I Confess: I've Bought a Few Plants


Of course I completely ignored my own advice and have been merrily buying and ordering plants like I'm designing my garden from scratch rather than the odd border tweak here and there. The damage thus far:
  • The usual weekly trips to Franks Plants - luckily for me the choice and quality hasn't been as good as it used to be, so the temptation hasn't been too great and I've managed to keep to just the things I need for my summer pots
  • A trip to the absolutely enormous West Kington Nurseries last weekend - well they're local and it was for charity, so it would be churlish not to. I bought some very nice Cosmos 'Chocomocha' (meant to smell even more of chocolate), Papaver 'Patty's Plum, Helianthus 'Lemon Queen' and Dahlia 'Dark Star'
  • Some boxed plants on special offer from Homebase - Monarda 'Cambridge Scarlet', Echinacea purpurea and Echinops 'Blue Globe'
  • I can never resist the Parkers catalogue as the plants are so cheap. 12 Begonia 'Bonfire' arrived yesterday - Martyn Cox is to blame for this really as he posted a rather tasty picture of them recently - and some bare root roses arrived today along with the pictured Geraniums, which rather amused me: I'm imagining the plants ran the London Marathon last weekend or something to make them so tired*
On Friday I'm off to Malvern Show - I suspect some more plants may hop off the stands and into my arms whilst I'm not looking, don't you?
* = I think it actually means I might have got them free of charge as they did look rather tired and emotional when I potted them up

Comments

  1. Hermes2 May 2009 at 17:12

    I did the same in Frome this morning so can't criticise at all.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Gail2 May 2009 at 17:26

    Dear VP, It happens to the best of us...I ought not to be buying anything that needs to go into the ground with summer just a week or so away! Once the rains disappear and the high temps/humidy arrive we will be knee deep in summer. But, really, how could one expect us not to be tempted (and succumb) to the siren red call of those begonias or the pots of natives I have waiting to be planted! have fun at the Malvern Show! I'm off to a nursery right now! gail

    ReplyDelete
  3. Flighty2 May 2009 at 18:52

    Why am I not surprised as it's surely what any self-respecting gardener would do!
    Enjoy the Malvern Show! xx

    ReplyDelete
  4. emmat2 May 2009 at 19:10

    H ah ah ah ah ha

    best blogpost title for ages

    I made a new years resolution not to buy ANY MORE plants. I just felt like there were so many casualties last winter and that a lot of that was to do with me not taking care of things properly.

    Now i am dividing, sowing seeds and taking cuttings instead. AND getting round to finding space for all the plants i bought LAST summer (I'm ashamed to admit)

    However, due to the fact that i have made it through FOUR WHOLE MONTHS without buying any plants, I too this week succumbed to the parkers catalogue special offer and replaced my much loved success story from last summer, the datura. Of course because it was parkers, I got FOUR for the price of one down the actual garden centre. And twelve free fuchsias? They are nuts.

    PS i may also have accidentally ordered four dark leave cannas and a banana plant too.

    Still, four months into the year and only 9 plants bought is not so bad a record for me.

    Have fun at Malvern. I am vagley thinking of heading that way but will have to decide at the last minute. xxx

    ReplyDelete
  5. Joanne2 May 2009 at 19:15

    Have a lovely time at the Malvern show and take plenty of bags for those plants you did not mean to buy.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Rob (ourfrenchgarden)2 May 2009 at 20:16

    There is no cure!

    cheers
    Rob

    ReplyDelete
  7. Maggi2 May 2009 at 21:41

    Was going to go to Malvern on Thursday but work has changed so may go Friday - will confirm within a day or two - so hopefully could meet up. Hooray! May need to convince PD of the need to go, but then I can be very persuasive.

    I think that you have been very restrained on the plant front. Emmat must be bursting with frustration. I just can't aspire to that degree of self control. If plants are available to buy, I just can't help myself. I really should join Plantaholics anonymous, but then, there are worse things. Buying more plants only affects my bank balance (eek) and harms no one. And, of course, makes my miniscule portion of the planet more beautiful.

    Tricky WV today! tioughwr.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Aunt Debbi/kurts mom3 May 2009 at 03:32

    My deck is covered with plants that jumped into my hands and forced me to buy them. Now I need something to give me an equal urge to put them in the ground.

