Early June

Mid to Late May and Early June

Sunshine and showers in extreme variation. But the garden's been looking really lovely.

The primulas have been a bit quiet this year. but the Francisca (above) which is unusual because the flowers are almost the same colour as the leaves, has lasted  through most of May and is still going, easily the longest lasting primrose family member I know. I really ought to move it to somewhere where it can be seen a bit better. But now that June is kicking off, the Bulleyanas are starting to pitch in with their party colours and patterns now in early June:

The early part of May brought the potentillas into blossom: the yellow one is Potentilla fruticosa 'Elizabeth', and the white one is Potentilla fruticosa 'Abbotswood'. Neither have any discernible scent, but the flowers are plentiful and last all summer. In between these two, I planted  Potentilla fruticosa 'Marian Red Robin' but it's like a mini version of the others, with much smaller leaves and far smaller overall size; it comes into leaf later and it's nowhere near flowering yet. As usual, we here at Daddy Green don't know why...

The lupins are a key part of the front border as they fill up masses of space with their huge flowers and dramatic leaves, because they are as reliable as can be, and because they keep going relentlessly through most of the summer, as long as you cut off the spent flowers once they've finished to make room for new ones. Ours were all grown from two sets of seeds, so as with the foxgloves, they only come in pink and purple - I'm working on that by growing some others for next year - but this year and the end of last they've been plagued by greenfly, which cover them so completely in parts that all you can see is insects. 

Anyway, the first trumpeting flowers began to colour up in the third week of May (below), and were off and running by a week later (lower pictures).

I mustn't forget the aquilegias (aka Columbine - my Mum called them Granny Bonnets) which I don't have any specific details for as I didn't buy any of them, just moved them around and planted their own seeds (they are incredibly easy to grow). This means again, bizarrely, that the options are mostly pink and purple, although the fancy one at the bottom is probably 'Nora Barlow' according to my researches.

Looking on the internet, there are lots more varieties, and I may try growing some, because they span the time from spring bulbs to other perennials coming into flower very well. These pictures were taken on 2nd June when they'd been out for a while and now - 7th June - they've all but gone. 

My early experiences of Hostas were that slugs and snails ate them greedily to bits. Full stop. But last year I inherited a couple and decided to pull them apart to make more; these grew a little but not much last summer, but this year they've come into their own and surprised me by producing some nice light purple flowers (is purple the colour of May and June?). The Korma has also grown magnificently all through the year and is now several feet in each direction and coming into flower. It also smells like curry whenever you rub your hand against the foliage, which is cool. 

And the solitary Snapdragon that sits besides two banks of Monkshood has flowered quickly before they get a chance to overshadow it. Great colours this (much more my flavour than the pinks and purples) but I've not yet managed to grow more from the seeds, sadly.

Finally, a less than spectacular but nice addition to the garden, the Vinca (major), aka Periwinkle. With leaves a bit like Ivy, it trails around as looks a bit messy, and then pulls a hosta-flower coloured (yes, pale purple) flower out of the bag at the end of May. A very functional flower, like a modern architect's idea of petals, but it is very reliable, and the leaves are evergreen, which is always good for the garden in the cold, dark months. 

Mid May Blooms - 20th-25th May

Mid May and the sun is out; the bulbs have all gone but the early summer flowers are really starting to show. We have a few Foxgloves providing great height to the garden, but because we grew them from previous seeds we only have two options - pale pink and dark pink. They flower in the second year so you have to plan ahead and grow them through one year waiting for the flowering time.

Adding a huge splash of colour is the now quite large Geum, probably the leader in terms of May flowering. Over three feet high, and with masses of flowers that last really well; this is 'Double Blazing Sunset'. 

At the opposite extreme in terms of showiness is the Abutilon Megapotamicum; partly because it's climbing up the wall behind the four-to-seven-feet Foxgloves and the big, brash Geum, but partly because the little red heart pods are only just over half an inch long; they last for ages though and the flowers that come out are so cool: I always wanted one but it took me a long time to grow it and it took it a long time to grow up once I had. For a climber, it's very slow and small - well, mine is, anyway. Maybe I've put it in the wrong place, but I kinda like how you have to be shown it to see it...

