After Easter

Three weeks into the lockdown over the Covid-19 virus and no let up in the social isolation rules. The weather has been warmer than usual for a few days prior to Easter and suddenly everything in the garden is moving ahead.

Of note are the three Acers – Seiryu; Trompenburg; Ukigumo in order of their respective size and emerging leaf colours of spring green, red, and variegated green & white with a pink tinge.

I should mention the rescue mission I had to do with the Seiryu Acer last month – it had become badly waterlogged in its pot with the late winter deluge. Thus I removed it with great difficulty, cut a portion of its root and resettled it in fresh John Innes #2. Similarly the other two trees were given a 2″ top soil removal and replacement of the same JI.

Would A. Seiryu survive this rough and ready treatment? The answer is YES!

In the long oval ‘Spring Sensations’ planter, the euphorbias are blending well with a white bleeding heart –L. spectabilis ‘alba‘.[ Not called Dicentra anymore since being reclassified as Laprocapnos. Translation ‘Shining smoke’ which bears no resemblance!] And since moving the root clump of Loosestrife ‘firecracker’ to the back of this planter, its young bronze leaves are now appearing right at the front! Had I read the label from the outset, this lovely tall and leggy plant would have been positioned correctly.

That’s one lesson learned to the point that I’m now including height and spread in all the plant page details.

Another lesson, learned the hard way, is that this far North is much colder than London and the late frost has killed off the cutting I brought with me of Salvia ‘Phylis Fancy’. Also the Blackcurrant Sage is struggling as is Fuchsia ‘Walz Jubelteen’. In future I will give some protection to these more tender plants.

On the seed front, I’m having scant success with the tall variety of Nasturtium but was surprised by the appearance of seedlings from some trickier plants: : Bleeding Heart vine – Dactylicapnos macrocapnos and Love-in-a-Puff. I mustn’t count my chickens though as it s a long way to go from seedling to plant!
[Postscript – after 2 weeks all the Dactylicapnos seedlings dampened off 😦 ]