Transplanting Cowslips

Last autumn I tried planting cowslip seed in individual little cells, but only about 30% has germinated. I have had much better germination rates planting the seeds in the summer.

However, those that have grown now need potting on into larger pots, ready to plant out after the grass has been cut if there is some damp weather forecast for a few days. If not they will go into the ground in late September.

Cowslips potted on

We also have 4 or 5 new arrivals with very cute punk hairstyles:

Few Ox-eye Daisys

Where have all the Dog Daisys gone? I have alway struggled to get them to grow, and this year is the worst show yet. Driving around I see a huge number growing on the roadside, so I know that the climate here is good for them. Maybe my field is still too fertile, or maybe I am cutting the field a bit too late (usually the second week of August when the Cranesbill has set seed). Maybe this year I should cut it a week or two earlier.

Talking of the Meadow Cranesbill - this is just going into flower. It is doing much better in the places where I planted 4 or 5 plants together in a patch as this seems to shade out the grass. Places where there is just a single plant seem to be much more of a struggle among the long grass.

Two weeks ago i did some spot treatment with Roundup Gel on docks - this seems to have worked well as the docks have turned yellow - and I haven't got that ring of dead grass that happens when a spray rather than a gel is used. So the gel may be a bit more expensive, but I am impressed with it efficiency.

Catching up with planting - too late

I have been planting out (about 6 weeks too late!) Great Burnet. I saw a single plant of this in flower in a nearby field last year so it is probably natural to this area. These plants came as plugs in January and have been potted on - but should have been planted out earlier as there is now only about 6 weeks growing time before the field is cut. However they seem unhappy in the pots so I thought it better to plant them out now rather than keep them for planting after the hay cut.

Great Burnet (Sanguisorba officials) ready to plant

I had put roundup in some small patches across the meadow earlier in the year, so i am hoping that they will be able to grow well without the competition from established grass.

Elsewhere in the meadow things are growing well, with Field Buttercup and Ragged Robin giving a good show of colour.

Field Buttercup

The cuckoo flower is just about over. Ten years ago there were only 7 or 8 heads of cuckoo flower, but with the right cutting regime this has increased every year. Last year there were about 50. This year for the first time there were just too many to count - more than a hundred I would guess.

Transplanting Lords and Ladies failed

So I asked the question of whether the transplanted Wild Arum would survive - the answer is "no". I think that I dug them up from a very stony area so didn't get enough of the roots, so I also may have planted them too deep to try and compensate. Still nothing lost, as I had to dig them up anyway.
I will try planting some of the seeds on the woodland edge a bit later in the summer to try and get this plant to move out of the hedge bottoms and into the dense patches of scrub on the woodland edges.