September 1997

All pots around house to go to the glass-house. Re-pot plants and organise. Get all pots from upstairs balcony. Cross fingers that the perennial Lobelia is still alive...

Pick Othello roses for house - they must be put in vase. Cut down Nicotiana Sylvestris and trim Penstemons really short. Red Hot Pokers? Do something. Shift Buff Beauties and Abraham Darby...

Take Cuttings Of:
• Gaura Lindheimer
• Catmint
• Lythrum
• Black Knight Salvia
• Mexican Salvia

Get pea straw and horse manure. Lots. Split up terracotta orange daylily clump and shift away from Rosy Cushion...

Gardener's Comment in 2009

Pretty boring, eh? Not one descriptive phrase, no extraneous rambling, no mention of the spring daffodils... The notebook peters out now, and there are no more entries - apart from a long list of desirable perennials written in the back in green biro. These have obviously been copied from some gardening book, and include variegated Scrophularia, Artemisia lactiflora, Filipendula rubra, and Joe Pye weed. Two roses are on this last list - Cardinal de Richelieu and La Reine Victoria. I think I've still got the Cardinal somewhere...

If every list in this old notebook is to be believed, poor old Abraham Darby (he's a David Austin rose) must have had nearly a dozen relocations. Poor chap - I'm sure he didn't. And two of him are still surviving in the Moosey Garden...