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Some flowers for a change

Wednesday, April 15, 2015 4:20
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Latest post from MARKSVEGPLOT – a blog about food and gardening in England”

How about seeing some flowers instead of vegetables, just for a change?

I am very happy with these bright red Tulips in a wide shallow blue pot:

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My only complaint is that they are supposed to grow to only 6″ tall, and these are at least twice that!

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They are “Dwarf Praestans”. There are 10 bulbs in the pot, but this is a multi-headed variety, so it looks as if there are more.  In full sun the flowers open very wide.

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But when the sun goes in they close up tight like this:

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The Daffodils are just about finished now. My favourites are the strongly-scented “Soleils d’Or” – the ones I bought in the Isles of Scilly. Nice while they lasted, but past their best now:

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In order to prolong their life and prevent them going “blind”, I will be doing all the right things with those bulbs – feeding them with fertiliser; removing the flowers to stop seeds forming; leaving the foliage to die down naturally, etc. If you want to see some more advice on this, follow this link to the relevant bit of the RHS website – Daffodil blindness.

This is Euphorbia “Clarice Howard”, which seems to have recovered a bit this year, after a very poor showing last time.

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It is normally very vigorous, and spreads enthusiastically via underground roots. I am forever pulling up bits of it that appear in the shingle.

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Along the edge of the border, just by the Euphorbia, I have established a clump of Primroses.

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Many of them are brightly-coloured ones bought as a mixed pack from the local Garden Centre, but some of them are the old-fashioned yellow / cream type, which I like better. They seem more natural.

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The Snakeshead Fritillaries (Fritillaria Meleagris) are coming along nicely.

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I always find it hard to photograph them well, because the flower patterns are naturally blurred and it looks as if the photos are out of focus. A lot of the stems have two flowers.

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Not all the Fritillaries are speckly purple. Some of them are white:

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This is that beautiful dark-coloured Hellebore given to me by my Facebook friend Alice.

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To read more articles like this, on Gardening and Gastronomy, please visit * http://marksvegplot.blogspot.com/ *



Source: http://marksvegplot.blogspot.com/2015/04/some-flowers-for-change.html

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