Also bringing colour to the middle of May is the Yellow flag iris - Iris pseudacorus - which I planted by the pond, even though, since the pond is a small old kids' plastic sand pit buried in the ground, there's no actual wetness around it.

 

Oddly, I grow the Astilbe Chinensis ('Vision in Pink') by the pond too, as that also needs damp conditions. Oddly, they both thrive...  That's not in flower yet, so no pictures.

Each of the very few visitors to Daddy Green's Garden comments warmly on the Ceanothus (or Californian lilac) which was one of the first plants I bought, from a market in Dorset, and which has now established really well, though it doesn't seem to like to get too high. The snow of two years ago nearly killed it, but it's very colourful this May, although it's more by quantity than quality that it impresses as the individual flowers (photographed) are much less striking than the overall effect. The leaves are small and bright and tightly packed, which is part of the appeal, too. I'm trying to grow it from cuttings but it's too early to be sure if I've succeeded.

I say all the bulbs have gone but that couldn't be less true, as there are Anemones just flowering - late ones, no idea why - 

and the Alliums that I love so much are only just starting to kick off. They're a big favourite here:

The pink ones are 'Giganteum' or 'Globemaster' and the white one, not yet out properly (above), is 'Mount Everest'.

...And finally for today, the peony is starting to show, with its large, tightly-wrapped, globular blooms that seem a bit too posh to rub shoulders with my other plants. Ruby red, waxy and richly coloured, it reminds me of luxury. But I keep them anyway - they fill up a border really well.

When it's wet... the frogs come out!

April was the wettest for a hundred years, so we weren't really able to get into the garden at all.
But plenty of joy came from watching tadpoles grow. A tiny bit of the frogspawn that appeared unexpectedly in the pond at the end of February was transferred to a small tank in our kitchen and we watched them grow up inside - much, much quicker than the ones left in the pond, presumably because it was much warmer - all through the month.

This was the frogspawn at the end of February:

A week or so later, these little aliens came out:

Another week or so, and they had bodies and guts full of food...

... which rather grossly trailed around with them... (but check out the mouths)...

After another week or so, they looked great, but a surprise appearance in the garden suggested possible family members had come for a visit:

Another eight days, and two features were clearly visible: big eyes and little back legs, along with a long, slender tail...

As time went on, the legs got more defined (like hands, actually), and then froggier...

Then the front legs came out... and they really started looking like frogs. But this all happened at very different speeds for different frogs; even though they all lived in the same conditions, some grew far faster than others.

But I woke one morning to a tragedy that made me feel very glum; I hadn't realised that they start needing to breathe air long before their back legs have grown and their tails gone - and some drowned out of the blue one night, due to my failure to provide rocks for them to climb out and sit on. I'm ashamed of this.

But there were plenty of successes still, and they continued to grow more frog-like as April moved on...

Once their tails had gone, they started sitting on the rocks all the time, statuesque and proud. It was time to release them back into the pond. And then, another couple of weeks later, a seemingly slightly older cousin popped by in the garden and consented to pose on my arm to show us what the finished product might look like:

And then today, in the pond, an even bigger specimen, but still young. Markings a bit different so may not be related. Meanwhile, still plenty of tadpoles in the pond with it, so, hopefully, lots more frogs to come!

Mid April Showers... And showers...

The red camellias have been and gone, but the white ones - Golden Anniversary - are out now nicely. This is one of the very few not spoiled by tea-coloured stains, brown wrinkled petals: I don't know why. It does seem that my soil is not right for these sorts of plants, which is a shame.  

 I sowed forget-me-nots (Myosotis sylvatica) as one of my first gardening efforts three years ago and they now come every year, which is great, because they're a really cheerful sight this time of year; of course, they're not perennial, so what I do is leave them as long as possible once they've stopped flowering to drop their seeds before pulling the dead plants up. This does mean that they spread around and I'm never sure how much will come up or exactly where. A very underrated flower though, a really cheerful sight!

 Bought these fritillaries (Fritillaria uva-vulpis) as bulbs last autumn and they've been lovely. Quite delicate, with small heads on slender stalks and leaves, they're not showy, but they've been in bloom for three or four weeks now, which is good value. They are a little over a foot tall.