Grape hyacinth

I think that my favourite bulbs indoors at the moment are the grape hyacinths (Muscari armenaicum) in glass pots. The bulbs are growing crammed together with their roots reaching down into water and small pebbles. They have looked good for 3 weeks now and look set to go on for another week or so.
This is partly due to their foliage which is very fresh and grassy - somehow having glass vases of growing green is very uplifting at the time of year, regardless of whether or not there are flowers. The flowers start off tiny and then gradually snake up above the foliage and expand into conical blue heads. I have several glass pots of grape hyacinth along the dining room window ledge and the light shining through them is beautiful. Somehow they are much more springlike than all the scented hyacinths and narcissi in the other rooms.
Grape hyacinths originally come from South East Europe where they grow on grassy hillsides - I am constantly amazed by bulbs ability to adapt and happily grow inside a Scottish dining room. Another plus is that I shall be able to plant them outside after they have finished flowering.
Next year I intend to keep a better eye on my snakeshead fritillary bulbs and stop the mice eating them all - then I shall have pots of nodding fritillaries to add variety to my windowsill meadow.

New greenhouse

The wooden frame has begun to go up on the greenhouse and it has suddenly begun to look like a building rather than a large ugly raised bed. The greenhouse is a rescued one - dating from the 1920s I think - and has been stored around the back of the house since we dismantled it last October.
The new plinth was finished last week and the measurements are spot on so hopefully we will be able to get the wood all up over the easter break. I say "we" but it is very much Euan's project.
After that we can get the exterior and the new wall roughcast, the gravel and paving slabs into the drive and then start on making new raised beds for this year's flowers.

Pulmonaria 'Blue Ensign'

The best thing in the garden at the moment is Pulmonaria 'Blue Ensign' a fantastic lungwort with dark velvety leaves and the most vibrant cobalt blue flowers. The flowers with the light shining through them are the colour of bristol blue glass.
They are undemanding plants - I have them in a patch under some red stemmed dogwood and they thrive despite the grass which creeps into the bed each year. They are plants suited to woodland margins and prefer rich soil in dappled shade but also seem fine in a sunny spot in Scotland. If they are happy they will gently spread theyselves about but do not become invasive.
I got my original plant 6 years ago at Buckland Plants - an excellent family run nursery 3 miles outside Kirkcudbright. Rob and Dina Ashbridge are the owners and have put together a fantastic range of border and woodland perennials - their hellebores and blue meconopsis poppies are particularly fine. They have an really good mail order catalogue - they pack up plants securely and use reliable carriers - I haven't had a single duff plant from them.http://www.bucklandplants.co.uk. As the nursery is on top of a hill, and as they propogate their own plants, they produce very hardy plants that establish quickly.

Garden kneelers are machine washable

I was asked a lot at the Fair whether the garden kneelers were washable. Unfortunately as I hadn't done any proper tests, all I was able to say was that I had washed mine several times and that it had been fine.
I have now tested them - I selected 2 the same, washed one 5 times at 30 degrees in my machine and then dried it flat in the airing cupboard. You cannot tell which one has been washed - the material is fine and the stuffing stays bouncy - not like some so called washable pillows.
I am now happy to guarantee the kneelers to be washed at 30 degrees and dried flat. Now how I wish that I had thought to do the washing before the Fair!

Drying Hyacinths

Now that the Country Living Fair has finished I have brought back all the flowers which decorated my stall. Most have still a lot of life in them so are now ranged about the house, but the ones that got squashed on the way home I have dismembered and will dry to add into this year's pot pourri.
Hyacinths are unusual as the individual florets last well out of water. It is possible to make delicate garlands, jewellery and headdresses by threading the florets onto thread or wire. These will last a couple of days before drying. The florets also look very pretty in bowls - here is a bowl filled with a couple of dismembered heads of Pink pearl and Carnegie. They would make a great alternative to confetti.

Country Living Fair

Here are some photos of our stall at the Country Living Fair - The Fair lasts until Sunday 26th at the SECC and is full of beautiful things - a great basketware display, some wonderful wirework animals, vintage fabric bags by The Old Bag Company, and textiles by Primrose Hill Interiors http://www.primrosehillinteriors.com, Spiky Pebble http://www.spikypebble.com and Hume Sweet Hume http://www.humesweethume.com. Look on the Country Living Website for a full list.
We are having a fun time - the visitors are all enthusiastic and interested in what we are doing. We are also delighted to have won the best stall award!
The van is causing quite a stir - I have been asked for the details of where we got it at least 20 times today. For the record - if you want a good H-van the place is Simon Doe, Le Cube Utile, Melplash, Dorset.

