By Victoria Plum 
I will certainly go to the Reepham & District Gardening Club plant sale on Saturday 13 May from 8.30 am in Reepham Market Place because, for the first time in a few years, there are gaps in my garden, and I need new plants.
This winter’s bad frosts have done for my gaura. I’ve carefully scraped the stems, but they really don’t show any signs of life. And there are other losses.
I also got rid of an overgrown sophora, which was beautiful but just got too invasive for my small garden, and my “Petite Negra” fig tree: plenty of glossy leaves and elegant branches but never the beautiful, sun-warmed black figs straight from the garden – in 15 years I had only one!
I always try to take along some plants for sale too as I have plenty of some things.
When I was trying to get them established, I never quite believed those who said that grape hyacinths are thugs (their leaves are so prolific they look like spaghetti), or even Allium christophii or primroses, but now my garden is swamped with them.
It fascinates me to see which plants do well in my garden, which plants find themselves a choice niche to happily grow in.
I’ve just found the corpse of a third Clematis armandii so must conclude that it doesn’t like my garden and it is therefore fruitless for me to buy yet another.
I’m all for growing the easy things, those that will thrive in my conditions. What is the point of trying to change soil type or conditions to accommodate an alien species?
“For the challenge,” I hear you say. Well, for me the challenge is to fit easy plants into the best slot in my garden to grow happily and healthily, with minimal intervention from me so I have time to sit and read the paper and drink tea.
Next month’s gardening club meeting on Tuesday 16 May will start at 7.30 pm to accommodate the AGM, which unfortunately had to be cancelled in April.
This will be followed at 7.45 pm with a talk by local gardener Fritha Waters. Please stay for tea and cake, and a chat with fellow garden lovers.
Above: Grape hyacinths with their untidy “spaghetti” foliage. Below: Primroses that readily hybridise: the originals all came from gardening club raffle prizes. Photos: Tina Sutton
Geoff Fisher