The border which has been christened the “sunset border” is flowering beautifully at the moment with pink, yellow, blue, orange, purple and white flowers and foliage, all the colours found in a sunset.
Clematis montana is joining in with the display, this one has climbed a huge oak tree before cascading down like a waterfall.
In amongst all the plants that are flowering at the moment, there are three that stand out. One because it is so fleeting, one because it is appreciated as the last of its kind to flower for this year and one because it is so generous with all its flowers.
The first one is beautiful Paeony mlokosewitschii in the front border.
So beautiful.
Our daughter in Bristol and I were not looking forward to yesterday, it was a year since the undergardener, my lovely husband and super Dad, passed away. Fortunately it was possible for our daughter to get the day off work and she came down to Devon to spend it with me. It turned out to be a lovely day in the end, going to one of the places which my husband and I loved visiting, Blackbury Camp bluebell wood, which I have prevously written about here. along with its history.
The bluebells are just coming out, they probably need another week of warm weather to be at their best, but they still looked beautiful.
While taking a long look at the garden yesterday, it wasn’t the flowers that grabbed my attention, but the beautiful, delicate leaves that are all unfurling from their cases. There are so many different shades of green as well as the purples, golds, creams, blues and silvers.
The view looking across the back lawn towards the woodland is one of my favourites. The dark foliage of the Japanese azalea in the foreground contrasts so well with the frothiness of the new foliage in the background.
Woodland ephemerals are the tiny little plants that decorate the woodland floor, one minute they are nowhere to be seen, the next minute they are up, flowering, setting seed and then over. Blink and you miss them, don’t go on holiday or they’ll be over by the time you get back, but they are so beautiful, they really deserve a place in a woodland garden. The plants that I’m talking about in this post are the Erythroniums.
Erythronium Pagoda.
The garden is bursting forth with the slightly higher temperatures and the sunshine we have had lately, each day brings new flowers for me to enjoy. It seems as though everything in the garden is trying to catch up with itself and forget all the snow, ice and torrential rain that we had during the dreadful month of March this year. however one plant that seems to have revelled in all the rain is the primrose family.
View from the landing window with primroses spreading everywhere.
Nearly a month late, but never mind, the snakeshead fritillaries, Fritillaria meleagris, are flowering in the woodland at last. Today was a beautifully sunny day with a cold wind, the woodland is quite sheltered so it was a pleasure to be there, looking at all the flowers, listening to the birds and the buzzing of the bees, a real spring day at last.
He’s two weeks late, but at last Narcissus St.Patrick has woken up and is spreading his lovely soft yellow flowers round the woodland and the woodland border.
I might be speaking too soon, but I hope not. The garden has an air about it that speaks to me of spring, leaf buds are starting to unfurl and more flowers are opening up each day. The birds are making so much noise defending their territories and bees are starting to buzz each day. Our days and nights are a bit warmer and our mole is playing havoc with the back lawn while he searches for a mate! Yes, Spring is in the air!
The border by the driveway is full of primroses at the moment.
Talk about deja vous! This snow is easily as deep as the first lot, but this time it is sticking on all the branches and twigs whereas last time it was very dry and blew into drifts with the gales that we had at the same time. There was just a sprinkling when it was time for me to go to church, but by the time we left all our cars in the car park were covered! I got safely home but really it was a blizzard and this is where I intend to stay until it stops, the sooner the better. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.
Deb's Garden Blog – Journal
Diary of a Suburban Gardener