Planting bulbs, despite the time of year

 It's an odd time of year to be planting bulbs, but that's what I've been up to.

Firstly, some fritillaries and mini-narcissi 'rescued' from the DIY store's reductions shelf.

I thought it was too cold to plant them outside (this week the overnight temperature has really dropped), so I put them in pots and left them in the porch, where they'll be cool but hopefully not frozen. In spring, I'll either bring them indoors or just place in the garden somewhere easily visible from the house. 

Secondly, this alien looking growth. 

I deliberately bought a piece of ginger root with signs of a shoot on it, kept it in its supermarket plastic bag in a warm spot in the kitchen, and let the shoot grow. It's done better than I expected - there's a little bulb growing and it even seems to be putting out roots

So I've chopped it off, keeping a little of the original root, and potted it up.

For now, it's in a plastic bag/mini greenhouse, during daytime on a windowsill above a radiator, and at nighttime in the warmth of the airing cupboard.

Hopefully by summer, I'll have home-grown ginger to harvest.

Winter Solstice

 For midwinter, today was a mild day. I spent some time this morning pottering about to and from the shed, planting daffodil and tulip bulbs and anemone corms that I bought amazingly cheaply this week. Some I've planted into pots for hopefully some early Spring flowers in the house, the others are out in the garden.

Looking around, I was surprised how much colour is still around - the house walls are covered in jasmine and cotoneaster.

More polyanthus are coming into flower

 Unfortunately, the birds seem fond of this pink one and have nibbled most of it away.

 And there are still summer 'leftovers' - an oriental poppy with two buds, orange welsh poppies in flower and the black hollyhock is still going strong.

As I'm typing this up, late at night, I can hear birds twittering in the pyracantha at the front of the house, sounding as if they're nesting already. Surely that's not possible?

More rescuing...

A quick trip to the garden centre for compost ended up with more plant rescuing!

Firstly some half price anemone corms. I've had bad luck with these in the past, which is why I wouldn't buy them at full price. They've grown for one season, not flowered well but then not appeared at all the next year. The planting guide says set April to May so it isn't late to be putting them in the garden - I just hoping it's actually warm enough!

Secondly something I spotted on offer a week or so ago and left because it requires special ericaceous compost. £1.99 isn't a lot to pay for a blueberry bush but an extra £6 -7 for the compost stopped it being cheap. This week we were intending buying the compost anyway to infill a hole where an older blueberry has been moved into the garden, so seeing these tiny thing on offer still, I brought it home. It was strangely packed not in a pot but in a clump of soil wrapped in some cling-film like wrapping. First thing was to soak it in water to loosen the roots and now it's been potted up and left in the greenhouse for a few days to give it a good start.

hyacinths

in B&Q at weekend for bird-nuts and found bulbs on half-price sale. so I've bought a bag of pale pink hyacinths in case the saved bulbs don't flower. these are not prepared bulbs for forcing indoors, but ones to plant in the garden. having potted them up, I'm going to leave them in the greenhouse for a while to chill before bringing them indoors.

planting

a wet but fairly mild day spent out in the greenhouse sorting through last year's bulbs and planting them up. quite a mix of bulbs, jumbled together - daffodils, tulips, hyacinths and some small ones that might be crocuses or muscaria. some to stay out in the garden but mainly they're to bring into the house, hopefully just after Christmas when nothing at all is growing outside.

Also set a tray of Winter Density lettuce - should start to grow in this mild weather- and re-set lupins - only one surviving from previous batch