Country Living Fair

Today was the beginning of the set up for the Country Living Fair at the SECC. The actual stall painting and primping is tomorrow and the first day open on Thursday, but today was a chance to get the van on site without having to dodge other stall holders.
As the van is without MOT and tax at the moment, it was transported to the Exhibition Centre by trailer with Euan following by car, ready to drive it into the building and onto our stall. What we had thought of as an hour's work turned out to take six hours as he waited for the carpenters etc. to finish the walls. The putting up of the exhibition is an amazing sight with masses of people all seeming to work in rhythm to get all the stall shells up, carpets laid and platforms built.
Tomorrow we shall be painting the stall powder blue, polishing the van and trying to look very professional. . .Then it is meeting the visitors Thursday to Sunday.

Goodness it's cold

The cold weather and snow have really set back plants in the garden - tulips seem to have actually shrunk and the hellebores were all squashed by the snow that slid off the tunnel roof. I think that my plan to open at the beginning of April will fall through and that it will be nearer the 3rd week by the time there is anything worth harvesting. Even without the snow the windchill has meant that it has hardly reached the 5 degrees that plants need before they start to grow.
The up side is that I have been able to concentrate on getting stock together for the Country Living Fair next week - potting forced hyacinths and paperwhites into aluminium planters, putting together growing kits and sewing up hundreds of garden kneelers and lavender pillows.
Things are beginning to happen in the garden - the new greenhouse walls are beginning to go up this weekend and a teenage friend is here to help shift some of the mushroom compost so with a bit of luck and a few weeks of sun we should be raring to go with wonderful tulips towards the end of April

seed sowing begins

The first seeds of the year have now been sown. I leave most seeds until the end of March - when we have even days and nights and the temperature fluctuations are less - but I begin snapdragons early to give them a chance to bulk up into decent sized plants.
I sow into large sized coir pellets - these are made from coir which is a byproduct of the cocunut industry, made from the husks. It is being used as an alternative to peat pellets and as well as the environmental issues, it has several advantages.
Firstly it is easier to wet - the pellets come compressed into discs about the size of backgammon conters and swell to 5 times their height when soaked in water. I find that this soaking is much quicker if you use tepid or even hot water - it gives the seeds a bit of a heat boost as well.
Secondly it comes in larger sized pellets - I don't know why - but this means that you can grow on plant to a larger size before planting out.
Thirdly the pellets seem less likely to dry out and rewet more easily.
The pellets are very low in nutrients which is great for seed germination ( seeds like low nutrient conditions) but does mean that if plants are being kept in the pellets for any length of time they will need to be fed.
I soak the pellets and then put them into old mushroom boxes which have the advangage of being stackable. I put each tray into a polythene bag and then stack them in the airing cupboard.
It is then important to check twice a day as seeds can germinate and become lanky very quickly. Snapdragons sown on Monday afternoon have already germinated and been moved to the tunnel!
I have not seen the large size coir pellets in the garden centres but I would be happy to sell them in small numbers if you want to try them out.
The coir pellets are part of the kits being given out for the Park Life Sunflower Competition.
Sunflower Tip One - Soak the coir pellet in warm water. This will speed up the swelling and also give the seed a bit of warmth to start off its germination.

Park Life Sunflower Competition

This photo shows Jordan, Georgina, Zoe and Katie putting together the sunflower competition packs for Park Life.
The packs - which have instructions, a jumbo size coir growing pellet and two sunflower seeds - will be available at Drymen and Balfron libraries and Boxwood, Main Street, Aberfoyle. If anyone needs extra packs contact me at snap.dragon@ukonline.co.uk
Though sunflowers are hardy annuals they don't like cold nights so it is best to wait until April before sowing the seed. I shall be posting some growing tips nearer the time.

Lavender - so relaxing

I am busy making up stock to sell at the Country Living Scottish Spring Fair at the SECC 23rd-26th March. Because the Fair is so early this season I shall not have many cut flowers available and, though there will be masses of potted bulbs, I am madly making up lavender pillows and garden kneelers to fill up the stall.
A number of people who bought lavender pillows at Christmas have called me to say how they have been sleeping much better since they put the pillow in their bed, or on their bedside table so it is good to know that they work as well as look pretty.
I am finding that after a couple of hours of stuffing the lavender into bags I get very, very drowsy, so I am now working outside in the sunshine with a couple of fleeces and a wooly hat on. I am becoming very calm but very cold!

The pillow pictured is 18 cm square. It is made from an early 1960s American cotton printed with roses, the backing is 1920s linen.