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. 

What is it? Towards the middle of April.

These (right) came with the house but weeding has let them grow much more. I think they're a hybrid of bluebells - but not sure what kind...

 Meanwhile, I have no idea what the one below is. Same provenance as above; a bit like a snowdrop but the petals are less rounded, and way, way taller, with different, but still thin leaves, (lots of them) and a gorgeous thin green stripe running through the centre of the petal.

This one also came with the house and has again flourished recently, but I know what this is. It's Ipheion, the Spring Starflower, I think...

When we first moved in, the garden was already good this time of year because of the bulbs... then came summer and nothing much. I've been working on having something to see all the time. The coming months will show how far we've got with that! :)

More Tulips - Couldn't Resist! Second week of April.

Let's Not Forget The Hyacinths - honest(l)y.

So these pictures are mid to late March:

First (in February) the hyacinths came out in pots on the windowsill, filling me up with their sublime fragrance. Then they came out on the East facing side of the house and then bit they blossomed around the other two sides (North is next door's semi-detachedness). The grape hyacinths (below) came with the house. I dig them  up and move them around but they multiply relentlessly. They don't smell at all.

Natural primroses are out of fashion; it's all fancy primulas - but you can't beat the colour of a real primrose, or - again - its scent; most of the 'primroses' they sell in garden centres don't have it. But smell a bank of fresh, wild primroses and you'll see what I mean.

Now, Honesty grows in the hedgerows, but I've cultivated it for three years now and gladly too. Yes, the leaves and shape are a bit nettle-like, but the attractive early pink flowers (and there are white ones too) are just half the deal: the rest is that when they seed, these beautiful flaky golden oval pods decorate the border like jewels. The twist is they take two years to flower, so you always have to plan ahead; the good news is that the seeds are incredibly easy to grow. Can't go wrong. 

Wait for late summer to see pics of the seeds!

Tulips

Tulips are wonderful.
I don't really record the types of bulbs I plant; I just get a handful I like and plop them in the ground. Then I leave them in all year (quite a few in pots, so I don't dig them up by mistake) and just enjoy them when they come up.
When the sun is low in the sky and shines through the petals, making the colours blend and clash; that's when they're best. These pictures come from the last week of March.

Taken for granted - end of March

Skimmia japonica 'Fragrans' (male):

It's small and doesn't really grab you; just sits there, being yellowy green in leaves all winter, providing a bit of a reminder that there's green in the world, like all evergreens. Then clusters of small buds appear; they don't seem worth paying much attention to, and then they turn into flowers, similarly unprepossessing. But give them a close up and they repay you.
I've made the picture small to replicate the experience - not worth looking at? Left click the picture... it is...

Forsythias are everywhere this time of year, with their daffodil yellow brightness lighting up hedges. The flowers don't last forever, but our bushes grow pretty vigorously, and you can see the ruthless chopping back last year in the picture. We have a couple in the hedge we inherited, so no idea of exact type, but it's one of those plants that you overlook because they're everywhere, but if there was only one in the world, you'd want it badly...

Happy hellebores

As these have grown this year, so they have got higher with more blooms: the higher ones are much less shy than the early ones and you can see the detail of the flower without lifting them up. The great benefit of hellebores is that the flowers last for a very long time - from before the tulips bloomed, right out past their going over...

Flowering Currant in March

Ribes sanguineum (Flowering Currant or Red-flowering Currant) - doesn't have any berries, but grows pretty vigorously and has really pretty coloured flowers in Spring. These pictures are from mid-March.

And by the end of March:

March Anemonies

These have given a lovely splash of colour in and around the tulips and daffodils and hyacinths. Lovely light green leaves that ants apparently like climbing over! These are second half of March pictures.

Anemone Coronaria Bicolour:

Anemone Coronaria The Bride:

And this is the end of March: