New Blooms from the Cutting Garden

Where once there were blue skies, now we find gray.  It’s hard to believe it but only a week ago I found myself sun burnt after a morning of potato planting but it’s true.   Over the course of a few hours at the allotment, in which I planted a mix of first and second earlies and a crop of maincrop spuds, I found myself with a light lobsteresque sheen that over the course of an evening developed to a nice shade of Pantone 1777.   That week of beautiful weather, in which most gardeners reveled, has now been replaced by a heavy patch of gloom and we again find ourselves looking ahead to Summer but will we get one?
For now, new growth and fresh blooms pierce the melancholic hues of April giving light relief and hope of things yet to come.  I guess to many this drizzly and damp patch is heaven sent but there is no hosepipe ban here and the soil has barely dried out from Winter.  A few more weeks of sunshine would have been welcomed but alas, it was not meant to be.
Only last weekend I cut the first of the blooms from the cutting garden, a mix of tulips and daffodils that  remain almost perfect on my hall side table as I write.  A jumble of bargain bucket and poundshop bulbs, they are nothing special but they have truly earned their place on the plot and continue to produce masses of gorgeous blooms that allow me to bring a splash of sunshine indoors on the gloomiest of days.  This will continue for a few more weeks yet as there are plenty more to cut and I'm hoping that this will last until the sunshine reappears.  Aside from the vase pictured above, I’ve also combined dark red tulips with a gorgeous peach Chaenomele to produce a fiery combination.
Over  the next year the cutting garden will expand with the addition of yet more Dahlias, Gladioli, Lillies, and many other gorgeous annual and perennial plants, most of which are waiting in my garden, ready to be planted in to the second cutting garden on my other allotment plot.  Other bulbs lurk in cardboard boxes awaiting their time to unfurl their potential and I just need the time now to get planting.
In competition news, the winner of the bulbs ‘in the green’ from Thompson & Morgan is Rosie (@leavesnbloom).  Please email: ryan@ryansgarden.co.uk to claim your prize.