We went to the nearest woodland to see all their marvellous bluebells, they are at Blackbury Camp, an Iron age settlement near Beer in Devon. It is thought that the settlement was here from 800 BC to the first century AD.

The ramparts are built of clay and flint, quarried from the outer ditch.

It is not known if the outer enclosure was intended to be defensive or whether it was used as a holding area for cattle.

The site was excavated in the 1950s, when the remains of a hut, cooking pit and oven, pottery and over 1,000 slingstones were found.

The iron age pottery that was found was made from the local greensand clay.

At one time you would have been able to see for miles around, as it is high up overlooking numerous valleys, now it is an oak and beech woodland, where the bluebells have made themselves at home.

Just as beautiful as the bluebells are all the trees, the oaks only just starting to come into leaf and the beech with their leaves such a beautiful, fresh, pale green which contrasts so well with the flowers below.

As well as gazing up at the huge ancient trees and admiring the thousands of bluebells, did I mention the delicious perfume that was surrounding us,  we were entertained by hundreds of birds singing their hearts out, I wish you could have heard them.

We spent a super time here, really enjoying it all. The history, the wildlife, the flowers, the trees, they all have their own story to tell -  we will be back, should all look very colourful in the autumn! Do you have a wood near you that you just have to visit each year because it is so beautiful?

The scenery along the way was stunning and the sea and sky were so blue, so used to them being dark grey!

As we arrived at Kingswear station, I saw that the houses were painted in ice cream colours, putting us into the holiday spirit. Time now to leave Hercules and cross the River Dart by ferry to get to Dartmouth.

From the ferry we saw these lovely old houses on the quayside and thousands of yachts and little boats.

In our dreams, maybe when we win the lottery!! It was time now to find somewhere for lunch, found a super place where I had a starter of  goat’s cheese and onion tartlet, followed by Dartmouth crab and Tiger prawn linguini – delicious!

There’s Hercules on the other side of the river returning to Paignton, not to worry, he will be back later in the afternoon to take us back.

Further along the river Dart, if you look up at the top of the hill, you will see Dartmouth Naval College. This is where all our naval officers are trained, what a super setting for them to do their training. This is also where the Queen is supposed to have met Prince Philip for the first time.

A short walk in the other direction and we could see the mouth of the River Dart and out into the English Channel.

But this is how we get rid of unwanted visitors!

Time to go home unfortunately, admiring the views from the train window again, this is Goodrington Sands. Where are all the flowers, I hear you cry!  I was amazed that Dartmouth didn’t have any hanging baskets, pots etc overflowing with lovely flowers for me to photograph, maybe we were too early,  maybe they were caught out by the sudden change in the weather, I don’t know. We did find a greenhouse in one of the parks but it was locked!!  However, from the train I managed to spot loads of valerian, bluebells, cow parsley and red campion and when we were crossing over viaducts, managed to have a sneaky peek into lots of back gardens! Also noticed that one of the stops on the railway line is called Greenway Halt, this is the stop for Agatha Christie’s house, Greenway, now run by the National Trust. Wonder where we will go for my birthday, have heard that the National Trust has been busy getting her garden up to scratch, could be worth a visit!!

The Apple blossom is out on the cordon eating apples that we have, managed to get a reasonable number of apples last year, so hoping for a repeat performance this year.

Also up in the fruit and veg area is a Chaenomeles “Apple Blossom”, planted to try and entice the bees to come and pollinate all the fruit bushes and trees. Bees have been in short supply these past few weeks due to the cold and wet, so I hope we get our fruit in the autumn.

Enjoying life among the cowslips is Erythronium Knightshayes Pink, this was a new plant last year, seems to have settled in nicely.

Another plant ejoying the company of the cowslips is Epimedium “Pixie”. I think these look more like jesters hats than pixies, but who cares, they make me laugh each time I see them!

The flowers of this tree peony have stood up well to all the wind and rain, the flowers are huge, at least 8 inches across.

English bluebells, Hyacinthoides non scripta, have made themselves at home in this shady corner, along with the cowslips. I spread the seed around here each year and they are now increasing nicely.

