Hello and welcome to this weeks SOS.
Happy Easter!
Rumour has it we are supposed to be having some warm weather this weekend although when I wrote this blog mostly on Thursday there is still a cold breeze coming off the North Sea from the Baltic all week. However yesterday’s temperatures more than made up for it and to make things even better we had a heavy dew yesterday morning which the plants enjoyed.
I have taken delivery and bought about 18 – 20 more plants this week. Mostly Alpine but a couple of Echerverias miraculously appeared from E bay🤗. It has been dry this week and I have started to mulch my borders with compost to try and give them a boost and keep more water after last years problems with lack of rain.
Here is my SOS.
1. Tulip Miami Sunset
Or Barrats Fruit Salad as I call it. All my tulips are starting to open this week and this one has caught my eye. This is my first time I have grown this one and it is already on my list for next year. I am toying with the idea of keeping a few of my tulips in the pots and not lifting them when they have died back. I will be keeping them in a shady place. I realise that you can’t guarantee hybrid tulips will flower properly the next year. I do have a couple of varieties flowering ok for the second time one of them is the variety Ronaldo.
2. Eryngium Neptune’s gold.
I have bought a couple of Sea Hollies this week to add to my collection. I have 6 different varieties now as they of course can with stand drought. This is a newish variety. It’s leaves stand out and you can see them from yards away. The flowers are supposedly electric blue which is sounds exciting.
3. Heuchera Marmalade
Like my collection of Eryngiums my collection of Heucheras is growing. This one Marmalade is one of my favourites at the moment. Soon they should start to flower and they flower for a long time and attract bees.
4. Aeonium Zwartkop and Velour
As I wrote last week I have started to plant some of the Aeoniums directly into the garden. This week I have planted my Zwartkop and Velour plants. The Zwartkop one I bought from EBay and when it arrived the cutting was small and weedy but now it has quadrupled in size and looks healthy and glossy. These will be dug up and put in pots in the winter and stored under glass.
5. Omphalodes Cappadocica Starry Eyes
Also know as Navelwort this Alpine likes part shady moist areas. I thought I had lost it last year as J could not see any trace of it. However it has reappeared this year. The flowers are so beautiful they look like porcelain. This is a plant that when it catches your eye you can’t stop looking for it when you are on the garden. Omaphalodes were actually mentioned in gardeners world by Carol Klein last night.
6. Saxifraga Whitehills
Looks like this Saxifraga is going to flower this year. It didn’t go anything last year but it is looking positive this year. Grey, blue and green coloured rosettes that turn purple in the sun. This plant is starting to grow big and is becoming a standout plant in my troughs.
That is my SOS.
I am working today so going to have to concentrate on the garden on Sunday. If anyone wants to come along I will be doing a rain dance on Sunday because I really don’t want to get the hose out until middle of May at least and parts of the garden are getting parched.
As always to find out how six on Saturday works please follow the following link The Propagator. The don of Six on Saturday.
Until next week bye.
Sedums, Dahlias and Hayfever 
Yes, so smart to add that tulip to next year’s list. It’s a beauty. Happy Easter!
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I also grow the tulip Ronaldo and the reflection of the sun gives beautiful colors. Yours ( Miami sunset ) is very beautiful. Double advantage of being veined and franged. I also liked in your Six the Omphalodes and its eye catching flowers! Happy Easter Paul
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Bassets Fruit Salad! I like that name for the tulips. Not had a Bassets Fruit Salad in years. Do they still make them? Starry Eyes is very striking.
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I believe you can..
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You can order them on Amazon I believe
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What a beautiful tulip!
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Thanks I thought so as well!
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Beautiful navelwort alpine and your tulip reminds me of a fruit cocktail. I was just thinking about eryngiums as the soil in our garden is cracked already so drought resistant plants is the way forward.
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That tulip is really beautiful! And the Starry Eyes plant – the colour looks painted on!
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Yes after the warm weather of the last week and most of last year I think more drought tolerant plants is the way forwardS
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A lovely selection. I saw Omphalodes Cappadocica ‘Starry Eyes’ at Arley Hall and was wondering what the name was. Thanks for the identification.
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Your welcome.
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Your heuchera is beautiful, there are so many lovely ones out there these days. I have a navelwort in my SoS, just a plain blue one though, such a great little plant. Loving your name for the tulip, suits it down to the ground!
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Yes we really are spoiled for choice when it comes to Heucheras now. Every time I look at that tulip I can taste fruit salad.
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That Navelwort looks almost artificial!! I thought I was reading the wrong post until you took us back to your excellent Sedums!! Nice Six again!
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Aye granny that Navelwort looks like painted porcelain flowers to me.
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The saxifrage is going to be beautiful in a few weeks, not that it’s looking bad now. Looking forward to seeing pictures of it at its best. Not really sure why I don’t have Omphalodes, an oversight in need of correction and that’s a lovely form you have.
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Yes I think the Saxifraga is going to be a star this year.
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You are right about the tulips, they are mostly not reliable repeat performers. I’m not bothering this year, will compost them and start again. Having said that I might lift a pot or two and dry them out in the greenhouse.
I like your alpine.
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Thank you. I thought I had lost that Navelwort but it has come back with a bar this year.
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Well you sent me of on another hunt! And success. They still make Fruit Salad and you can get it in various online retro sweet shops or, if you’re that way inclined, Amazon! Your navel has even more omph than Gill’s. That’s on the list now. The Saxifrage looks very promising but ….. oh dammit, that’s on the list as well. Aren’t I lucky to still have room in my alpine beds?
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I don’t really have Alpine beds as such although I am adding one behind the shed North Facing. I have mostly Alpine troughs and pots.
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If Buy any more alpines I have to buy more troughs.
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I grew an old common variety of sea holly as cut flower in the summer of 1986. It was an odd cut flower, and was unpleasant to handle, but that was the 80s. I had not seen it for more than thirty years before I found it in a nursery. As much as I disliked it back then, I wanted it for my own garden. Since then, all sorts of odd varieties have been introduced, and I do not even know if I could find the old common variety anymore.
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I’m not sure if I’m brave enough to plant my Aeoniums in the ground. I think the S&S will have a field day.
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That tulip is quite stunning.
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Thank you.
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