Last weekend was a mixed bag of activities for us, especially on the Saturday where we somehow managed to fit in lots of different things all in one day, and yet it didn't feel hectic.
The weather on the weekend was on the whole very nice especially the first part of it so we got stuck in doing some gardening in the morning. By noon we had to stop and go to the monthly meeting of our local HPS wherein the guest speaker was Bob Brown of Cotswold Garden Flowers fame. Now we were really looking forward to this as not only Bob is a very engaging speaker but he will be bringing with some plants to sell too. So plant knowledge gained and plant shopping to follow, always a winning combo! We were expecting to take home lots of plants with us after the talk.
The talk was great as usual but we ended up buying not a single plant! Lots of nice things were there but they were either plants that we have already, not into, or the sort that is best picked up later in the year. So we went home empty handed. We do visit his nursery at least once a year anyway so we'll do our purchasing then.
Leaving the meeting venue we opted to pop round and check out a couple of nurseries that were en route home. Not expecting to find anything interesting (it's still very early in the new growing season), we went home picking up a few items from these two nurseries.
The first lot was a tray of hardy ground ferns that were all planted out on Sunday. The others were (apologies for the quality of the pics, took them at twilight today as otherwise it would have been a photo free post):
Grevillea lanigera 'Red Salento' - will go in a blue for the front of the house. Liking the foliage and potentially profuse flowering in the winter. At the moment it also reminds me of a conifer (Abies in particular)
Hydrangea macrophylla - big leaves, easy, hardy, would be a great filler plant for that lush look
Double headed Yucca rostrata 'Sapphire Skies' which I believe is a Sean Hogan of Cistus Nursery selection (or is that introduction?). I'd like to believe it is double headed by nature but more likely it's two seedling in one pot. But who knows! It's a bargain at £8.99
Arriving home and with sun still out we resumed our gardening then later on we remembered that it was also the meeting night of the local branch of British Cacti and Succulent Society (BCSS). We're not members yet but we've always wanted to check it out seeming as the meeting venue was like a five minute drive from where we live! So we finally attended as guests and we weren't disappointed. Suffice to say we'll be joining this one too.Then from there off to town we went for a nice Saturday night Italian meal.
Mark :-)