    ReplyDelete
  9. VP3 May 2009 at 08:37

    Hermes - I've heard so much about Frome market - must go there one of these days

    Gail - hope you had a great time at your nursery. A huge delivery of plants arrived yesterday, so I've been frantically potting up and planting out :) Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

    Flighty - thanks I will!

    Emmat - I'm amazed at your self restraint, but I see the lure of the Parkers catalogue soon sorted you out. I do hope you can make it to Malvern - looks like we'll be having a bit of a bloggers convention there!

    Joanne - Thank you. I'm taking a couple of people with me, so I think we'll need to establish some rules on how many bags each are allowed!

    Rob - you're right :0

    Maggi - it would be brilliant if you can come to Malvern on Friday - I need some advice from you on what to do with Nerys too!

    Debbi - how about inviting Nola round - there's nothing like impending guests to focus your activities ;)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anna3 May 2009 at 08:53

    Confession is good for the plant buying soul VP. What sacrifices you have been making ! I am saving my pennies for Malvern, but did come home with new two new plants after visiting a friend yesterday. Does that count ?

    ReplyDelete
  11. Elizabeth Musgrave3 May 2009 at 10:40

    I don't think it counts if you are given plants, only if you part with money. I can do really well for weeks and weeks and then find that a trip to the Dingle near Welshpool is just too much for me. It is lucky I don't live too close. Great blog.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Monica the Garden Faerie3 May 2009 at 13:35

    I may, possibly, have bout quite a few small perennials over the last few days as well, even though I don't really need them. Whenever I speak or teach I always tell my students what they should do (but it's not always what I in fact do, HA!).

    ReplyDelete
  13. Rose3 May 2009 at 13:51

    How could you not give a home to those geraniums and other homeless plants? Obviously, the geraniums were tired from trying to jump into people's carts:)

    It is the disease that afflicts all gardeners, so you are not alone, VP. Perhaps we should form a support group?
    I have resisted the urge so far only because it's been too wet here to plant anything, but today I have plans to visit my favorite garden center with my daughter-in-law. I'm going to be spending HER money as well as mine:)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Frances3 May 2009 at 15:18

    Hi VP, the tag on the geraniums is quite funny! Hope they turn out to be wonderful. We decided that seed starting was the way to get most of the new plant this year, and it is. But, I also decided to write down the name of every single purchase, date and where purchased on a seperate sheet, instead of embedded in the journal entries as usual. Already on page three, surprisingly. :-)
    Frances

    ReplyDelete
  15. HappyMouffetard3 May 2009 at 19:49

    You're doing the economy a favour VP - it's a selfless act!
    I've been quite good sof far this year (apart from the accidental double ordering of seed potatoes and jerusalem artichokes) but with malvern coming up, I may spend a few bright pennies. Have a great time there!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Scattered Gardener3 May 2009 at 21:34

    We spent an hour and a half at the local Wyevales on Friday looking for plug plants (smaller and cheaper). We also brought home lots of other plants! Trouble is, I forgot to buy the slow release fertiliser so I'm gonna have to return and who knows how I'll feed the addiction this week. It's just lucky that I had some other social engagements this weekend, or I could have been there every day...distraction is the only tactic I feel:-)

    ReplyDelete
  17. easygardener4 May 2009 at 14:34

    My plant buying this year is still in single figures though it has less to do with my restraint and more to do with not visiting any really good nurseries!
    This month Chelsea has the advantage of not allowing me any impulsive buys. I'm doing rather well so far(lol)

    ReplyDelete
  18. VP6 May 2009 at 16:09

    Anna - no, gifts don't count, nor do emergency Heuchera divisions after rescuing it from the dreaded vine weevil either.

    Elizabethm - thanks. I've always liked the look of Dingles when we pass it on the way to Tywyn. Perhaps I should leave NAH happily ensconced at the Welshpool and Llanfair railway the next time and nip over for a quick recce!

    Monica - that's the privilege of being the teacher and not the student!

    Rose - oooh spending other people's money for them. What a good way of satisfying all those plant aquiring urges without the need for manic planting afterwards. You're so wise!

    Frances - AliceAnastasia has left me a comment in Blotanical to say she loves G. Samobor. It has a very dark flower over dramatically splashed leaves, so I'm hopeful that at least one of them will pull through for my garden.

    HM - I knew there was a perfectly good reason for my buying habits. Have a great time at Malvern, though it's a pity we won't be there on the same day. You might bump into Frankie though!

