I am indebted to https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/ for motivating me to get back to my own WordPress blog after several years absence. Like a lot of things in life, I was very enthusiastic to begin with but I ran out of steam and also re-discovered my love of golf!

This Prunella grandiflora, (large Self Heal), grown from seed two years ago, has now found a home in an awkward corner of my new rose garden and is happily flowering away. Its natural spreading habit will hopefully be contained by the surrounding paths.

I have a love affair with Penstemons and add a few new ones each year. This one has the impossible name of ‘Schoenholzeri’ which neatly translates to ‘Firebird’ and is a very true red.

Penstemon ‘Hidcote Pink’ is one of the most reliably hardy and long lived in my Cotswold garden. This particular plant has been in situ for nearly ten years. I keep taking insurance cuttings but end up giving them all away as the mother plant always comes through winter. Obviously, now I have said that, it will die this winter!

This is Penstemon digitalis ‘Huskers Red’ a new addition this year. I love plants with misleading names; the red in the name refers to the stems and not the flowers which are pure white!

It’s going to be a good year for fruit! My ‘Oregon Thornless’ blackberry can barely hold itself up under the weight of burgeoning berries.

Finally, everybody likes a bee. This one is on Thalictrum flavum glaucum and looked like it was going to spend the rest of the day there!

Well, there it is, my tentative return to my blog. Thank you cavershamjj for inspiring me to do so.

It was high time for a return visit to Rob & Diane Coles wonderful Meadow Farm Garden & Nursery at Feckenham in Worcestershire to see the Echinacea trial beds and get some inspiration from the planting schemes.

This time I decided to make it a visit with friends so 14 of our Cottage Garden Society group turned up for a tour with tea & cakes!

Just at the crucial “let’s have a group photo” moment, several members went missing in the shrubbery so we have a reduced headcount in this shot!

As usual, the beds and borders were looking magnificent, stuffed to the gunnels with delicious perennials of all colours and descriptions. Each time I go I either see something new or something I didn’t see last time. This time I made a note to acquire two new to me plants which would fit well into my garden.

Firstly, Allium angularis,  a short drumstick allium which, Diane assures me, flowers for months and doesn’t seed about like many others, preferring instead to gradually clump up and behave like a good allium should. The thing that made me take notice was the delightful bluey mauve colour which appear to start off almost white and gradually darken. It was also absolutely covered in honey bees and Diane reckoned it was one of the best bee plants in her garden. 

The other  was Gladiolus papilio ‘Ruby’ which was another clumper as Di assured me she originally planted just one bulb. Not cheap but good value if it multiplies like this one has. Needs fertile but well drained soil and gentle support to hold it’s weighty spear of velvety red flowers.

And, finally, tea and cakes. The Raspberry Bakewell was delicious!

What a strange Spring, Allium ‘Purple Sensation’ almost fully open on 26 April, that’s another first for me!

Well, that’s my afternoon sorted! One metric ton of screened topsoil/compost mix to top up the raised beds. It’s a bit chilly today so barrowing that lot round the back will keep me warm!

A good friend kindly brought me some coppiced hazel peasticks today to support my tall perennials before disaster strikes in May. Normally I am way too late putting any supports in. I wait until it’s too late and then prop things up. What a mess! I am gradually learning that a stitch in time saves nine and putting the supports in early.

I was pleased with how the birch circle responded to having six inches of garden compost heaped on it in November. I cleared almost everything above ground apart from the three immature Cornus sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’ which I hope will eventually provide winter contrast to the Jacquemontii silver birches. I then emptied three barrow loads of compost over the whole area because it had become impossible to weed amongst the surface roots of the birches. The anemone blanda and narcissus have come through without any trouble as well as the inevitable lesser celandines. It looks great at the moment and I just hope the hairy bittercress and chickweed are reduced this year. 

I have given up the battle with lesser celandines in the photinia hedge border; it is a battle I was losing anyway because the root tubers are soil coloured and therefore impossible to identify. The recommended treatment is Glyphosate but that would kill everything else including the anemone blanda which, actually, looks good with the yellow celandine flowers! And anyway, by June all the foliage is gone and I forget them for another year.

These wild primroses are everywhere at the moment and multiply like mad in my sticky clay soil. Once the flowers are over I split the clumps and transplant them under the hedges to spread them round a bit. It’s one of the joys of Spring.

I am told this is Iris tuberosa. It just popped up behind my back today. I didn’t plant it and I’m not sure I like it. The common name of Widow Iris suggests something nasty is about to happen to me! My wife is giving me funny looks! Is it a sign? 

It’s race week at Cheltenham so here are some red hot tips for you!

Euphorbia characias

At long last, things are beginning to get going in the garden. I find winters very depressing and this year we took the plunge and went away for two weeks in February to find some sunshine in the Caribbean. It was wonderful but it also reminded me of how lucky we are to have seasons. In Barbados they have summer all year round. I came back itching to get out into the garden full of ideas and enthusiasm. The holiday obviously worked!

All around the garden the green shoots of spring are appearing. Time to get the slug pellets down before the Delphiniums get munched! They revel in the damp conditions and enjoy the annual mulch of mushroom compost.

The rhubarb is almost ready for the first pickings. I have downsized from 9 plants to 3 as we couldn’t cope last year. There is only so much space in the freezer! I was delighted to find it transplants so well, hardly any check to its growth since being moved in December.

The Clematis macropetala ‘Wesselton’ is about to unleash it’s beautiful violet blue double flowers to give a wonderful display right outside the garden room window which always lifts my spirits. I pruned this back hard for the first time after flowering last year and it looks like it was the right thing to do. I am always a bit of a wuss when it comes to pruning but it just goes to show that the plants respond and improve as a result of a good haircut!

It’s far too early for tulips but these little beauties obviously haven’t heard. Should be in flower next week! Tulips in mid-March, is that a record?!

I always start seed sowing too early but I was keen to fire up the propagator and get on with it. Just a few of the usual suspects here, nothing to get excited about. Masses of Lychnis chalcedonica in the corner, the majority of which will probably end up in the compost bin. Why do I never sow just a few? I know they will ALL germinate!

This, however, is a first for me, Heliotrope arborescens ‘Marine’, or Cherry Pie plant, which I saw again at Bourton House last year and fell in love with its scent. The head gardener told me she keeps it going each year by taking masses of softwood cuttings and keeping them frost free over winter. But you have to start with seeds! Looks promising at the moment.