… but I’m not going to show you them yet, not until the Angelique tulips are out, because there is not a lot to see yet since all the plants are young perennials or bulbs. But it’s a huge relief to have finished the first main round of planting. Each bed is nearly 100sq. metres with a wide curving path through it. I’ve planted over 1000 plants in the last three weeks. But it hasn’t broken the bank. Most were propagated here on the nursery from cuttings, seed or division, some are display plants from this year’s new stock purchases and some are simply plants that the nursery had loads of and nowhere to put them – especially Kniphofias which are somewhat out of fashion but perfect for an open, dryish border with a need for vertical spires. I did buy quite a lot of tulips and have planted those that the mice didn’t eat. Mice were unexpectedly my biggest cause of plant losses over winter. What is CYOG you ask? Cheshire Year of the Garden 08, a celebration of the best of Cheshire’s gardens in tandem with Liverpool City of Culture.

On the subject of tulips and by way of a little glimpse at the new borders, the Purissima tulips are out and I’m relieved to see that they are a soft creamy white and not the optical brightener white that I feared they would be. I thought they looked lovely with the evening light behind them.

And things are happening in the meadow with the emergence of the first cowslips. Cheery though they are, I much prefer the more delicate oxslip, Primula elatior. The oxslip is not in the meadow but is in the lovely woodland corner in the garden. I lost track of these last year and missed the seed collection. No mistake this year, I hope.

Cowslips (Primula veris)…

and Oxslips (Primula elatior)

April 24, 2008