Argh, the village flowers

I had completely forgotten: I’m down on the list to supply the village with plants. And despite having a sign 28 April Village Flowers written large
on a note on my office cork board, I ignored it.

And only when Jean Daniel roared past to ask whether I had boxed up the cosmos did the dread reality dawn.  Luckily I always have spares.  But in that great ironic timing thang, I had just given Andrew most of the spares the day before.
But I was able to give them forty plants now. and I will have to madly sow some extra ones and hope they germinate next week.

And thank goodness cosmos self sows in the potager. Despite an extra layer of fresh mulch plonked on top evey spring.

I was able to raid a dozen on my first pass, and there are plenty that should be a good potting up size in a fortnight.  But I’ve learned my lesson. I have put a note in my flower seed drawer to remember in better time next year.

I decided to have a quick mow of the walnut path today. And it makes a great difference to the irises either side of the path. The yellow ones are frankly hilarious.  The spikes are three feet tall at least.

And speaking of tall, I have a huge salsify flower blooming in the potager for the first time.

I sowed the seeds two years ago and nothing happened until this spring. Worth the wait? Well. It’s fetching; but I can’t wait that many years for blooms.

Leslie came over late morning and with a birthday treat. Fifty lily bulbs – Lilium Pumilum. A gorgeous red lily which I am very excited to have in the garden.

After a lovely visit and a long lap around the garden, I put seven of them in the little narrow step garden directl7 in front of the house.

The rest I potted up into large pots and sunk (sank?) them in the flower bed in the potager.  I aim to thwart the mole rat this year by hiding all the juicy bulbs from its voracious teeth.

I need to pot up the dahlias in the same way. All I need to do is find the large plastic pots I bought last month and stored away cleverly in the potting shed. Appropriate. But the space is so large that I can hide an elephant under those staging shelves and not notice.