New Year - New Perennials

I have planted lots of hostas and lily of the valley down the right hand side border. They are all in the shade of the fence and some are beneath trees, so I think this is a suitable position for all of them. The soil is very moist, I suspect its clay, but its quite dark too, and slightly more crumbly than I thought, so it looks like decent stuff. I added some silver sand and grit to the bottom of the planting hole when I put the lily of the valley in, hopefully to improve drainage around the roots. I am not sure about the lily of the valley. I put 20 down the right hand side and 10 in the kitchen window bed. Last time I planted these (in another garden) they didnt come up. I dressed them with a bit of sand and peat and sprinked some growmore and slug pellets. Ive never grown hostas before but I know they like damp shade so they have that.

I also planted some elephants ears in the bed in front of the outhouse. These were donated very kindly by my friend Ethel, and dug up by her son Keith. Hope they get on OK in our garden, as their garden is very different, all sandy and stony, but everything grows well.

The bird feeder I installed before Christmas is doing OK. We get tits and a Robin visiting. I had to clean out the seed feeder as it got all wet inside, the seeds sprouted and went mouldy.
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I have also planted up a strawberry tub with Ostara (bottom) and Elsanta (top). I bought the strawberries and the hostas from Wilkinsons. As they are the bare root plastic bag type plants Im a bit nervous. One hosta is undulata mediovariegata (varigated) and the other is Halcyon (plain). Hope these bulk up.

I have a bag of other stuff I got from B&Q including gladioli, Iris, bleeding heart, crocosmia lucifer all of which I will plant later.

The apple tree which got its leaves early seems to be still OK, but the leaves look slightly withered. They are still green though.

What has puzzled me most though are the fuchsias. The ones that defoliated a little when I transplanted them have got new leaves. Another is still in flower. I should cut them back in March, but as they have new leaves I dont know if I should be doing it now.