Zooming through the Week.

Waterford, south-east Ireland, 13th February 2021

Zoom, Zoom, Zzzzzzoooooommmmmmmm!

That’s how the week went! Now, of course, you have imagined that the week simply zipped past but this was not the case at all. In fact, it was a slow week, a very slow week with very, very little gardening at all. I did an hour of gardening last Sunday morning and it was perishingly cold so I quickly called it a day and went indoors to watch Wales defeat Ireland in their Six-Nations fixture. It would be a reasonable comment to say that Ireland lost rather than Wales won but such is sport and it will be justifiably recorded as a win for Wales and I wouldn’t begrudge them their victory nor celebrations.

So, what zoomed?, you may well ask! Well, in one sense, I zoomed for most of the week and then I zoomed some more. Zoom meetings have become the thing for gardening clubs with the restrictions on travel and large gatherings. I am a member of a gardening club in Cork (about two hours away from home) and also of another club with a nationwide membership. As replacement for their normal winter talks with visiting speakers, both have organised Zoom meetings for the entertainment of the membership. I have joined meetings from both of these clubs and, indeed, a couple from the U.S.A. (David Culp, which was free!) and have also joined a few from Plant Heritage in the U.K. And, now, I am going to be zooming myself as I am going to give a talk to the members of the Irish Garden Plant Society on the 2nd of March and another to the members of Plant Heritage in the U.K. on the 10th of April. As the weather was too cold for gardening, I spent the week selecting photographs for the talks, deciding on their arrangement and sequence in the talk and, with some research, adding notes for my information and captions for the benefit of my audience. It will be a new method of presentation for me and I am a little anxious, hoping it goes well but, at any rate, will do my best. The titles of the talks, by the way, are “A Snowdrop Garden” and “Mount Congreve, An Irish Treasure” and links to details are below.

There was a little improvement in the weather on Friday which tempted me to give the big mower a run but I failed to start it. I imagine the battery is run down though it was turning over so I haven’t given up hopes that it might start when next I try it. In the meantime, I took out the push mower and ran around the edges of the grass and afterwards trimmed the edges with a strimmer – a case of giving the garden a cat’s lick, so to speak. It wasn’t a great deal but it heartened me and brought back the enjoyment of being active in the garden, something I hope we will be able to be more and more as the weather improves. We live in hope!

Now, let’s have a look at some things from the garden this week. Let’s begin with a sprinkle of primulas around the garden, nothing special, none a named cultivar but they have grown here for years and years without intervention or help.

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This camellia is probably ‘Donation’, a very easy one which has grown well over the years and is the first to flower in the garden. It has also given a crop of seedlings underneath but all are still too small to flower. I may move some to see how what they become. It would be interesting but, I imagine, the will simply be another pink camellia!

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These evergreen shrubs give interest in the garden right through the year but are especially to be appreciated in winter when they provide colour and form in the garden.

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I am borrowing Mary’s work for these irises for it is she who has grown them on in pots on a stand at the back door, a beautiful spot of colour each time we go out and in. Iris ‘Katherin Hodgkins’ is planted out in the garden and has multiplied very well so that there is now a very good patch of it there.

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Few plants better the daphnes for fragrance. Daphne bholua ‘Jacqueline Postil’ has especially beautiful fragrance and we have grown it for years but, only purchased last year, Daphne ‘Fragrant Princess’ is also especially fragrant and a wonderful addition to the garden – it is still in a pot until the head gardener decides on the spot for it. Daphne mezerium ‘Album’ is a seedling in the garden and I have never thought of it as being particularly fragrant. It is a shrub which doesn’t invite the nose to explore.

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Finally, for this week, thought the weather has been too cold for snowdrops to open it has been possible to take a quick walk around and take shots which show the contribution snowdrops make to the garden in groups rather than peeking into the details of the individual cultivars – though a few are included individually.

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So, we have passed another week, another week under the confinement of Covid restrictions, and we can only look forward in hope for the successful implementation of the vaccination programme and, in the short-term, to better weather which will allow us to spend more time in the garden. Best wishes to everybody!

I’m sharing this blog with a group of fellow bloggers who contribute to a “Six on Saturday” theme which is hosted by “The Propagator” on his blog site. To read more contributions to the Six on Saturday theme go to The Propagator’s entry for today, scroll down to the comments and you will find other bloggers have posted links to their Saturday entries there. Lots to read!

A bit of self-promotion: My two talks: A Snowdrop Garden and Mount Congreve – An Irish Treasure