Our last Narcissus to flower each year is Pheasant’s Eye, such a delicious perfume, it carries right across the garden. This narcissus seems to be doing well now, so must buy more in the autumn.

A dwarf iris, given to me by a friend, so no name I’m afraid, seems very happy growing on the alpine scree, this has the sharp drainage that it requires.

We have a bumble bee ! Havn’t seen one for weeks with all the rain and cold wind, the poor bees must have been having a hard time of it lately.

Paeonia mlokosewitschii has the most beautiful flowers in a delicate pale butter  yellow, to read a post dedicated to them, click here.

We have sunshine, fantastic! All the flowers are now open on P. mlokosewitschii and doesn’t she look beautiful, have never known the flowers to last this long before.

Popping up all over the garden are the lovely forget-me-nots, a sea of blue wherever you look, they form a linking theme around the garden.

This year, just one plant has decided to be white!

All down the front border, the bee and butterfly border, the Camassias are flowering, offering pollen and nectar to any passing bee. More blue, memo to self, plant more yellow and white!

The huge Bramley apple tree is covered in blossom, just think of all those apples to make into crumbles next autumn and winter!!

A damselfly came to sit beside me and we both enjoyed the brief interlude of warm sunshine, had to make the most of it because it didn’t last long.

Another meconopsis, but not a blue this time, this one is the Welsh poppy, Meconopsis cambrica. Some people say it is a weed, but not here on my heavy soil, here it seeds itself gently around and so far, is very welcome wherever it pops up.

The red Valerian, Centhranthus ruber, really shouldn’t like our heavy clay, but ignorance is bliss and I planted it before I knew any better. It never seeds around so is never a problem and this is the only plant in the garden that attracts the hummingbird hawk moth , therefore it is a very precious plant!

Darmera peltata was here when we came, planted behind what was the old pond, so they looked well together. We made a new pond up at the top of the garden and turned the old raised one into an alpine scree. Problem is, can’t move the Darmera  over to the bog garden, it has its roots tightly under the rocks and refuses to budge! It looks a bit strange with a bog plant next to an aline scree, but that is how it will have to stay, it must be revelling in all our rain.

More Meconopsis flowers are opening, will hopefully do another post about them soon.

For obvious reasons, this is my favourite part of the garden at the moment. No matter how hard it is raining, I have to come and see what else has opened overnight. After such a dry winter, the plants are certainly appreciating all the rain that we are having, the cowslips are twice the normal size! At least with all this rain, the housework is up to date at last!!

This is nothing compared to the excitement when we see the first buds forming! All the Meconopsis in this post are the variety Lingholm which are reliably perennial.

It doesn’t take very long before we are shown a hint of that beautiful turquoise colour, daily visits are essential !

Almost there, the petals are crumpled  still, like tissue paper, it won’t be long now before they are shaken out to show how beautiful they are. They contrast so well with all the cowslips around them.

Such a beautiful, gorgeous, stunning blue, I don’t have to say that I love them, do I?!

They can take any amount of rain, just as well! Other poppies that look upwards are shattered by any heavy rain, but because Meconopsis hang their heads downwards, the rain just runs off without doing any damage.

Beautiful golden centre. The pollen is kept nice and dry by the downwards facing flower, so is always ready for any passing bee, haven’t seen many of those lately, it has been so cold and wet.

Another flower out today, soon there should be more buds opening, they look so much better when they are flowering in a drift but I was too impatient, wanted to share the first one with you!

When I was very little, many, many years ago there was a popular song ” A lonely little Petunia in the Onion patch” this is a lonely little Meconopsis in the drift of cowslips! It won’t be lonely for very long, there must be at least 15 plants in this area, each with 5 or 6 flower buds, so soon we will have a lovely patch of turquoise blue contrasting with all the cowslips. These plants of M.Lingholm were all grown from seed saved from 2 yrs ago.

At the moment I am growing on 168 tiny meconopsis plants, grown from seed saved from last summer. I did this the year before but lost them all due to mildew unfortunately. I think maybe I kept the small plants too long in the greenhouse, so this year will try to get them out into a nursery bed before the end of June, then next year, hopefully, we will have drifts of them everywhere !

The header photo was taken last year of Meconopsis betonicifolia, grown from seed which I bought in Canada when we visited the Metis garden a few years ago. More seedlings are being grown on, hopefully to be planted in the woodland when large enough, to form beautiful drifts of turquoise blue in the dappled shade, next year.

The buds are soon formed and then the waiting game starts, when will they open, do you go away on holiday, or will it all be over by the time you get back!

Even with the torrential rain that we have been having she is standing up well, just hope we don’t have another down pour once the flowers open or they will be finished before they have started!

Amazing what a bit of sunshine does, as soon as the sun shone on the front border, this bud started opening, hope it doesn’t regret it.

Another day and it is almost open, a bit more sun needed to encourage the petals to part.

Open at last, such a beautiful flower, looks so delicate but tougher than we think.

A lot more rain fell overnight, but sensible Molly closed the petals until next morning, so we are still able to enjoy her beautiful flower for a while to come. More heavy rain is forecast but we still have six more buds that are tightly closed at the moment, so I think we will be enjoying our golden peony of the Caucasus for a while yet.

Even the ditch between the garden and the woodland has running water in it, we could almost call it a stream ! The Astilbes that I have planted there will be happy now with all this moisture and the iris will romp away.

Ferns in the ditch and elsewhere in the garden are suddenly unfurling, making the most amazing shapes. This one, Matteuccia struthiopteris, loves all the rain, can take any amount of it, so must be very happy at the moment.

Just love the fresh greens, the fronds seem to unfurl overnight.

Obvious how it got its common name isn’t it, shuttlecock fern, so symmetrical, and so much easier to say than its Latin name!

So beautiful with the sun shining through, don’t remember the sun shining!

Another name for the curled end of the frond is fiddlehead, as they look just like the end of a violin.  They are also supposed to taste like asparagus but I think I would rather see them growing in the garden and not on my plate!!

The male fern or Dryopterix filix-mas,  which is found everywhere, normally just a bog standard fern,  looks really lovely at this time of year, as it unfurls it has such lovely furry bobbles along the length of the rachis or midrib.

At all stages of its development, it makes such interesting shapes. The bobbles then open out into pinna which are the side leaves from the midrib.

Amazing shapes, quite a contortionist!

The rain has also encouraged the hostas to start putting out their leaves, at the moment so tightly curled up, but soon they will be showing their true colours.

Another plant that has really responded to all the rain are my Meconopsis. Each day I was looking at them to see if there were going to be any flower buds this year, until this week there wasn’t a bud to be seen, but now however, buds are everywhere – hooray! Looking at last years photos the meconopsis were in full flower in April, not this year though, May will be their month.

Another rain cloud on its way, better get in the house before I get soaked as well as the plants. I would say that the garden has certainly benefitted from all the rain we have been having, just can’t help feeling sorry for the people who have come down here for their holidays, if only we could arrange for it to rain just at night time!

The new foliage of Acer Sango Kaku is so delicate, so beautiful and quite colourful at this stage. The pink of the stems matching the leaf covers and the tips of the leaves.

With leaves like this, who needs flowers!! Pieris forest flame is shining out of the woodland at the moment, no-one could miss it. It has taken a long time to reach this size, about 4 ft, but at last I think it is happy and has decided to stay!

The new growth of ferns is so sculptural, none more so than the Hart’s tongue fern, Asplenium scolopendium. This was already in the garden when we arrived, it is found on the banks of the lanes here in Devon and I’m sure has invaded all the gardens round about. It pops up in various places where I would never think of planting it and always looks just right.

One of the Heucheras which is in the woodland, just by the bridge over the ditch. When the sun comes through the leaves they look so beautiful.

Spreading happily in the woodland is Bowles golden grass, Milium effusum Aureum with such lovely yellow leaves which look like patches of sunlight even on a dull day. A wood violet has made itself at home amongst it.

There is lots of new ferny growth on all the astilbes which we have in the bog garden and round the pond. Soon we will be able to see the contrasting foliage of the iris and hostas beside them.

