed I thought I could get on with planting the small boxes, but before I could do that I had to fill the holes left by the postcrete and level the ground. I also had a collection of Agapanthus and a large pot of Amaryllis belladonna to plant out that weren't flowering well enough in their pots to justify their space over the winter in the greenhouse, and had thought that the surplus soil from digging the holes for them would usefully fill the post holes. And it seemed sensible to finish cutting the hedge in that corner before planting the boxes, since they are so tiny it would be easy to crush them while hedge cutting with one misplaced foot.
The Agapanthus were all hardy varieties. There was A. mooreanus, A. inapertus, a 'Loch Inch', one I picked out from a mixed batch because it was a particularly good shade of dark blue, and one pot simply labelled White. As a general rule of thumb, Agapanthus with narrow leaves that die down completely in the winter are relatively hardy, while those with broad evergreen leaves are more tender, or at any rate, the leaves will not withstand frost and the loss of its leaves weakens the plant. The A. inapertus threw me in that its narrow grassy leaves were semi-evergreen. I resorted to checking on the internet to see if I could expect it to survive UK winters planted outdoors and decided to go with Avon Bulbs' verdict that I probably could.
Note the use of the word 'planted'. Asking a plant to overwinter outside when its roots are safely tucked away underground, and you can heap some extra mulch on top if necessary, is quite different to leaving it outside in a pot, where the entire root system is liable to freeze solid in a sharp frost. I realised this after I'd evicted the collection of pots from the greenhouse when something (probably another bout of the cold) put a temporary stop to planting, and the Agapanthus spent several weeks living in the porch. It's lucky that the postman is good natured about picking his way round flowerpots and deckchairs to get to the letterbox.
Planting the Agapanthus brought it home to me how there were patches of weeds in the Italian garden in the turning circle, including around some Anemone pavonina which are flowering now and deserve to be given the space to show off, so I spent some time weeding the gravel. I got the anemones from the Chatto nursery after admiring them in her gravel garden, though that planting had a preponderance of bright red, and the colours I really like are the pinks and creams. For this reason I only want to buy them in person and when they are in bloom and I can see what I'm getting. I only remember buying three, but now have four so either I bought an extra odd one and forgot about it or they have succeeded in seeding themselves very mildly. I have tried saving my own seed and growing more, but nothing happened, or rather all that happened was that the seeds went spectacularly mouldy. My few plants have been growing happily for several years now, and I am very tempted to invest in some more, if there are any pink or cream ones to be had (note the use of the word 'invest'. Money spent on long-lived plants does not count as consumption, it is an investment).
So by the end of the day I'd done some weeding, dug several holes, moved some earth and some concrete lumps and wooden posts, cut bits out of the hedge (rather too late in the season), moved the bits, scooped up some fallen leaves, got decoyed into weeding the beach garden in front of the blue shed because it looked so weedy and I was there with a kneeling mat, a hand fork and a bucket, and planted out some Agapanthus and Amaryllis. But not actually planted any of the small boxes.
No comments:
Post a Comment