This may be rushed. Again. I’ll tell you why.
The strap on one of my watches came apart so I asked OH, AKA Glue Monitor, to fix it for me. I don’t have many watches, just three. You may think that is a lot. I suppose you only really need one. My three perform different roles in my life, apart from telling the time, that is. One is a work watch, it has a large dial so I know when it is coffee time without putting my specs on and I can press my nose to my client’s window and dribble as way of a hint. It was also embarrassingly cheap so it doesn’t matter too much if I compost it by mistake. My second watch is my goth watch, a black-faced, black strapped Swatch, for my moody moments which are few but intense. My third is a Fossil watch, bought in an outlet store for a fraction of the retail price and is my favourite. It is my favourite because it has embroidered flowers on the strap. It was this very strap that needed mending. Anyone still awake? The fact is this watch was still resident at the in-house menders meaning that it didn’t spring forward last weekend with the rest of the timepieces in the house. And today I have been wearing that very same, now fixed, watch. Which means that all day I have been running on Greenwich Mean Time instead of British Summer Time. This in turn means I have one less hour than I thought to cram all the things I had earmarked to do this afternoon before cocktail hour. I know another excuse. At least I have turned up. And our very own Time Lord, The Propmaster, won’t need a lie down as he does on the rare occasions that I’m early.
Less wittering more plants! Firstly we have a not quite open snake’s head fritillary, Fritillaria meleagris. These play “will they, won’t they” each year and then seemingly over night, and usually a little nibbled, they appear. When I say “they” I mean three. They never seem to multiple like you hear in fairytales.
Next is a great joy to me, the strong and healthy roots of the most wonderful and doomy Salix gracilistyla ‘Melanostachys’ or the black willow . These cuttings were sent to me by my friend Chloris after I admired the puma paws of one in her garden. They have been sitting in a cup of water for a couple of weeks and voilà. Read more about it here: The Blooming Garden – Six on Saturday 2nd March. When admiring this willow I shall be wearing my black Swatch.
Now it is time for a fat and hairy potato sprout. You may well remember, as I am prone to over-sharing about my personal life, that every year I buy OH some chitting potatoes for either his birthday or Valentine’s Day. I usually buy Rocket, but for a change I thought this time he could try Charlotte. I’m wild like that. Each year he plants them and tends to them in a completely different way as to how I would do it. But they are his. I will not interfere. I will not even give my opinion, I have tried before and it has fallen on stony ground. But it is wrong. Unfortunately it works.
What next? Oh yes, the fresh young leaves of one of our acers. A little burnt by the wind, but all the same a beautiful sight. All our Japanese maples are named Woolworth, as it is here that we bought them, many moon ago, and very well they have served us too. I still miss Woolworths.
On to blueberry flowers, blushing bells all primed to provide a handful of fruit for a summer treat.
Lastly, I am pleased to announce that Peggy is back! Has she arrived in South Wales yet Mr K? For any of you who don’t know who Peggy is and why I should be so excited at her return, then you can find out all about it here: It Is All In The Name.
All done, double checked my numbers, and I’m all linked out. I cannot linger, that Moscow Mule won’t drink itself!
Off The Edge Gardening 
What a lovely story about Peggy! And I had to laugh 🤣 at the
Enjoy your Moscow Mule, sounds as though you deserve it after the week you have had 😀
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Thanks, I must confess the Moscow Mule was really an enormous bottle of Bud. 🙂
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Ah, woolies. Land of cheap 7″ singles, picknmix sweets and other stuff I expect, I mainly cared about the first two. I have been monitoring the health of my Acer seedling. It is white and dead looking from about two inches up, but I think I detect new buds lower down. I am on the tenter most of hooks.
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None of my dahlias has sprouted yet but then I only potted them up a week and a bit ago. Is (your) Peggy outdoors or is it a trick of the camera? If the former you should be ashamed of yourself. Mum should be tucked up in the warm. I planted lots of new frits autumn but one ago. None came up last year. This year one has. They’re like that! A law unto themselves. Like Devonian gardeners. 😉
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She was tucked up in my little mini plastic greenhouse. None of my others, banished to the wastelands, have sprouted. Peggy has disappeared from the National Collection of Dahlias website. I have just sent them an email 😦 I love a bit of ancharchy 🙂
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I have three watches too. A weekend watch, a work/gardening watch (in theory I don’t mind if it gets bashed though the first scratch was hard to bare) and an emergency watch which is rather useless as the battery died years ago and I’ve never replaced it. I also miss Woolworths. Oh, great Six by the way!
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Great six. I’m glad I’m not the only one with sneaky occasional snakehead fritillaries.
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I’m glad I’m not alone too! Thanks 🙂
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My fritillaries don’t multiple either and I forgot this until now. I planted a pots worth the other week on my sisters grave with the idea they would seed and it would look gorgeous in a few years but as you say that’s for the fairytales.
Love that you named a dahlia, great name, but the link to the dahlia database doesn’t work 😒
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OK, thank for letting me know, I will check it out. Perhaps they have discontinued her! Perhaps next year the fritillaries will prove us wrong. 🙂
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Nice Six Gill and great pictures! My first dahlia showed its first shoots yesterday and I can’t wait to repot them, to see them bloom later …I’m going to take a look at my blueberry this afternoon. I don’t have many but it’s still a pleasure to eat one or two here or there.
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Thanks Fred, this is the best time of year, when any little sprout is welcomed like a champion!
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I don’t grow blueberries- do they always flower early. I need to check on gooseberries, no sign of my pots yet or dahlias but more to the point my asparagus hasn’t appeared either. I feel panic setting in!
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No flowers yet on my blueberry but lovely to see the close up of yours. I keep hoping my fritillarias will multiply and I do spread the seeds about. I know it’s not a fairy tale though as there is a large patch of naturalised frits just up the road from me. Maybe the owner has a magic wand – I’ll ask him…
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I am so glad your salix rooted. I am just about adopting British Summer Time. I hate to organise my day according to such an arbitary timetable. The Pianist alters all the clocks and my watch but I have no truck with it until I’m ready, it usually takes a couple of weeks.
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That is why we are friends 🙂
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Ah, woolies. Land of cheap 7″ singles, picknmix sweets and other stuff I expect, I mainly cared about the first two. I have been monitoring the health of my Acer seedling. It is white and dead looking from about two inches up, but I think I detect new buds lower down. I am on the tenter most of hooks.
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Not many of us wear watches anymore. I used to wear pocket watches, which were not easy to find a good selection of back in the 1980s, when we were all wearing Swatches and Gucci. I think that the old Gucci store is still in the same location on Rodeo Drive downtown. I never got past their front doors. Nowadays, I just look at the telephone. I can not wear anything on my wrists.
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Goodness! I must say those are a fabulous Six! I will not risk being negligent about commenting on that; although I can’t grow blueberry, do not grow potato, dislike Japanese maple, and have no good excuse to grow more willow. That makes yours more interesting; right?
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I will take it as a compliment Tony, I think!
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That would likely be healthier for me.
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My Fritillaries came from my Dad’s garden but they haven’t really increased (but at least they’re still around). It’s magical seeing the roots on the willow cuttings, so exciting.
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You are right, it is the most exciting time of the year to me, even more so than Christmas!
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