The days are flashing by faster than I can think, let alone stop and write everything down. I know it’s not right – to only glance briefly at the first perfect purple Pulsatilla, to note that our big cherry is in flower in passing, instead of standing still to watch it, to really see it properly. I could argue that we’ve been really busy with re-organising the nursery and of course, potting up all the new plants, as you can see…

We’re even tidy and stuffed with plants behind the scenes, in the polytunnels…


And on the new, outside growing on area – formerly a derelict slope at the top of the nursery…

So you see, we’ve been busy. But if I don’t have time to catch the scent of a flower, it’s my own fault. The weight of work to do is entirely the product of my own over-ambitious plans, of saying ‘OK’, when I mean ‘I really don’t want to’, of my desire to do all things well (impossible) and to be available to anyone who wants my attention, all undermined by my legendary personal inefficiency. I am told that the inefficiency doesn’t really show, unless you look in my office. I do hope so.

What finally stops me running, what makes me stop and look properly is mostly the desire to record what’s happening now, to write it down or photograph it for my own benefit in the future and also to share it here, for others. In truth, these are poor reasons. The best reason would be simply to enjoy it in the moment, to experience pure and direct enjoyment here and now. But that’s a pleasure I am deferring. I hope to live long enough to spend entire days laid on the grass under this cherry tree, watching and listening to the drone of a thousand bees feasting on its nectar. If I don’t live long enough, I’ll never know to regret it. And if I do I’ll know I earned it.

The nursery is more or less straight now, so naturally I’m twitching about the garden. The gardens open to the public next week, but a few little gems are out now and may be over before we open the gates, like this fabulous cherry…

This little Erythronium dens-canis is tucked in a corner of the woodland garden.

I love this combination of the white hellebore flowers nodding over the blue Scilla sibirica which seem to be reaching up into them

But there are parts of the garden in desperate need of improvement – among them the ‘exotic’ garden, which looks great in late summer, but is still cluttered with elderly shrubs, very unexotic plants such as Aquilegias and a matted tangle of a very invasive perennial sunflower – probably Helianthus decapetalus.
Thanks to Janet and Sally for running the nursery today, I snatched a welcome day in the garden. I finally got rid of a ghastly Kerria, a near dead Physocarpus and a couple of scraggy Lonicera nitida, leaving a lovely big space. I planted a couple of yellow stemmed Bamboo, Phyllostachys aurea in their place – a more appropriate backdrop for the theme. I also took the plunge and lifted the clump of Arisaema consanguineum corms, partly to check that they have survived yet another horrific winter (they have), but also to separate them, to create new clumps.

This Arisaema has to be one of the signature plants here – for its spire-like shoots in spring…

Its stunning cobra head spathe in June…

And a brilliant scarlet seed pod in autumn

Finally, I know it’s ages since I last posted here. You might like to know that we caught the mole and the tunnelling has stopped. But blogging takes ages – rounding up the pictures and uploading them and getting the text and images to mesh together properly. By comparison, twitter takes seconds to update. So if you want to find out what I’m up to between blog posts click here
March 23, 2011