21° C today! You just don’t know what to expect, weather wise, these days in Scotland. I have been working hard the last couple of days to get all the plants watered and fed. Some of the hellebores are past their best and I have been dead-heading them regularly in the hope of more flowers. I have trays of plants to get ready for sale (at the Duddingston Kirk garden club plant sale on May 4th) getting hardened off. A lot of taking the trays out during the day, then bringing them back in at night, just in case of frost. Lots of weeding and moving pots around. The pots with bulbs, that have gone over, are now on the back steps until their foliage dies back. After that, the bulbs will get dried and stored. I am being ruthless, and anything that didn’t do well in the last couple of years is for the heave-ho. On my rounds around the garden I took a few snaps of some of the plants in flower at the moment. I am pleased to say, that after watching Gardeners’ world last night, that I have many of the shade loving plants that Carol Klein was enthusing about so I must be doing something right.
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| Fritillaria meleagris |
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| Cymbalaria muralis (ivy leaved toadflax) |
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| snails on the wall looking like a caterpillar |
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| Oxalis acetosella (wood sorrel) |
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| Dicentra formosa Bacchanal (bleeding heart) |
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| Polemonium reptans (Jacob’s ladder) |
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| Violet riviana (dog-violet) |
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| apple blossom (forget which type) |
And in the conservatory: the cyclamen will soon be over, but the cacti, ferns, and sempervivums will take over from them, as will the herbs. Meanwhile in the corner, the streptocarpus has started flowering, and different forms of foliage placed next to each other adds interest and texture.
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| Pellaea rotundifolia (button fern) |
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| Streptocarpus saxorum |
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| Streptocarpus saxorum |
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| Streptocarpus with button fern and Beaucarnea recurvata (ponytail plant) |
