Cherrie Notes
It was a case of rain stopped play this week, wasn鈥檛 it?
One glorious day of spring cum summer on Tuesday and it鈥檚 been downhill all the way since.
I鈥檓 trying very hard not to be a weather bore though, because everything looks so fresh and new after a shower/downpour.
The fields and hedgerows on the drive into work on Wednesday were positively pinging with green-ness or 鈥渧erdure鈥� as a Romanian friend of mine once said, remembering with a dewy eye a happy visit here. 鈥淎h, Ireland,鈥� he said,鈥漼ou have so much verdure.鈥�
Indeed we do... and it鈥檚 a great word which is now and forever in my mind when I look out at my rain-drenched garden.
Rain may have stopped play as far as this gardener is concerned, but the plants in the main just love it. Even before the weather took a nose dive the extra warmth in the air and in the ground worked it鈥檚 magic.
Almost before my very eyes plants are stretching,spreading and budding up.
The leaves on the Maples have unfurled and are fanning out by the second and the clumps of hardy geraniums are growing up, out and over, obscuring among other things, a lovely little newly planted heritage primrose bred by Joe Kennedy.
These subtle delicately-coloured primroses with their dark burgundy foliage with undertones of green make a more gentle impression to the garden in spring than their bolder, brighter, bedding plant cousins.
We鈥檙e hoping to call in to see Joe one of these weeks to find out more about the primrose breeding process and why he loves these dainty spring plants which were once so much a part of the wider rural landscape.
Another tiny, dainty plant which I鈥檓 a little bit in love with at the moment is an Ipheon, a delicate woodlander with pale star-shaped flowers and fine foliage and two varieties came home with me last weekend from the plant benches at Mounstewart. See them growing happily and abundantly in the Mairi garden there and you鈥檒l be smitten, just like me.
At the best of times and in terms of scale, I have the willpower of a gnat when it comes to buying plants but at this time of year I鈥檓 a complete pushover.
So, waiting in the wings to be freed from their pots are Lavender, Rosemary, a pot of lovely creamy, greeny, pinky Tulips, Narcissus 鈥淭halia鈥� with it鈥檚 delicate alabaster flowers (can鈥檛 get enough!) and another even more delicate Primrose 鈥淟ady Greer鈥� with it鈥檚 soft buttermilk-coloured flowers carried on gently elongated stems, which came from Barbara Pilcher at Lisdoonan.
It鈥檚 going to live beneath a Cornus Kousa, a pretty softly coloured Hellebore, an Azalea Lutea which is just about to burst it鈥檚 buds, a deep pink Saxifrage and a little violet Vinca which is scrambling across and tumbling down a terraced stone wall.
We鈥檙e in studio this Saturday with our phone-in for May when Barbara will be with us to dispense lots of great gardening knowledge and she鈥檒l be joined by Averil Milligan, Head Gardener at Rowallane.
I hope you鈥檒l be able to join us and if not, you can hear the programme repeat on Sunday just after one'o鈥檆lock, you can listen again over the next seven days via the 大象传媒 iPlayer or download Gardeners' Corner as a podcast and many thanks to those of you who do just that every week.
