Early April was so hot and so sunny that I screened the south-side of the greenhouse with netting.
The nine automatic wall and roof vents cool it a little but it still gets terrifically hot in there. Of course, as soon as I finished stapling the netting into place, the sun slid behind …
… dark cloud, temperatures dived and we had weeks of rain. And rain. And then … some rain.
But if the sun does ever peek out again, I shall be prepared. It had grown too stifling in the greenhouse for me to sit and drink tea. And that will never do.
In previous years, I have lost plants to late frosts (to which the Priory is prone) and so I am probably overly cautious in moving tender stuff outside. The greenhouse is heated by a fan heater (the size of a small jet engine) and the cosseted plants within are blissfully unaware of the wet, cold horror outside.
The auriculas have been blooming since March; as has …
… the lovely scented Pelargonium ‘Royal Oak.’
Last year I potted up a Pachyphytum oviferum leaf. It doesn’t look much does it? But it has doubled in size (and not just shrivelled up and died which some do) and it will eventually grow into …
… the weirdly beautiful, powder (or bloom) coated sugar-almond plant … or moonstones … or, as Jim calls it, the hemorrhoid plant. How uncouth.
The lithops are stirring and beginning to gape as …
… though this one’s new growth is itself splitting, to reveal yet another new set of leaves. Curious.
An interloper has found a home in one of the pots of sarracenia but I haven’t the heart to remove it; I love ferns.
Other sarracenias are flowering …
… but unlike the nondescript green flowers of last year, these …
… are a deep claret. I have no idea why.
Most of the dahlias I potted recently are poking forth. I find starting them off in pots gives them an advantage over the slugs – for when they are eventually planted outside.
After a recent visit to Architectural Plants (on yet another rainy day), there are new tenants in the greenhouse. For the tropical border, I’ve bought a plant I’ve long hankered after – Tetrapanax papyrifer ‘Rex.’ This architectural, hardy exotic should reach 3-4 metres in height with leaves a meter across. Goodness.
I also bought Arundo donax or Spanish reed – another 3 – 4 meter hardy big boy and …
… this not-at-all-hardy canna lily, Canna coccinea; relatively petite at about one and a half metres tall (though I’ve heard that it might struggle to get that high).
Now I need it to stop raining and for it to warm up outside. I’ve got loads to do; the grass is still growing but the ground is too sodden to mow; I’ve got planting to do but the soil is gloop; I’ve got plants to harden off but the wind would rip them to tatters. There has been so much rain that …
… water from the surrounding fields is still pouring into the grounds, filling …
The east pond. Normally the alders stand well clear of the water.
… the ponds to full capacity. Thankfully, the emergency channel we dug three years ago …
The flood waters haven't washed out as much duckweed as I would have liked.
… is carrying excess water out to the river – and away from the front door of the house. Phew. Thank goodness the South of England is officially in a state of drought. Otherwise who knows how wet it might be.
