June 17th Potatoes from a Waterbutt

Georgia O’Keefee painted some brilliant portraits of red Poppies some times upto 3 feet wide and high, even bigger than the real thing in my garden.The last photo shows how Red and Green work well together on a canvas or in a garden setting. Oriental poppies are perennial and most Poppy species are easy to grow from seed of which 50 varieties are available from Thompson & Morgan

The objective of a Stumpery is to create a garden feature from ferns, logs and old tree roots. The Victorians started a trend to build Rooteries, Ferneries and Stumperies as romantic woodland places to grow exotic ferns and woodland plants. If you have a dark corner or want to collect ferns then you could start your own Stumpery quite easily and add to it as the fancy takes you.

Members of the Buttercup family are called Ranunculaceae. To grow the plants successfully beware the seeds tend to have a short period of viability and need planting straight away.

I am growing my early potatoes in various containers but these canvas sacks look to me to be a great idea.

Seductive plants from Madeira are best viewed on the island but it is tempting to bring some how as bulbs or plants. I avoid bringing plant material home as it may bring back pest and disease. As a Yorkshireman I don’t want  to loose my money and the plant markets are just tourist ‘come and buy me’ traps.

Related

What plants evoke memories of your childhood. For me there are some old favourites that you can try again now in your natural garden. They are often available in a better form as seed and selection has improved over the years.

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Art can be found in many situations and you don’t need to look too far in the alpine house.

Nemesia are good flowers for rock gardens, containers or for use as a bedding and front of border plants. Surprisingly they also make a nice and useful cut flower.

Mesclun is a name for a traditional melange of salad leaves. The name mesclun doesn’t feature in any of my gardening reference books before 1980 so old gardeners may not recognise the term.

The ancient Chinese have cultivated Tree Peonies for over 1500 years. Prized specimens are and were grown for medicinal purposes as they contain glucocides and alkolides. The  imperial palace gardens had many specimens that became quite valuable.