My Gardening View #24

As we head out of January, my gardening view is one filled with signs of spring. The first bulbs are in flower and I’ve started sowing seeds.

Of all the things I buy for the garden, money spent on early plants has the greatest effect. There’s nothing quite like pops of colour in the grey days of January to lift spirits.

I’ve had this early daff in flower for weeks now and it really packs a punch. That bright yellow stands out even more when most of the other January performers are mainly pinks, purples and white. Do I like daffodils in January? I’m not sure.

Somehow, it doesn’t seem to sit comfortably against the snowdrops and hellebores. It’s also a far larger flower and more strident yellow than I usually plant – I prefer pale daffs and those with dainty flowers – but I wanted to try it. Still, there’s no denying the sunny yellow has been welcome in what’s been a very overcast month.

There are more hellebores opening all the time and I’ve taken to carrying out a daily border inspection to see what’s joined the display. I’ve also spotted a few gaps that would be perfect for a hellebore – a trip to a nursery may be made.

What I do need is more cyclamen. I bought some last year but nowhere near enough. The garden has lots of Cyclamen hederifolium, the autumn flowering cyclamen, that I raised from seed a collector gave me some years ago and their marbled leaves are a lovely backdrop to the snowdrops. More of the spring Cyclamen coum is definitely needed and now is a good time to buy when you can see the colour of their flowers.

I spotted the first crocus with some relief as the resident squirrel loves eating them. So far, only one of the ‘Orange Monarch’ I planted in the autumn has appeared – I’m hoping the rest have survived. There are a couple of ‘Firerfly’ under the apple tree and lots more shoots throughout the garden.

The snowdrops have been in flower since just before Christmas with ‘Colussus’ and ‘Mrs Macnamara’ sharing the first to flower title this year. They’ve now been joined by ‘Lord Lieutenant’, ‘James Backhouse’ and ‘Comet’ among others.

Last autumn, I split some of the snowdrop clumps and potted up a few bulbs in pots. I’m so glad I did as they’ve made a really good display by the front door. It also makes photographing individual flowers easier!

The raised bed in the new greenhouse was planted up with parsley, lamb’s lettuce and winter lettuce last autumn with mixed success. The parsley – flat leaf and curly – is thriving but there’s been a lot of problems with botrytis with the lettuces. I think I planted them too close together – a lesson learned.

The other greenhouse is kept frost-free and is also where the propagators are. So far, I’ve sown only chillies, aubergines and sweet peas – about three weeks later than usual as work got in the way. Already, the first sweet pea shoots are showing. They’ll soon need moving out of the propagator to somewhere cooler and away from hungry mice.

Despite all the signs of spring, I know February can often be the coldest month and snow isn’t unusual. Me and the primrose, which has foolishly started to flower now, are hoping that doesn’t happen.

You can read more about my gardening view here.

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