The patient gardener

Dull and drizzly again - when will spring arrive! We drove down town this morning for a few things; I wanted some more glazing clips and a few plants for a hanging basket I bought yesterday  - a fuchsia, an ivy and some lobelia did the trick. Couldn't get the clips at Homebase so popped along to Cakebread's Garden Centre where I found a pack. I also bought a couple of plants, of course! One was a succulent, Delosperma cooperi 'Ice Cream Fire' and a lovely evergreen woodland perennial which I grew at Arduaine - Disporum pernyi. This grows about 18" tall and has white hanging bells - it's sometimes called the evergreen Soloman's Seal. As soon as I got home I split it into two and potted them up!

Spent the afternoon sowing more peas and runner beans, making up the basket and other plant stuff! We're off to Mull tomorrow for a couple of days.

My Blip today is of the giant Himalayan lily, Cardiocrinum giganteum. The extra shows the flower more closely. I remember seeing a whole glade of these in a forest in Nepal, not in flower but in seed. I brought seed home and grew it on - the bulbs took 7 years to grow to flowering size and can end up 6-10ft tall! Then they die! They leave behind several offsets, which can take 4-5 years to flower. Once you have a multi-aged group then you'll probably have one in flower every year! The best time to plant them is five years ago!