Gardening Gardening
Plants of the
Month
March
Narcissus‘ Rip Van Winkle’
This double-flowered dwarf Irish cultivar, is one of the more unusual and eye catching Daffodils with its spiky, yellow petals. Rip Van Winkle is excellent naturalised with other bulbs at the front of a border and as a cut flower. They are pest resistant and when given ample sunlight and moisture during the growing season, will provide years of tousled colour in early spring for many years. Well worth picking one up from the Plant Centre.
Words: Peter Edge, Plant Centre Manager
April Erythronium pagoda
I can’ t get enough of this plant. Absolute dream. This Erythronium with its mottled leaves and bright yellow lily like flowers is a hybrid of E. californicum and E. toulumnense. It prefers a damp spot with partial or dappled shade and if happy will spread vigorously, so best to plant giving plenty of space to neighbouring plants. The Royal Horticultural Society have given it an Award of
Garden Merit and it is available in the Plant Centre.
May Primula pulverulenta
The Mealy Primrose can be found in numbers as you walk from the Ornamental Garden to the Cherry Orchard, rosettes of reddish purple flowers add colour to this area under the trees. We collect the seed in autumn and sow before the spring so we have plenty in the nursery to provide the Plant Centre. Put this Primula in a damp fertile spot in part shade to return year after year.
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