Author Archives: Caroline

May 2015

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Un-named BarnhavenTime to take stock of a very busy Spring: several articles in magazines and newspapers brought more attention than I expected to my garden. Rather disconcerting as I saw how many weeds there were lurking around. The primroses had a very good season. Top of the list for flowering: Easter Bonnet, Sunshine Suzie, Petticoat, Bon Accord Purple. Belarina Valentine is proving to be a good garden plant. My new shrub walk is slowly taking shape and I am starting to plant primroses out there. Petticoat has been in flower there since January. It faded at the end of April but now in mid-May is back in flower again. I keep being asked which my favourite double is which is an impossible question, probably the one which is in flower at that moment! This pale blue un-named Barnhaven is fast becoming a favourite though. The flowers are small but that adds to the charm, and it certainly doesn’t lack flowers.Anita Allen's Garden

I also had the chance to visit Anita Allen’s garden on the edge of Exmoor (opens for the NGS) where a pink double primrose seeds (yes) itself around prolifically. Anita has several National Collections and her garden is well worth a visit. There are several double primroses with this sort of colour. Sue Jervis was supposed to have been found in the wild in Shropshire, and in Ireland there is one with the distinctive leaves of Petticoat which came from Helen Dillon’s garden called Pink Petticoat. That also seems to grow as vigorously as Anita’s plants.

 

December 2014

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Frosty day

With a hard frost on the ground all day today, there is time to think back over the autumn. It has been a much better year for weather. Two months of drought, July and September, contributed to a warmer drier year that helped a lot of plants to settle down and grow happily. The shrub walk still really only exists in my mind but shrubs that were planted this year have mostly done quite well. Deutzia pulchra at least doubled in size and had flower buds until the frost caught it this last week.

Viburnum plicatum mariesii

The autumn colours were good this autumn too with various viburnum and hydrangea quercifolia ‘John Wayne’ being the best here. But perhaps the best month was September when the roses flowered and flowered. June rain had tattered the main flowering, but it was more than made up for the September flowering. I did learn a lesson however. I started dividing the primroses too early not expecting the weather to turn so dry. In the end I resorted to putting in an irrigation system in the shade tunnel – irrigation in my garden! But by and large everything was fine, and pulled through.

Rose parterre

Now at the end of December I have six or seven varieties of double primrose in flower in the garden. ‘Easter Bonnet’ tends to come into flower in November and then flower through to August. I have no idea why it got the name it did. ‘Sunshine Suzie’ is in flower under the Chaenomeles ‘Scarlet and Gold’ which is trained against a north wall. It has a very Christmassy feel. ‘Fife Yellow’ has been in flower but seems to be taking a pause. Just along from it ‘Kalle-K’ is making the most of an opportunity. Sparrows nest above it and have been shredding its flowers; at the moment they seem to be leaving it alone. ‘Val Horncastle’ and ‘Pridhamsleigh’ are both in flower along the bed where I have planted several varieties of yellow and blue doubles. ‘Delft Blue’ is flowering strongly in the shade tunnel where it seems to be happier than it is in the open garden. Several other of the Belarina range, Cream, Buttermilk and Buttercup are also flowering away. ‘Captain Blood’ my favourite of the dark reds has a lot of flowers, and the other lovely dark red another Belarina ‘Valentine’ also has flowers. ‘Bon Accord Purple’ has been in flower and has buds, and ‘Bon Accord Gem’ and ‘Bon Accord Cerise’ have both just finished flowering. That’s more than I had realised and I am sure there are some I have forgotten. Not a bad way to end the year.

August 2014

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tunnelA new shade tunnel was put up in January for the double primroses. Luckily I was able to get one from a nursery that had closed which saved a lot of money.  I thought it would be easy to get it planted with the varieties in rows either side of the path. But nothing is ever quite as easy as it seems and when I started digging I found that at one end of the tunnel – the end with the best soil – a previous owner had buried a concrete wall, a cast iron wheel from a chicken coop, the old herd sign and all sorts of other rubbish. There must have been an old pond that the rubbish had been dumped into. The pond had been made with five layers of the heavy duty plastic sheeting used for sillage pits. This all had to be dug out. The concrete wall I had to break up with a sledge hammer before I could get it in pieces I could move. Oh boy! But it is now tidied up and there are something like sixty varieties of double primroses planted in there. Along the front edge of the tunnel I am planting varieties of Nerine bowdenii.

quaratineI have an arrangement with the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh that I send them any primroses I have with a Scottish Heritage. This Spring I sent some divisions of Primula ‘Bon Accord Purple’. This picture of the plants in quarantine there was tweeted. I felt it wasn’t very dignified for them to be seen like that! But it is good to ensure that plants go to a reliable back-up grower.
This year has been much better weather-wise. We had a warm winter so a lot of things didn’t ever really stop growing. I cut an enormous amount off my box bushes. But we did have a long dry spell right through July. I think this may be why I am finding that the primroses have got “carroty” very quickly this year. I am ruthlessly dividing and removing carroty roots now.
The big news I suppose though is that in June I was given full National Collection status by Plant Heritage. This feels like the start of something rather than the achievement of a goal. Now I must ensure that the plants are grown well, and propagated so that they are conserved for the future: a big responsibility.