On a hot September day, a flyer flopped onto the doormat - Christmas Parties. And so it begins. I love Christmas, though the crass and dreadful 3 months of commercialism and adverts really perplexes me. It is not what the Season is about. For me it's a time of calm contemplation in midwinter. This year too will be the first that, Scrooge like, I won't send out cards. Receiving the flyer prompted me into action. I already had bulbs bought, Julie too, so this year, today in fact, I'm beginning my Christmas floral joy. The pot in the front is the old stalwart, Paperwhite Narcissii, three planted today and three in about a fortnight. Scented blooms for the long cold days. The blue pot is an experiment, can I force tulips to flower by Christmas? Again just three bulbs, lily flowering tulips, which Julie received as a free bonus after ordering a huge number of tulips for the spring. I like experimenting and the Georgians and Victorians put huge effort into forcing plants - pineapples on the Christmas table was always a Holy Grail. And finally the larger green pot at the back, 'Lily of the Valley'. I have a lovely blue pot stuffed with these, it needed re-potting. The original plants came from my late partners garden in Somerset, where they spread like weeds, and that's why they're special. Again Lily of the Valley have long been forced to provide flowers at Christmas.
So, three different pots planted up 109 days before Christmas. Will I succeed? I'll not know until sometime in the future, and that's why gardening is always a positive process, we're always looking forward to something new. Something most of us forget and keep looking back, regretting lost memories, friends and time. Look forward and the world seems a much better place, or at least I hope so on the 25th of December.
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