Less than 24 hours to go before the clocks go forward here in the UK. And everyone will start moaning about having to get up earlier, having an hour less sleep and, consequently being all grumpy and lethargic tomorrow. I, on the other hand, am looking forward to an extra hour in bed. I’ll still go to bed at 11pm each night whatever “real” time that represents. So effectively I’ll be going to bed an hour earlier.

But resident cat doesn’t pay any attention to the clocks. He runs permanently on “Pillster time”. So in the winter, he wakes me up at 6.30 every morning. But once the clocks go forward, he’ll wake me up at 7.30. I’ll be hopping around, full of the joys of spring. Meanwhile, Gill Heavens will probably be over-feeding herself with pasties in the hope of having an excuse for a lie-in.

So if I go to bed an hour earlier and get up an hour later, I suppose I really get two hours’ extra sleep each night. Two for the price of one. Sounds good. And about as honest as your average BOGOF in the supermarket.

But talking about hopping around, it’s time to hop through six things in the garden on Saturday. The notion of having six things in your garden has been patented and copyrighted by a certain Mr Propagator who hangs out in his little niche of the blogosphere and curates the weekly contributions. This is not curating as in physically caring for a collection of priceless valuables in a museum; rather it’s curating as in copy-writing something in pursuit of his copyright and then sitting back whilst each of us copy-writes our own thing and then cleverly links that to the end of his copy-writing efforts. This, of course, is where to go if you want countless links to other blogs whose bloggers have joined in this enjoyable exercise in confusion. Please DO NOT count the number of links. If you do, they would immediately cease to be countless and the impact will be lost.

Right, off we jolly well hop.

1 Banging the Drim

When it was called Drimys, this shrub was a nice columnar thing which had lots of nice red stems and a measure of nice small flowers in the spring. Now it’s called Tasmannia and has got a little big for its boots. Shooting up a foot higher and flowering more profusely than ever before, it has also spread outwards, though this may simply be branches bending under the weight of flowers.

2 Reduction

A rather uninspiring Frittilaria imperialis. Some years ago I planted 10 of these. Every year the number popping up has reduced by one. 10, 9. 8, and so on. This is the one remaining. So I suppose it’s goodbye. The poor chap gets his swan song celebrated,

3 A Tale of Two Alstroemeria

Mr Prop has been sowing Alstroemeria seeds, having taken a course with Christopher Lloyd and Graham Rice. Mr Prop is not known for his patience when it comes to propping (nor for appreciating that his garden is of finite size). So I thought I’d give him encouragement with a BOGOF offer.

I sowed some seeds in the autumn of 2017. Alstroemeria seeds like to be sown fresh so I sowed when I collected them. About 100 seeds. After about a year, ten had germinated. Some kept at it long enough to be potted on, and potted on again. I now have four seedlings left.

Back in March I took some root cuttings. There’s a knack to this. Maybe I’ll blog the knack sometime. Anyhow …

Patience is needed with seed sown Alstroemeria. You have been warned. Oh, and the germination rate for un-fresh seeds will be lower.

4 Acne

Trick of the light. This isn’t a photo taken with a flash. Spotty Dotty looking good in the shade, where she should be. So there! Podophyllum for the uninitiated.

 

5 Cheating

I can’t be bothered to grow bedding begonias from seed: way too much fuss! So I buy little plug plants. Which have arrived early. I wasn’t expecting to have to pot up that many little babies just yet. Oh well, plans exist to be changed.

I will be going potty dotty for the rest of the day!

6 I Will Survive

A Gloria Gaynor moment. At the end of the planting season I got sent a bag of dwarf Narcissus as a freebie. Nowhere to plant them. Chucked the bag in the greenhouse. Yesterday I was cleaning out ready for the potting up of item 5. And I found this. Deserves a mention for growing in nothing.

That’s all folks. Till next time.

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PS Regular readers may recall my mentioning a while back that I’d won a voucher in a competition. Voucher to the value of £140 to be spent with a particular “company”. Well I redeemed that voucher. If you’re interested, read wot I got here.

PPS The germination rate of sycamore seeds is 349%. This rate will be improved if you do not sow them in solid concrete.

PPPS  Regular readers may be worried about my keeping Gill Heavens’ mum in my greenhouse and not offering her the spare bed. I can reassure everyone that aforementioned mum is now re-accommodated in my cold frame and is under daily observation. I will report back once she wakes up.

PPPS I took a three-quarter-mile round trip to the garden centre the other day to collect a plant I’d ordered. That plant cost me £107. I like expensive plants. The plant was actually £8. The other £99 was for the new tyre. I got a puncture. A puncture too close to the tyre wall to plug so a newbie was needed. The original tyre was just over five months old (the car is just over five months old). Expressions of sympathy appreciated.