    Scattered Gardener - you sound like you have the same kind of problems as me! ;)

    EG - well done. I'm glad someone's headed my warning! I'm a bit worried about Chelsea. I'm worried I might order lots of things, lose track of what I've ordered and then order some more.

    ReplyDelete

New comments are not allowed.

Your essential reads

That blue flower: A spring spotter's guide

Image
Spring is a prime time for blue flowers and my daily walks currently have several from the same plant family* lining the local footpaths. As I walked past the Donkey Field the other day, I overheard some children ask their parents** what the pictured blue flower was. It reminded me it's often mistaken for those other familial blues and this time was no different, as they said it was forget-me-not, instead of the green alkanet it actually is. As well as similar flowers, most of these plants are hairy in their nature, flower around the same time, and favour damp, shady places. Many of them are great for pollinators too, especially bees and this week's warm weather has certainly drawn them to these flowers. This makes it even more likely for these plants to be mistaken for each other and it's a great opportunity for me to put together a spotter's guide in case you find the same flowers on your outings. Staying with green alkanet, the key features which set it
Read more

Jack Go To Bed At Noon

Image
Last year this rather exotic looking flower appeared on mine and several other allotments for the first time. Having been stumped (again) by Mr Allotment Warden as to its identity, I rushed home to find out what it was. It's salsify, aka the marvellous Jack Go To Bed At Noon - named as such because its flowers always close by midday. Here you can see both open and closed flowers - making it seem even more exotic and alien than in the first picture. I think this must be the cultivated version because the flower in my Francis Rose Wild Flower Key looks exactly the same in form, but is bright yellow in colour and called meadow salsify . Its other common name is Goatsbeard, which must be a nod to the fantastic dandelion-like clock which forms the seed head. With 'parachutes' like those shown above, who knows how far our plotted plants came from. I rather like the photographic dissection of the seedhead found in this link . Salsify is edible: its lateral shoots and fl
Read more

Red Nose Day - Gardening Jokes Anyone?

Image
The nation goes ever so slightly bonkers on Red Nose Day - hurrah! Previously, it's been very easy to join in - usually via a dress down day at work plus lots of people up to mad things at the station and in the office. Everyone smiling for once - it's a real feel good day and all in a good cause. This year's different - every day's a dress down day for me now - my friend L suggested yesterday that perhaps I could have a dress up day instead and whilst that's a good idea, I confess that ballgowns and tiaras don't really feature in my wardrobe: scruffy student's always been my favourite look. So my Red Nose Day contribution for this year is to compile a list of gardening related jokes. For each one (clean ones only please) you leave in the comments below, I'll make a donation of 50p to the cause. Here's a few for starters just to get you warmed up: Q Why do potatoes make good detectives? A Because they keep their eyes peeled. Q What did the grape
Read more

Salad Days: Mastering Lettuce

Image
I've decided one of my salad challenges for this year is to grow as many lettuce varieties as I can, ready for the publication of my planned Factsheet* later on. The idea is to grow as many of the Tried and Trusted lettuce varieties last year's Salad Challengers helped compile, then provide a visual guide and as many lettuce facts as I can muster. So far I've found around half of those listed**. Then naturally whilst I was out searching - because such is the way with seeds - a number of other varieties found their way home too ;) A couple of weeks ago I sowed 22 varieties***. Just the simple act of sowing them has me intrigued. Why are some lettuce seeds black and others white****? They split into about half white to half black in my sample and as far as I can tell it's nothing to do with whether they're a type of cos, iceberg, or whatever. I sowed them indoors and popped them into a propagator on the windowsill. The soil's too cold outside for sowing
Read more

VPs VIPs: Derry Watkins of Special Plants

Image
Last week I had the pleasure of visiting Derry Watkins at her home, garden and nursery - the acclaimed Special Plants - just a few miles along the road from me. I first met Derry at one of her open garden days last year and was keen to find out more about her wonderful garden and running an independent nursery. She specialises in tender perennials and regularly goes on plant hunting trips to find new treasures, particularly in South Africa. As well as running Special Plants and opening her garden under the NGS scheme , Derry holds day courses at her nursery, hosts Special Tuesdays from April until September, lectures and has written a couple of books. How did you find your way from Connecticut to the UK? I'd started a biodynamic vegetable garden in Connecticut and we used to have people come along at weekends to help out. A particular young man turned up: he returned many times and at the end of the summer I married him. So it was all down to love? Isn't that the
Read more

