Potting Up...

To follow on from my last post about efficient use of water in pots I wanted to give you a glimpse of the way I decide where to position which plants during the summer. These are just my opinions, based on a lot of trial and error (and in this space I can't provide a comprehensive guide) but they may be useful to those of you who are wondering how they are going to keep your potted plants happy in a difficult year.

My apologies for the length of this post, but I wanted to tackle this topic thoroughly...
Now that hosepipe bans are certain for many areas of the country from next month I can see that panic about terracotta pots may spread. I am tired of reading articles which baldly state that terracotta dries out much more [...]

I would like to introduce you to two of the mainstays of the pottery, if you collect Whichford pots you are quite likely to own one made by either of them - just look for a maker's mark at the base of the pot - one is represented by a fish, the other by some rune-like squiggles (crotchet rests?).

Crocuses have been jumping up and stretching their arms out wide in the sun to welcome grateful emergent bees. There is a row of hives in a field above Whichford, I suspect their bee scout brigade (motto "Bee Prepared") has identified us as a good source of pollen and nectar.

I can see spring peeping over the horizon. On Monday the compost in the pots was still frozen solid and I began to worry about plants drying out as there was a brisk breeze, but by Tuesday it had almost completely defrosted and the plants quickly began to perk up...

Shrammed! This is the word my mother uses to describe how you feel in this weather. Not unreasonably I have taken refuge in the greenhouse most of this week as the temperature has failed to exceed 0C. It is now looking unusually tidy: all the plants have been picked over, turned, pinched out where necessary [...]

The weather this week has been crisp and beautiful, which is ideal for showing off the warm colour, decorative detail and frostproofness of our pots. Not so ideal, however for gardeners, especially those who, like me, have a weakness for tender plants. The fact that my greenhouse heater seems to be on its last legs is making me jittery and I dread to think what's going on in the polytunnel...

This week I have been working at home a lot, trying to catch up with paperwork: a backlog of orders for seeds and summer bulbs, this blog, and plant lists and picture collections for talks. Boring, but it has to be done. I am, however, very excited to have been asked to speak at The International Specialist Nursery Days at Bingerden in the Netherlands this June..

The days are getting longer, bulb shoots are popping up all over the place, but still I have been feeling uneasy. The sun has been shining, warming my back and casting crisp shadows on the pots but still I have cold shivers down my spine. Spring has been galloping towards us, trailing flowers and green shoots, tempting honey bees to emerge and causing the birds to jostle for position and fly purposefully about with bits of twig in their beaks..

I have decided to do an occasional series introducing you to some of the people and processes at Whichford Pottery and it seems logical to start with Jim Keeling - the man with whom the buck stops. He is the founder of and, after 35 years, still the main creative force behind Whichford Pottery...