Incorporating conifers into a bed

Friday 14th December 2012
Weather: 7°C in the morning. Torrential rain and wind for most of the day from 9am. Thankfully when it rains it's less cold and when it's really cold it's more likely to be dry.

We are still planting the last of our bulbs, we did as much as we could in the High Garden before the rain kicked in and it got too wet to be working on the ground. Big clumps of Aralia californica were lifted as they got  a bit lost where it was positioned, and have to decide where better to put it in the landscape. In that place a couple of conifers were planted instead. Fergus wants to give this area more of a zing. We are hoping that the comfrey there is the - Symphytum ibericum 'All Gold'. I lifted up big clumps of phloxes, disturbing their roots as less as possible, and some of these were planted in that area (about five). I then split the rest and spread it out in the bed that I dug it out from as extra stock for us and the nursery.

Then we resided to the nursery, pricking out some Ferula tingitana 'Cedric Morris' and potted up some Phygelius sp. (the shrub that has flowers that looks like pink balloons wrapped around a tube before if comes out fully). The fennel were still a bit tender and some were still germinating, so we only pricked out some of them (3 out of 5 pots) and put them in Michael's glasshouse which is kept at 8°C, where they can get a lot of light and be more sheltered.