At the back of the pond area, Iris pseudacorus Variegata is beginning to show, contrasting with the large Caltha palustris, kingcup, behind.

Another variegated Iris, this time one that likes to sit with its feet in water, whenever we have visitors to the garden, this is the one they always want to take away with them, each year bits are cut off so I don’t think it will ever get too large!

Dividing the pond area from the veggie garden is a purple leaved elder, Sambucus Black Lace. In a month or so, this bush will have the most beautiful pink flowers which are just the right colour for the dark leaves.

Another Heuchera, this one is Marmalade I think, but unfortunately I seem to have planted it on top of some narcissus bulbs, it wasn’t the empty space I thought it was! Must move it now!!

The back border which separates the garden from the woodland is a quiet interlude, flower wise, but the shrubs all contrast with each other. The yellow of Philadelphus coronarius Aureus next to the blue of a Cedar bush and then the variegated laurel make the area quietly interesting, I hope!

In the woodland, another fern is showing it is happy by spreading into quite a large clump now, Adiantum venustum,  it has such delicate looking fronds but is quite hardy here.

A new Heuchera in the woodland, Lemon and Lime, has beautifully coloured leaves

And another Heuchera whose name I have unfortunately forgotten. I rely on heucheras, ferns and hostas in the woodland for summer interest. Once the leaves have come on the huge trees, there are not many flowers that will be out after the spring bonanza, until the autumn.

Rheum palmatum is emerging in the bog garden, the leaves will end up quite huge and by the summer will be green. This contrasts with the hostas, ferns and iris that are nearby.

The Shuttlecock fern, Matteuccia struthiopteris is spreading, will have to keep an eye on it, especially in the bog garden where it is rampaging through everything else! Looks so delicate and innocent at the moment, don’t be fooled!

Climbing up the house wall is Actinidia kolomikta, cousin of the kiwi fruit. Splashes of white start first and are joined later by splashes of pink, it ends up a kaleidoscope of green, pink and white.

Foliage never ceases to amaze me with all its different colours, shapes and textures, plants are so fantastic the way they have all developed so differently, to do the same job, that of feeding the plant by photosynthesis.

Thanks to Christina for hosting this Garden Bloggers Foliage Day, please go to

http://myhesperidesgarden.wordpress.com/     if you would like to see more foliage from round the world.

A few flowers struggling in our gardens doesn’t seem anywhere near as serious somehow, this is where I am glad of our heavy clay soil, plants that have a deep root system have access to moisture further down and manage perfectly well, thank goodness. We are also thankful of our water butts which do fill up over the winter, at any one time we can have 500 gallons stored, one huge butt by the house holds 400 gallons and 2 smaller ones by the garage of 50 gallons each. All our watering of the garden (tubs, hanging baskets and all new planting) is done from the water butts so we then decided to have a water meter fitted when we were being presented with huge water bills and have never regretted the decision.

My last 2 posts have included some April flowers , so if you would like to see all the white ones in the garden, click here  and if you would like to see the cowslips and primroses please click here.

When wandering round the garden with camera, I found loads of ladybirds, everywhere I looked, when cutting back to tidy anything, I had to be very careful as there always seemed to be ladybirds wherever I wanted to be.

Little violas are doing really well, love their cheeky faces!

A Prunus planted by the previous people where we now have the bog garden, I think it really is too wet for it but it copes.

I thought Tulipa sylvestris would be happy in the woodland and yes, it is. Having had problems with tulips and our heavy soil in the past, I decided to try this one and I’m glad I did, each year it is increasing and looking better and better.

Little Scilla siberica is increasing nicely on the alpine scree, each year more and more seedlings appear and flower making such a gorgeous patch of blue.

Another splash of blue, this time in the shade of the pergola by the field, a lovely double primrose.

A Camellia at the side of the driveway in the front garden, covered at the moment with loads of flowers.

Just beside the Camellia is Prunus subhirtella autumnalis. One was planted a few years ago but eventually when it flowered had pink flowers, they should be white. I asked the nursery to replace it and this is what I now have, this looks awfully pink to me, I know the buds start off pink but then turn white, but even so, these flowers do seem too pink to me. There is a variety called “rosea”, is this what I have for the second time, can someone please help ?!!

