Pots displays & pea sticks

Weds 8th May
Weather - Rain in the morning. Petered out by the afternoon, sunshine, wind picked up.

I repotted rooted cuttings of different salvias, which included S. microphylla 'Cerro potosi', S. darcyi, S. Leucantha.

Thurs 9th May
Weather: Up to 12 - 13°C but windy though and very changeable weather, spots of rain at one point.

Pots display at the front of the house

I refreshed the pot displays, took out dead ones & deadheaded some of them. Then I rearranged them and added new plants. It only seemed like yesterday that I was sorting out the bulbs and we were putting them in pots, waiting for them to grow. Now they are passing over already. Tips that I learnt is to place the pots in order of height gradually, any sudden contrasts of this made the display look quite odd, and that it's good to have a lot of smaller ones skirting the foot of it.

Pots display in the walled garden, earlier this spring, they really enhanced the tulips 'Yellow Purissima' next in the bed next to it, like an extension of the bed.   

Fri 10th May
Weather: Sunny but windy.

Pea stick cages around Geranium 'Roxanne'

We made structures out of peasticks to help support and control the growth of Geranium 'Roxanne', some Alstromerias in the Walled Garden, then a Clematis recta 'Purpurea' in the High Garden. Peasticks are thin wiry branches that we cut from our woods, which is mainly hazel & alder. They can probably be a by product of coppicing also. Goods ones are ones with lots of lateral branches. The sides of the structure is the most important and that it is where it will support the plant the best. For things like geraniums if they are close to the path, we lattice that side more heavily with peasticks, as they have a very vigourous spreading habit. The plants will eventually grow through the structure and you won't be able to see, though it will still be doing its job.

Pea stick cage around the clematis.

Mon 13th May
Weather: Windy, cold (around 11 - 12°C). The sun came out at intervals though and that helped keep us a bit warmer.

I potted up some Dahlia 'Witteman's Superba' from the hot house & placed them in Mike's cooler greenhouse (from 13°C to 8°C. Then I did some planting in the Orchard Garden - we dug up & swapped Phlox 'Blue Paradise' with 'Uspekh' and topped up a special Dixter strain of campanulas originally discovered in the Orchard Garden. Then we lined out and planted a row of Aster latiflorus var. horizontalis in the vegetable garden.