#mygardenrightnow: heading into summer with the Chelsea Fringe

Image
Ahhhhhh, that's better! I love walking through dewy grass in bare feet, not that there's much in the way of grass on my back lawn this weekend. My wild and woolly lawn has morphed into meadow of sorts this month, which even NAH admits looks attractive*. It's also proved a great source for my Flowers for mum project so far, yielding self-sown perennial cornflowers, lamb's ears, and lemon balm in addition to the blooms you can see. These originated from elsewhere in the garden, the ox-eye daisies must have blown in from the A350 nearby. * = he got very stroppy about the weeds aka self-sown foxgloves in the lawn one year, so he's come along a bit since then. Skimble's demanding to say hello to you too. He does enjoy the patio when it warms up. If the embedded video doesn't work try this link instead. The Nectaroscordum are a revelation. I planted the bulbs around 2 years ago, but it's only this year they've bloomed properly. The bee
Read more

The Resilient Garden

Image
  Part of Tom Massey's Resilient Garden at RHS Hampton Court I've been pondering VP Gardens a lot lately. Last year's drought conditions set me off initially, then our harsher than usual winter combined with this summer's flip and flop weather means the thinking continues. It's a huge topic which I freely admit I'm struggling to get my head around. Tom Massey's Resilient Garden  at Hampton Court recently  tackled this topic brilliantly and was a timely interlude which gave me much food for thought. There he encapsulated the detailed research he'd found which informed both his show garden and book of the same name. I think it's one of the most important show gardens I've ever seen. It's clear the way I garden needs to change so that I have my own resilient garden. I haven't worked out the exact details yet, but Tom's book plus a couple of others (see below), alongside the rainwater management handout from the show garden's  sponso
Read more

Testing Times: Tomatoes

Image
  I've run a couple of tomato trials this year. The first is a revisit of the biochar trial with Oxford University I attempted some years ago (with a different organisation this time), and the second is a trial of a water gadget called Plantsurge which I was given to try at Malvern Spring Show earlier this year. Most of you have probably heard of biochar already and the claim that this inert, carbon-rich material can help soil fertility and plant health. The RHS information in the above link says results can be mixed, with reduced effects found in alkaline soils. This may help to explain the lack of difference I found in my previous trial as VP Gardens is on a lime-rich soil. Plantsurge is a different beast altogether. It's a strong magnet which is attached to a hosepipe as shown in the photo above. It's claimed that it softens water, with the result more like watering with rainwater. The higher nitrogen found in rainwater is thought to be beneficial to plants. Gardener
Read more

Chelsea Fringe 2014: Shows of Hands - Episode I

Image
The gloves NAH used to build the raised bed . The effects are L to R, top to bottom:  Original photo, Warhol, HDR, Green tint, B&W, Posterize, Boost, Cross process and Sepia Welcome to Shows of Hands - my Chelsea Fringe project for 2014! As you can see I've been having a bit of a play around in Pic Monkey for my first contribution. You're welcome to join in between now and 8th June 2014. The idea behind this year's project is to highlight the tool most precious to a gardener: their hands. How do I take part? It's simple. All you need to do is take a photo of hand(s) in a gardening context and then share it via your blog or other social media (such as Twitter or Facebook), then make sure I know you've done so. I've set up Mr Linky below for your blog contributions. The Chelsea Fringe photo on the right sidebar links to this post, so you can easily find it again when you're ready to add your contribution. If you share your photo on Twitter,
Read more

Make Use of Mildew

Image
On my garden patrol this morning I spotted some powdery mildew on a couple of my new Verbena bonariensis plants. I suppose it was almost inevitable as I prefer to grow my plants hard - this means no water for them unless they look absolutely desperate. This approach means plants root themselves more deeply and have a better chance of survival during spells of dry weather like we've had lately. However, it also means I run the risk of problems like today's, especially with any garden newbies planted late in the season. We've had a good drop of rain overnight, so this should help my plants survive. I'll mulch them later today to help lock in the moisture as it's water stress which encourages the mildew to take hold. I've also removed the infected leaves and sprayed the rest with a milky drink.* I'm also pleased to find there's a use for my infected leaves. Oliver Ellingham at Reading University has started a PhD - sponsored by the RHS - researchi
Read more