March is a month of MAGIC - strange things happen, stirrings, movements under the soil, buds open on bare twigs, and I itch to start gardening again. But March is a fickle month, and can confound my creativity with alternate days of winter and summer, one day snow and the next sunshine. But I am planning, and sowing seeds, and pottering in the greenhouse. This is what William Wordsworth wrote about March in a poem to his sister Dorothy It is the first mild day of March / Each minute sweeter than before; / The redbreast sings from the tall larch / That stands beside our door. There is a blessing in the air, / Which seems a sense of joy to yield / To the bare trees, and mountains bare, / And grass in the green field. My sister ! ('tis a wish of mine) / Now that our morning meal is done, / Make haste, your morning task resign; / Come forth and feel the sun. The Wordsworths, William and sister Dorothy, liked gardening, and Dorothy recorded their activities and plants in her Grasmere Diaries. 1802 19 April. A mild rain very warm. Wm worked in the garden ... 1802 28 May .... In the garden we have lilies and many other flowers. The scarlet Beans are up in crowds ... May roses blossoming. Nearer to home another diarist recorded his horticultural year in a brief diary kept between 1784 and 1785. There were other volumes but they have been lost. James Coates lived in a village only a few miles from me and recorded 1785 30 March Wheeling dung into our garden 1785 16 April Sowing our onions, reddish [sic], lettuce and cabbage seeds and digging till 6 o'clock. I have over a hundred Auriculas, all grown myself from seed, and they are just starting to come awake and show their gorgeous little faces. I just love them. Cucumbers and tomatoes. I normally sow far too many seeds and then have no room for them in the greenhouse, so this year I am being a bit more sensible. Four cucumbers, so far three have germinated. It is wonderful to watch them turn towards the light. Two different varieties of tomato, one red and one yellow. I have long had a passion for gardening. I just love growing things. And both my parents were good gardeners. Many, many years ago, in the early 1950s, they bought some roses from Braithwaites at Leeming Bar. They loved them and we knew them all by name. One was called Rosemary Rose. So when my first daughter was born in 1979, and I called her Rosemary, they dug up Rosemary Rose and gave it to me. It has moved house with us several times, and we still have it. When my second daughter was born I wanted to have a plant named after her, Anna, and as an avid listener to Gardeners' Question Time on a Sunday afternoon on the Radio, wrote to them to ask their advice on a plant called Anna. This was in the days of Fred Loads, Bill Sowerbutts and Professor Alan Gemmell. They read out my letter and came up with a vegetable, can't remember what it was ! But I had in mind a rose. However, suggestions came in from listeners. I had a lovely correspondence with the lady who sent this letter. Oh the joy of letters ! I kept them of course. Now it would all be by email and no record kept. She suggested several roses called Anna, Wheatcroft, Pavlova, Ford etc Anna as a little tot, and the red rose is Rosemary Rose. In the end I bought the rose Anna Ford for her, a lovely apricot coloured rose. And last year I dug that up and gave it to the now grown-up Anna who now has her first house and garden. Another listener to GQT sent me this gorgeous picture on a card. The artist was James Noble, well known for flower paintings, and the rose is called Anna Zinkeisen. Isn't it a joy ? So of course I wanted to know who Anna Zinkeisen was to warrant such an accolade. She too was an artist. Anna Katrina Zinkeisen was one of two artist sisters, the other was Doris. They were Scottish and excellent artists. They painted murals for the ship the Queen Mary. During the Second World War Anna was a medical war artist, and she painted operations in hospitals and medical staff and patients. She also painted flowers. Art UK has some of her paintings https://artuk.org/ Isn't this gorgeous ? This is one of Anna Zinkeisen's flower paintings which is at Imperial College. I also discovered the wonderful rose paintings of Henri Fantin-Latour. Roses dans un vere a pied by Fantin-Latour, 1836 - 1904 Birmingham Museum Do find more of his paintings they are exquisite. But back to my garden. I have more seeds to sow, already I have got the dahlias out of the boxes of sawdust in the garage, and so far have a remarkable success rate in geraniums. I dig them up at t'back-end, autumn to other people, and simply store them in dry compost in the garage. At this time of year I bring them back to life in the greenhouse, and already they have green leaves and some buds. Magic is all around, plants that one day were just dry twigs are bursting into life. The fuschias have tiny leaves unfurling, buds on the cherry tree are swelling. Oh joy ! So that is my creativity for this month, with some reminiscences about flowers and plants much loved and filled with memories. Primula Sinensis artist Charles Archer 1855 - 1931, Derby Art Gallery Primula Auricula with butterfly, artist unknown, at Haddo House I think my Auriculas are just as nice if not nicer. This was our back garden last year. Will the dahlias all come to life again ? Can we stop the slugs eating them ? More updates as the year goes on !
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AuthorThis is where you can share creativity with me. I believe that everyone has something creative within them, and it is a joy to find ways of being creative. Blogging is NEW to me, so here goes ..... Archives
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