Tulips

Tulips for the garden, tulips in pots, tulips for  picking - love these plants!! I love their height and brightness amongst the perennials that are just leafing up in late September. A lot of low foliage in the garden at the moment, makes the tulips stand out even more. We plan to go to the Wellington Botanic Gardens these school holidays to see the thousands they have planted there every year. If you can't get to Holland, then the WBG are the next best thing!!!

These ones are new this year, and I had forgotten what they were going to be - stunning
surprise!! That's the great thing about buying bulbs - by the time they come into flower -
you have completely forgotten which ones you had planted!!

Perfect match for my velvet cushions..... 

Fothergilla - fabulous small shrub

Fothergilla gardenii is one of my very favourite small shrubs. Deciduous, with the most amazing autumn leaf colour - and then these gorgeous spring flowers. Unlike many shrubs, it does not outgrow the size on the label, and it just quietly goes about it's business, with lovely light green summer foliage to offset colourful perennials around it. Quite hard to get hold of these days, and I am not sure why more nurseries are not growing it. It is a really lovely shrub.

Gorgeous spring flowers add another dimension to this great little shrub

Autumm leaves hold on for months

Grows to about 1m x 1m

More Daffodils.....

Okay - I can't resist - just one more post about daffodils! My lovely father brought me this gorgeous bunch of his special daffodils the other day, and they are giving me so much pleasure here in in my office. Dad's birthday is in March, so us daughters have often given him bulbs for his birthday, and now we get to share the rewards of that original gift! Bulbs do make great gifts, as they are annual reminders of the person that gave them to you.

White Primula - A Garden Classic

I have lost count of how many people I have given this invaluable little primula to. Started as a gift to me from my mother-in-law, from her garden, and now it is spread far and wide. Another plant I split and pot up, ready to poke into most clients gardens..... I have also been known to pop into my office on the way to a planting job, dig a whole plant up, then split apart on site, and rip top half of leaves off before bunging in the ground! Within a month, all the leaves have grown back and it will have tripled in size. Plants for free!! Love it.

Eventually the strappy-leaved Liriope along the front will form a dense 'edge' - fingers
crossed! I only had 6 plants, and split them into so many that they have taken a year recover.

Must straighten that wonky plinth!

I usually dot randomly about at the base of taller shrubs and plants, but at home in this new garden (above) I have used as a wobbly 'edge', behind white liriope, in place of a formal hedge. This is only one year old, and all the primulas started out as described above (split/rip/bung it in!). They don't get bigger than this, just denser. So tidy, and one of those little things that give joy, flowering away discreetly much of the year. You notice it the most mid-winter, when most other plants are dormant.

At my office I use it as ground cover in the shade