A tiny Veronica climbing over one of our small walls, such a lovely blue flower.

Super little Californian Iris in the damper part of the woodland, these are with the Fritillaria meleagris which I wrote about in an earlier post, click here to read about them and they really did suffer from a lack of rain, appearing and flowering much later than they normally do. Never thought to water them during the winter!

Another lovely splash of blue on the alpine scree comes from Muscari Valerie Finnis, she is very well behaved and doesn’t seed everywhere, just clumps up nicely in time.

The Erythroniums are now flowering, looking so dainty and delicate, such beautiful flowers for a shady border.

Another shrub in the border by the driveway is Kerria japonica Pleniflora, making a good splash of yellow. Most gardens round us have Forsythia in full bloom, we took ours out because the Bullfinches stripped our bushes of all their flowerbuds, year after year. The Kerria shines out just as yellow and the Bullfinches leave this one well alone, thank goodness.

Another Erythronium, this time Knighthayes Pink, originally found in the grounds of our local National Trust house, Knighthayes, in Devon. They have fantastic drifts of this one which has seeded around under the magnificent trees in the parkland. Maybe one day my single plant will be joined by lots more!

A late flowering narcissus, Pipit, but so welcome for its beautiful scent, a truly wonderful perfume.

The Dicentras have now started to flower, think this is Langtrees, with a lovely glaucous leaf.

My favourite Tulip Abu Hassan, simply because it keeps coming back, year after year, the only one that is reliably repeat flowering for me!

This Azalea flowered in January when we were having a ridiculously warm spell and covered itself in flowers, I wondered if it would flower again at the proper time and the answer is yes, but not quite as many flowers this time.

Cyclamen repandum takes over from Cyclamen coum in the woodland, not quite as hardy as coum or hederifolium but it has a lamium and vinca providing extra cover during the winter months.

Part of the groundcover in the woodland is Lamium galiobdolon Variegatum, which is a bit of a thug but kept under control by pulling a lot out after it has finished flowering! The bees really love the flowers so that is why I wait before starting to clear it each year.

Splashes of blue everywhere from forget-me-nots, myosotis. Must move lots of my plants, they go with everything, narcissus, tulips, Bowles golden grass, everything seems to look better with an understorey of beautiful blue!

We had some very welcome rain last night and this morning and hopefully there is a lot more to come for the rest of the week. By next weekend my water butts should be full again, the soil should be moistened once more and all the plants a lot happier. I know they can cope, but would rather that they didn’t have to struggle. In all my planting I have tried to follow Beth Chatto’s advice of  “right plant, right place ” and so far it seems to have worked!

I moved about 25 cowslips here from beside the greenhouse last year, thinking I had moved them all, but when looking the other day, I found I still had about 20 there, more to move someday!!

They have all moved very well and seem happy in their new home.

At this time of year when I am walking through the large flower bed I am reminded so much of my friend who gave me the original plants, these must be their grandchildren!

There’s plenty of room for them to seed around in their new home and to move the twenty that are by the greenhouse!

Here we have one of the ones that was planted in the woodland, they have multiplied well, but not quite as freely as the others.

Also in the woodland we have quite a few primroses, Primula vulgaris, and of course, over time the inevitable has happened!

They have been breeding together and we now have Oxlips or Primula elatior! Or have we?  I have read about something that is called a false oxlip, maybe this is what we have, perhaps someone can tell me. This one has taken its colour and height from the cowslip but the size of the flower from the primrose.

This one, only a few inches away, has the flower colour and size definitely from the primrose but height from the cowslip.

I had read that cowslips sometimes produce a red flower but was very surprised when I saw this, it was so large.

Other colours started to appear…….

…..these have all been put into a bed, far away from the yellow ones, where they can misbehave together!

My friend always said that she wanted to see drifts of cowslips in my garden. I now have the drifts but it is such a shame that she isn’t here to see them, but what a wonderful reminder they are of a really good friend and the happy times we spent together when our children were young.

