AtWaG - (All the World's a Garden)

Fritillaria meleagris - again!

  Fritillaria meleagris 
  Originally uploaded by AtWaG

Sorry to post this image again but I felt I had to after seeing that it has been chosen as image of the month over on the Garden Photographers Association web site.
Given that it's a rather tall portrait image it doesn't sit well in the square frame on the site but hey-ho, it'll look good in print.

New Forest foal 2008

New Forest foal
Originally uploaded by AtWaG

I don't recall a year when I've seen more foals around my part of the New Forest....all born pretty much in synchrony too. I guess the stallion around here last year was both vigilant and vigorous.
If you want to see New Forest Foals don't leave it more than another week or so. They grow amazingly quickly and soon turn from endearing babies into gangling, scruffy nosed urchins.
If you visit remember to keep your distance, don't try and pet or feed them and don't do anything to attract them to the roads.

Bad plug delivery

Bad plug delivery
Originally uploaded by AtWaG

The last two springs I've been doing some comparisons of mail-order plants and Garden Centre bought plants. Until my last delivery mail-order was well ahead in terms of quality and labeling accuracy. However I had a delivery of Geranium plugs yesterday that blotted the suppliers copy-book.
Look at these sorry specimens of Geranium plugs - spoiled by a combination of overheating and too long in darkness They were packed April 28th and arrived with me May 2nd.
I phoned the supplier immediately and explained the state of the plants and he suggested I pot them up and wait a week or so to see how they did. I explained that I needed the plants for a photo shoot and that they were not of salable quality and he quickly agreed that they would be replaced.....I hope the replacements travel better.
I have potted up the survivors but the plants are even worse than they look in the photo - some have rotted away to nothing worth planting.
I think it's important that the suppliers know about incidents like this so that they can keep tabs on the shippers and put pressure on them so that plants don't get wasted like this.

Fairweathers Beaulieu

  Fairweathers Beaulieu 
  Originally uploaded by AtWaG

There's a cloud  of doom and gloom around Garden Centres just now but you can't say Fairweathers of Beaulieu aren't giving it their best shot. I took a look around their Garden Centre last week and was impressed by their innovative display of re-cycling and local materials. These sculptures were made of  waste fibreglass from a local boat yard and the mosaic effect was cleverly created from plastic plant tags stuck on with powerful adhesive. The surrounding drift of pebbles and grasses gave a pleasing maritime effect and created an oasis away from the 'hard sell' of Garden Centre plant benches.
Within the same area their 'plants for a purpose' displays were pleasingly arranged on benches supported by bales of New Forest heather.
Fairweathers current project is even more ambitious - a large community veg garden for the village of Beaulieu - I saw the bare bones of the garden with the very first plants going in.....more of this to follow - you will be impressed by the scale and vision of the project.

Bumblebee on Blueberry flowers

Bumblebee on Blueberry flowers
Originally uploaded by AtWaG

Blueberry growers make a lot of claims for their product. Beautiful, fragrant flowers, wonderful healthy fruit and great autumn colours - all true and you can add important to wildlife as well.
At Trehanes blueberry farm this am the bushes were a buzzin' with honey bees and bumble bees - there were quite a few Syrphids there too. This Bumble bee is on a variety called Blueray - for my money the prettiest with it's pinkish hue with green tones - it was the most fragrant as well....sadly not available to buy as a young plant though.

Crab apple blossom

Crab apple blossom
Originally uploaded by AtWaG

Out on the open 'Forest' near my New Forest home there is a hillside with many large mature apple trees. These trees weren't planted on purpose, they 'volunteered' having survived passage through the digestive tract of farm cattle that had been fed on Cider apple pulp. Being seed raised every tree is different - flower size, flower colour, time of flowering, fruit size and colour all vary making for a delightful semi-natural orchard.
The fruits are mostly tiny and sharply acid. The Cows and Ponies out on the forest relish the apples when they fall - take care where you tread though as apple fed stock have notoriously loose bowels!

Bombylius major

Bombylius major
Originally uploaded by AtWaG

Every year about this time I have fun trying to photograph these little chaps as they take nectar from the Pulmonarias in my garden. They are very quick - even quicker than the bees they imitate.
This is the best from todays batch - at 1/500 sec the wing beats are very blurred - tomorrow I'll try using shutter priority and make sure that I use closer to 1/2000 sec to try and get things sharper.
The larvae of these flies are parasitic on the nests of solitary bees (e.g., Andrena, Halictus and Colletes species), where they eat the food stores and grubs of their host.

Spring tidy for Penstemons

  Spring tidy for Penstemons 
  Originally uploaded by AtWaG

Penstemons are wonderful perennials and surprisingly hardy with correct treatment. They take exception to being cut back in the Autumn or Winter and may well keel over as a result.
The time to remove all those woody growths from the previous year is when you can see a nice clump of new growth coming.
It does mean that during Jan/Feb/Mar they look slightly bedraggled but it's worth putting up with for their glorious flowers over a long season.
In the New Forest UK I've just done mine (April 22nd) and they look so much better for it. It's not really the date that matters though, just go by the appearance of a few inches of nice new growth that is clearly fresh in the current year.
After their tidy-up give them a feed of some blood, fish and bone or a pelleted slow release fertiliser.

A great source of named varieties is Hayloft Plants

Garden Centre plants......continued

It would appear that my item about plants in Garden Centres and Nurseries has found it's way into the press. I have no idea which publication as I have not been notified, I am in the dark about how the piece was presented, so I don't know what stance was presented by the article over-all.
I understand that the content has not been well received in some quarters so I am taking a little time to clarify a few points.

• I'm not critical of the 'shop floor' staff in Garden Centres - the ones I know do a great job in difficult circumstances and I believe they are just as passionate about plants as Nursery staff.
• I am not anti Garden Centre - if anyone reads the original piece they will see the positive side of my blog post.
• I do believe that more could be done to help with the maintenance of plant quality on the shop floor. Most Garden Centres have no provision for the proper handling of plant stock in their 'Goods In' areas and this is tough on staff and plants.
• My original item was intended to help shoppers to get value and avoid disappointment - success in gardening is good for customers and good for retailers. Sadly it is the less experienced who are most likely to buy the plants that are close to their sell-by dates and they are the ones who need the encouragement of good plant performance.
• I accept that there are degrees of culpability in this topic - 'The Sheds' are undoubtedly the worst offenders but they do sell good plants when they are fresh in. The best independent Garden Centres have systems to clear tired stock and in general offer good value. In between these lowest and highest standards lies a gamut of plant husbandry about which I can only say 'Caveat emptor'
• Folks who are new to gardening are likely to blame themselves for poor results but they will not always be at fault. Garden Centres have a plant replacement policy that even applies to annuals so it's worth going back to a Garden Centre and discuss with the plant staff what went wrong. Most will listen sympathetically and replace stock if there is any doubt about the reason for poor performance.
• I know how difficult retailing plants is - I've done it for several years but in the same way that Gift Departments, Coffee Shops and Christmas have developed and been invested in so Plant Departments deserve more investment to find ways to reduce wastage and maintain viability of the stock.

The quotation I used as my blog title didn't come from me - it was used as an opening statement during a break-out session at a conference that I attended some years. Those words were intended to stimulate debate - they did then and it looks as though they still do now.

Fritillaria in April snow

  April 
  Originally uploaded by AtWaG

No rabbits to eat our frits this year - they look lovely and they survived the only snow of the year. I don't recall ever seeing them so snowed up before - with a few hours they were free of their white blanket.