Seeds, basal cuttings and bluebells

Yesterday I spent a lovely afternoon pottering around the garden. There's a lot to do at this time of year and so I had plenty to keep me busy. I found an old packet of seeds that I forgot I had, they are a mix of woodland wildflowers that will thrive in shade (great for our little woodland garden) by Mr Fothergills. Although the packet recommended to broadcast sow the seed direct outside, I decided to instead sow them in a tray in the greehouse, mainly so that I could choose where to plant each seedling when they are ready to go out. When you have only a small garden, you need some element of control of where to put individual plants, otherwise it can just look overwhelming and a touch messy!

As well as sowing seeds, this is the time of year when basal cuttings are taken and I am eagerly waiting for some of my plants to grow tall enough for me to do this. One of the first I will take a cutting from is my Veronica "Red fox", a beautiful plant with fluffy pinkish-red spikes in summer. I only brought one plant last year with the intention of making a few cuttings now to increase my stock and have a patch of three, or possibly even five if I am lucky with my cuttings.

I also planted out some Hollyhocks yesterday, which I brought from a garden centre about 10 days ago. As I was planting one of them, I realised that there was a baby Hollyhock growing alongside the adult plant, so I gently pulled them apart and hey presto! I got two plants for the price of one. I will definitely be looking out for that next time I'm buying Hollyhocks. I had no idea they were so easy to divide.

Another exciting development this week is the gradual opening of the bluebells in the garden. You can almost see them opening before your eyes. Watching the bold blue flowers unfurling in the sunshine is a pure joy. They reminded me that Kew Gardens must have a stunning display now. We visted Kew at the end of March so we were too early for the bluebells, but we could see all the green foliage in a great green carpet - the flowers themselves must be quite a sight now.