Shown below are some of the Wood Anemones in the shady areas, they take over from the snowdrops.

The tiny flowers of Prunus Kojo-no-mai are so beautiful and look far more delicate than they are.

Prunus Kojo-no-mai is a beautiful shrub and looks just like a fall of snow! Such a useful shrub, it doesn’t grow too big and should fit in any garden.

Narcissus Thalia are taking over  everywhere from Tete a tete which have now faded.

Thalia are such lovely flowers, quite often with 2 flower heads like Tete a tete, and being white, they go with any other flowers that are out at the moment.

Here Thalia are joined by Prunus Kojo-no-mai.

Narcissus Geranium are putting on a good display and what a super perfume they have, when the wind comes from the south west, the perfume travels over the garden to wherever we are – lovely!

The cherry tree at the entrance is in full bloom and the bees are thoroughly enjoying it, or they were before the weather changed! Not sure of it’s name as the previous people planted it, sorry!

The blossom is at the mercy of the weather, the tree is in a fairly sheltered corner so hopefully it will last for a while, but the wind is supposed to come from the north tomorrow which could send it all fluttering to the ground like confetti!

When I approached the tree to photograph it, bees were buzzing everywhere, but I wasn’t quick enough to catch them, they went further away to blossoms round the back. These 3 photos were taken a few days ago, can’t believe how blue the sky was then.

Damsons in the fruit and veg area are now flowering nicely but each night when frost is forecast has me zooming! up the garden with fleece and old net curtains to protect the blossom – no blossom, no lovely fruit in the autumn!

Just think, each of these lovely flowers will hopefully make a lovely,  beautiful, juicy Damson that we can have in either a crumble or make into jam!!

Bergenia Beethoven is by the front door and has taken over from the snowdrops that I have there. The leaves are so useful for flower arranging.

I have a horrible feeling that these are a hybrid between our english bluebells and the spanish one that is trying to take over in this country, even so , very pretty.

Pachyphragma macrophyllum is forming groundcover in the woodland, spreading slowly, think it might like a bit more moisture than it has at present.

Lovely little Iris japonica, such a beautiful flower, but so much smaller than you would expect from photographs of it. What on earth has been eating the leaf by the flower, wish I had removed it before photographing it!

The woodland is home to a few different varieties of Erythronium, this one is White Beauty, and it certainly is.  It’s such a pretty flower, but so fleeting, don’t go away on holiday or you will miss it flowering!

Just starting to open its blossom is my favourite tree, Amelanchier lamarckii, the blossom is so beautiful, that is when we see it! Quite often we have hardly any flowers because the bullfinches come and eat all the flower buds!! Last year it was fantastic and this year looks as though it will be almost the same, thank goodness!

Flowering between the pond area and the pergola through to the veggie garden is Exochorda macrantha The Bride. A very pretty bush that is easily kept to the size you want it by pruning as soon as it has flowered.

This is the wild Hawthorn which is everywhere along the lanes of Devon, we are always having seedlings growing in the garden,  the seed dropped by birds. This small tree has put itself just behind the pond, I still have to decide whether it is to stay, be pruned or to go permanently. I think it might stay with a bit of pruning!

A new little plant of Chaenomeles Apple Blossom planted with the fruit and veg, hoping that the bees will come to it and then pollinate everything else, it has a bit of growing to do first!

Conference pear blossom, if each one forms a little pear, then I will have quite a bit of thinning to do! Hope this year is as good as last year, we had a good number for the fruit bowl!

This Spirea was flowering in January so I was very surprised to see it flowering again. It is always the first shrub to flower with us, makes the far corner by the school look very pretty indeed.

On the archway into the woodland we have Clematis alpina White Moth with the rose, Snow goose. This is the first of my Clematis to flower although the macropetalas are not far behind.

Obviously we have other coloured flowers out at the moment, but the overall impression this year is that the garden is celebrating Easter by being dressed in white, couldn’t be nicer! Of course this all depends on the weather, and we have had some very strange weather so far this year, and also whether Easter falls in March or April. Is your garden celebrating at the moment too?  A very Happy Easter to you all.