A Pleione bloom
The weather here last weekend was rather interesting, especially on Sunday. Sun, rain, hail, then sun again and the cycle continued. I have been assured that this is rather normal for the time of the year and it's called 'April Showers'. I knew that anyway, it's just that I can't help but comment about the curious cycle happening in short successions, and also whether I should eat Ice Cream to cool down or have a cup of hot tea to warm up (I opted for the latter but had the former indoors, now that's compromise).But as a nice start to the weekend we went to the Luton Hoo Walled Garden Plant Fair last Saturday. I wrote a blog post about Luton Hoo last year and the plant fair was being held on the grounds of the walled garden within the estate. Being only fifteen minutes drive from us we thought that we might us well pop round quickly and check out the plant fair to see what sort of plant goodies we might find there. And thankfully whilst there it was the sunny bit of the cycle which made the visit even better.
The drive into the Walled Garden, bare trees is a reminder it's only mid April
Mmmmm...baby veggies and herbs...
Pleione formosana 'Stromboli Fireball'
I was pleasantly surprised, although smaller than the usual plant fairs we attend it still had a good amount of participating nurseries and the turnout was reasonably good. We managed to bring home a few more plants back with us (mainly woodland exotics) but not before having some nice cake and tea first which were being served at the fair.A good turnout!
D'Arcy and Everest
Newbury Farm Plants
Stoke Poges Nursery
The greenhouses within the Walled Garden are currently being restored. The second picture below is the 'Melon House' with an interesting tidbit of historical information...After spending an hour or so at the fair we went back home to do some more gardening. We have started planting out some of our more recent purchases and did a bit more tidying and plant maintenance (in between the bursts of rain and hail). The main highlight though was that we were able to do a bit more to the Koi House adjacent to the new pond. The wooden cladding facing the pond had been installed on Saturday and the wood primer painted on Sunday. We got the timing right that the wood was painted and dried before the first burst or rain and hail arrived.
Ta-da!! Wood painted and the sun shines again! It's only a primer coat but at least it's white and a preview what it will look like painted with a more opaque white paint.
And just as I was about to take lots of plant photos it started to rain again, then it hailed, then heavy rain. It stopped in the evening and then heavy frost in the morning. Weather's funny eh!
Mark :-)