We took ourselves out this week to a garden centre to do something other than essential shopping and exercise. The trip was to find some primula to plant in our front garden.
Last year my lovely rowan, which I had nurtured since Jen's childhood, got some sort of unpleasant canker and died. Not as large as you might expect since it spent many years in a pot, I tucked it into a corner when we made our front garden in 2011, so it had a number of years of happy growth. In the Autumn it had to come out, so I replaced it with another "slow tree", which needed it's freedom. This time a crab apple; again, very small as it goes in, but we will see what happens. My greatest fear is that, as part of the rosaceae tribe, it might succumb to whatever took its cousin. Then I will have to think again. For now, it has overwintered, and the buds are swelling with growth, so I am hopeful.
Yes, it really is that small!
Today I tucked those little primula around the base to welcome in its first spring of freedom, in open ground. I hope they settle in, and self seed.
There is a great splash of native primroses self seeded in the same space, so there is a chance - time will tell.
And that, of course, is the the pleasure of a garden - time, and anticipating what it will bring
