Bannockburn House Garden Blog – In like a Lion Out Like a Lamb
The Bannockburn House Trust Garden Blog
– by Margaret Pollock
What a difference a few warm days can make to the spring garden. If you have a sheltered corner in your garden then you will have noticed that the sun is feeling much warmer now and if you can get out of the keen wind then it can be a deceptively warm time of year. Our polytunnels face north/south so they are calm inside on days when the sharp east wind blows and any heat from the sun can quickly accumulate.
The other day it was almost 35 degrees C in there, so it is ideal for getting an early start on seed-sowing. Of course the overnight temperature is the crucial figure and on a clear night, without heating, our temperatures plummet and even last week we were in the minus region overnight.
A polytunnel is great for bringing on early spring bulbs so we have a wonderful selection of tulips and mini-daffodils in full bloom just now but sadly they will be finished by the tine Easter arrives.
We took advantage of the dry weather to prepare a large bed for some grass seed sowing. The bed is 50 metres long and about 5 metres wide. After weeding it in Autumn, we mulched it with a thick layer of fallen leaves and then covered the whole bed with black membrane. This prevented any new weeds taking root and has helped to keep the soil warm and moist. When we stripped back the bed and raked off any remaining leaves we were delighted to see the moist, crumbly soil underneath was full of worms. It has not been dug since October so the soil is firm and riddled with worm-tunnels – great for drainage. It scarcely took us a day to get the bed ready and seeded and we finished just in time as it rained that evening and for a couple of days afterwards. Hopefully in a another week or so we will begin to see a faint green haze as the tiny blades of grass begin to emerge from the seeds.
This is the time of year when Daffodils really put on a show taking pride of place in many a garden. A large display of the bulbs in full bloom is a stunning spectacle and whilst we might not be lucky enough to encounter the wild spectacle that so enchanted William Wordsworth when he stumbled on a ‘host of golden daffodils… fluttering and dancing in the breeze’* (April 15th, 1802 at Ullswater, in the Lake District) we may often encounter a small group of daffodils as some blooming remnant of a long lost garden. They might even be some of the old varieties that used to be popular over 100 years ago.
We have a mixed display of Daffodils and two of my favourites are
Narcissus ‘Emperor’ (1865) and Narcissus ‘Empress’ (1869) both created by William Backhouse, a legendary daffodil breeder from Darlington. William had a passion for the flower and succeeded in creating bigger and stronger blooms that revolutionised daffodil breeding.
If you want to see some of his amazing flowers then pop along to the ‘Backhouse – Rossie Garden’ in Fife * https://backhouserossie.co.uk/ where there is a breath taking display, including the famous pink daffodil Mrs R O Backhouse – not to be missed!
The Empress
The Emperor
* Link to Wordsworth poem https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45521/i-wandered-lonely-as-a-cloud
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