Lessons learned - Keeping better records

Tulipa National Velvet

I've been secretly scolding myself for weeks now.  I touched on the subject of me keeping better records of where and when I plant spring flowering bulbs in my EOMV post.  It's hardly surprising that my lack of effort has resulted me in not knowing my Alliums from my Tulips.  In my defence, if I have a valid one that is - there seems to be many tulip bulbs appearing and I don't ever remember buying as many, let alone having many tulip blooms.  I vaguely remember having a pot of Tulip Queen of the Night and Tulip National Velvet at some time in the dim and distant past.  I find I have  pictures to confirm that too.  I can only think that I would have popped them in the front garden, on a wing and a prayer, where their chances of survival will be improved by the better drainage conditions out there.



I had not intended to write a post to link with in Beth's Lessons Learned meme but something else happened yesterday and it has only gone to confirm that I need to take action sooner rather than later!

Contemplating a new spot for Hamamelis x intermedia Jelena - where she is planted makes it

February 2015

impossible to appreciate her beauty throughout the winter months. She still has a few blooms left and intend to move her when they've finally gone over.  In preparation for the move, which probably won't be for another couple of weeks, I wanted to move the wee clump of snowdrops that are growing at the base. I hadn't remembered planting them there and was rather disappointed that they hadn't flowered this year.  In my ignorance, I blamed this on me possibly moving them there at the wrong time of year or maybe I cut back the foliage too early last year.  I could see no labels, therefore thought it safe to assume that they were Galanthus nivalis.  I don't label or plot them when I move them around the garden.  Are you seeing a theme?

As every gardener that has the habit of moving plants around the garden will tell you, it's never safe to assume that any bulbs planted there or thereabouts will stay firmly in the spot you intended them to be.  That added to the occasional self seeders, can make things just as confusing, particularly if some don't come true to their parents.  I won't even bother adding wrongly labelled bulbs into the equation at this point.  I've had my fair share of those too!

I identified a suitably bare spot for the small clump of the afore mentioned G. nivalis.  I dug the receiving hole and off I trotted back down the garden to lift them from the soil.  As the trowel went in, it hit something hard, I immediately thought it was a stone, I dug around and discovered it was a clump of snowdrops that had been planted in a pond basket.  The fact that the basket was there means that I had intentionally planted them there and therefore were not G. nivalis.  I scratched my head, what on earth were they?  I had all my special snowdrops detailed in a word document and detailed in an unpublished page on my blog.  I could not recall any that I had lost track off!  I also noticed very nearby, about six inches away there was signs that another snowdrop was trying to grow, although the foliage was small, I had also assumed that it had made it's own way there.  There are a few single blooms dotted around the garden.  As I dug down, I found that it too was in a basket.  I was so annoyed with myself, why couldn't I remember?

Found snowdrops

Can you spot the label?  I wondered if the other had a label too and would what ever I had written on them still be legible?  Fingers crossed!


Phew, the names are clear.  Galanthus Hill Poe on the left and G. Galatea on the right. With no dates written, would I be able to whittle down as to how I acquired them?
  
As I back filled the holes that were left by the removal of the baskets, a foot or so away, I noticed yet more unfamiliar grow popping up through the winter debris.  What on earth have you been up to Angie?  I asked myself.

Emerging foliage March 2015

My first thought was Muscari?  I then decided that the foliage was perhaps a bit too fine to be such.  I felt down into the soil to see if I could find a buried label but no.  I didn't want to disturb them too much.  Just then I noticed the tiniest speck of what appeared to be white plastic poking above the surface but it was around 6 inches away.  Dare I hope?

Narcissus rupicola label

Written clearly, Narcissus rupicola!  Might this be them?  I have no idea, time will tell I suppose but if you are familiar with them, I'd be grateful for your opinion.

This of course was when it all came flooding back.  Last spring I received a few bulbs in the green from a gardening friend.  I had something to work with now.  Emails would be checked when I got the laptop switched on.  Described in an email as 2nd year seedlings of Narcissus rupicola, therefore this year will make them 3rd year seedlings, if in fact that is what they are.  Therefore it will be safe to assume that they will not flower this year. 

So, just what lessons have been learned this winter? More importantly how do I intend to rectify my mistakes.

• To adopt a better system than I currently use to record bulb planting/moving

The system I currently use only lists each species and variety I have.  I think I now need to include specific planting details.  Info that might be worth recording is how many bulbs I plant, where and when bought/received from and the exact spot in which they are planted.

Do you keep a bulb log?  What information do you record?  What, if anything else, do you think might prove useful?  

• Never depend on you memory, no matter how good you think it is, it will at some point fail you.

When you consider that bulbs are dormant and out of sight for pretty much most of the year, it can be all too easy to have them slip your mind.  The expression Out of sight, out of mind springs to mind. The same of course can be said about perennials and other plants around the garden but there are often more obvious signs that they exist.  If I had a record of already having G. Hill Poe in the garden then last weekend there would have been no need to buy another and I could have added an alternative to my collection. 

• The importance of labelling/tagging plants in my blog posts.

I always start with good intentions of labelling plants as they appear in my posts.  It's far easier to do when only a few plants are in each post and is not always practical on longer posts.  I use Bloom Day Posts as an example.  Despite having the search facility on my blog, I was unable to find mention of any of the plants I feature today.  How on earth can I expect visitors to find my blog and the plants I feature if I can't do so myself!  The fact that blogger only allows a specific amount of characters in their label facility does not help matters.

How do you decide which plants to label/tag or not to tag in your posts?  Do you use a general label for longer posts such as Bloom Day posts? 

•  To keep a note book to hand.

As of this week, I have placed a small spiral note book and pencil on the ledge by the back door.  It will take 2 minutes to write things down.  Not all plants have fancy nursery labels that can be collected or saved for reference.  Which reminds me, I need to work through those too!  Occasionally plants will be moved on a whim.  Plants received as a gift or swap can be easily noted.  Friends who pop in with a plant gift for you may not have had the foresight to label said gift or perhaps you picked the plant up at a plant sale, those wee white plastic labels are easily lost.  

• Plant special snowdrops in baskets.

Had I not had these named varieties in baskets, they would have otherwise been relegated to the garden as G. nivalis.  I had considered planting this year's additions to my special snowdrop collection directly in the ground without baskets but this episode has made me wary of doing so and baskets will be used every time now.  It's not worth it for the sake of a few pence, is it?  Another benefit is that the entire collection could be easily uprooted at anytime of the year for whatever reason.  It's odd to think that my friend and I had the exact same conversation after the SRGC show as we went shopping for pond baskets.  I also know that it is often recommended to growing bulbs in baskets to help deter critters.  Not an issue I have but know many of you that do. 

Does anyone else grow bulbs in baskets out in the open garden?  Do you have a specific reason for doing so, may one I haven't thought about. Perhaps one you'd like others to be aware of.        

I know that over the course of the past year I've received a few plant swaps from readers of my blog.  Please be safe in the knowledge that I have recorded said welcome additions to my garden and have the emails we exchanged saved too. 

Have you learned any lessons this winter?  If so, please put together a post and pop over to Plant Postings and put up a link so we can all read it.  You never know, we might learn from you!   

Thanks for reading.