Moors Meadow Open Gardens and Nursery - Bromyard

This Month

This Month February 2012 - Thursday, 02 Feb 2012

I was quite happy with the winter, that is as happy as I ever am with winter, until Jack came creeping around to plague me with cold fingers and toes but he hasn’t been here too much and February is upon us with the nights drawing out.

I do not usually like pruning apple trees but I haven’t found it so bad this year and there should be even less next winter as we introduced a chainsaw to some trees to such an extent there now remains only enough tree to act as a climbing frame for whatever ornamental climbing plant happens to be rambling over it.

Even though most of the winter jobs are finished I haven’t been in the garden as much as I intended to get some extra jobs done and I do keep promising I will spend time making a new seat though the only woodwork I have done is a new bookcase.

I do like seeing the carpets of snowdrops at this time of year and we intend to spread them round even more. I was told that the garden “boffins” now say that maybe moving snowdrops “in the green”, that is just after flowering, is not right as bulbs are usually planted when they are dry and dormant, well they certainly haven’t been to Moors Meadow to see the thousands and thousands we have moved “in the green” and it has worked perfectly well for us for about 50 years, besides I know I certainly wouldn’t be able to remember where any big clumps are that need splitting if they didn’t have foliage showing.

We had been lamenting our supposedly self-fertile Kiwi fruit and thinking it was a dud as it did have several flowers but a few weeks ago I noticed three fruit, not very big admittedly but still deliciously juicy and tasty so we look forward to a larger crop this year.

We organised a surprise Mad Hatters Tea Party to celebrate mums 90^th and it was brilliant to see her face as she realised this group of crazy people in mad hats were family and friends. Many thanks to the Falcon for a great buffet and to Steve Palmer for singing Sinatra.

Plant of the month: Cyclamen coum

I do not know of any common name for this pretty little plant maybe I should make one up.

There are about 20 species of these perennials from Mediterranean and southwest Asia and they belong to the Primula family. The hardy Cyclamen coum is from the Balkans, Turkey and Lebanon, the Latin coum refers to the Greek island of Kos.

The round tubers sit on or just below the soil surface and increase in size each year, these are best left undisturbed. The leaves are round or heart-shaped and come in varying patterns and shades of green often with silver markings.

Each 4in (10cm) stalk has an elegant flower which are downward pointing with 5 twisted erect petals and are usually pale mauve to deep pink and often stained crimson at the base.

Plant in light rich soil with good drainage in sun or semi-shade though ours do very nicely in quite deep shade. Propagate from seed, we often save our own seed which germinate abundantly when planted fresh.

The Hardy autumn flowering variety is C. hederifolium with corms up to 6ins (15cm) wide, with larger flowers than C. coum, they are often white to rose-pink and darker at the base.

To see a short video of Moors Meadow visit -

http://www.goherefordshire.co.ukitem.do?item=1994

Ros.

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