First Arrival

The first plant of the year arrived. Not in the back of my car, sandwiched between shopping bags as it usually is and not even in the back of my mums car - the surplus from the over ordering my mum does from the spring catalogues. No this one came in a large (6 foot)  long brown box delivered by Fedex. Unfortunately the Other Half was at home (unusually not staying at work for lunch  - what are the chances?) - I had banked on being at home alone and getting it planted before she noticed. So anyway she was at home and I was not and the phone rang at work. "You've got a parcel. Itssssssssss plantsssssssss" it hissed and spluttered. (She has a cold!). "What do YOU want ME to do with it?" Hmm at this point there was no point in feigning surprise, pretending it was a mistake or a free gift from an earlier and approved purchase. " Just plop it outside and I'll deal with it when I get home" I said as nonchalantly as I could,  having been caught red handed buying plants in the Age of Family Austerity. "It MIGHT DIE" came a somewhat unnerving reply. I wasnt sure if that was a threat or an observation so I mumbled something neutral along the lines that it  could wait anothers couple of hours and hung up wondering what the consequence of my " unauthorised" plant buying  was likely to be (see Fridge and Xmas Contents  - previous blog)

Fortunately the Other Half took a benign view and there was the unharmed  plant liberated from the 6 foot box All 2 foot of it! Its a Beauty Bush as featured on a  Gardeners World before Xmas. It weird purpleness seems just the job for a rather plain corner of the garden which has my collection of sticks and bamboo canes as its major feature. I need something to screen that. I couldn't find a Beauty Bush  locally - hence the mail order. I normally roundly disapprove of this type of purchase - support your local suppliers.. So I never do it. Except this time

Getting home later it was already half dark but I decided to press on - to plant. Only to find the thing was completely root bound and the pot wouldn't come off. Now normally I would hunt down a pair of scissors adn cut the pot off. For some reason I tried to pull it off. And of course snapped the main stem clean off the plant. Karma

Now dark but with the aid of a torch  I needed to dig out a small box (plant not cubicle)  that was in the way. 20 second job. Normally. Not this one, A tiny little 2 foot Box with a root ball that was twice its size. Needless to say I snapped a prong off my fork trying to just lever the bloomin thing out. With folorn gap toothed fork flung on to the lawn I attacked the Box root with trusty spade and eventually got it out, leaving a nice big hole to plant my now little Beauty stick. That just left the small matter of trying to find a space for the Box in the garden that is full -  in the dark.Or chuck it. Now I cant chuck plants. I have a hard time thinning out seedlings so chucking a perfect little Box out cant be done.Not by me. But common sense said leave it till the weekend. to decide. Cant do that either so after much head scratching its now under a firethorn next to the compost bins. Now there really isn't any more space in the full garden

I await spring to see if my new plant grows from ugly Duckling Twig to exciting Gardeners World Beauty. Karma suggests that gardening in the dark in January will be rewarded. Hopefully.