You know the feeling… the gardening magazines are telling you what you should be doing this month, and the glossy catalogues are all urging you to buy young plants for spring planting…
…. and it is still cold and wet with frosty nights and icy winds!
I should cut back my Miscanthus and Calamagrostis in the butterfly bed, as new growth is just about showing. And the Buddleia can be trimmed down a bit more too. But I think they look so lovely still with the hellebores and a few scattered spring bulbs.
There is one thing about this picture that disturbs me though.
Those white plant labels!
Then I had a brainwave. The black plastic pots that plants from the nursery come in can be used again for seedlings etc, but there are always some with sharp edges or broken bases which end up at our recycling centre. Why don‘t I recycle them myself…. into strips that can be used as labels? I tried it out, cutting rounded ends so they can’t scratch me when I’m weeding, and my silver pen works just as well on them as on the expensive black labels I have bought in the past. What‘s more, they are softer and more flexible than the bought ones, which snap easily if trodden on by mistake. (We will see how durable they are long term.) I will also make the next lot just a little longer so they can stick into the ground firmly.
(If you do try this out, let me know how it works for you. Or maybe you have a better way of labelling plants…?)
So here is my latest purchase -a pretty creamy white hellebore, with new label: H. x ericsmithii ‘Shooting Star’.
Intrigued by the name, I googled it and found an article about Mr Smith, a plantsman from the middle of last century who specialized in hellebore and hosta hybrids among other things. Here is the article if you are interested in a nice read…
‘Eric Smith, a Plantsman’ by J.C. Archibald
The other labels will also be replaced…. once it warms up out there!
Wishing you all some nice gardening weather soon!
Words and Herbs 