It is nice to have it confirmed by Chelsea that my garden is the height of fashion, in vogue at the moment, I am “nurturing my wild flowers” so my garden looks “pretty but shaggy” I think that was the phrase that Joe Swift used! Seriously though, I have enjoyed Chelsea this week, the gardens are far more natual these days with far less concrete than previous years and relate more to what we all have at home, while creating habitats for wildlife.
May is on fast forward at the moment. after the cooler than usual April which has held flowers back a bit, it is all change now that we have warm sunshine every day with everything trying to flower all at once. Once again the roses have beaten the rhododendrons into flower and something new seems to have opened up each time I look out of the window. There is so much to share with you , I can’t wait for Six on Saurday, so will do a mixed bag for mid week, I’m sure there will be Six new flowers by Saturday!
I’ll start with my latest dwarf iris to flower on the scree. From a distance it just looks brown, so was disappointed whenI first saw it, but when getting closer, I could see all the lovely colours that made up the petals. Orange/red fades into almost black which is highlighted by the cheeky little blue beard, then……………..
What a wonderful week it has been, such a change from last week! This week we have had sunshine every day which has dried out the flood water nicely, only problem is that the rain plus sunshine has made the weeds grow as never before! Lots more plants are now flowering, so I won’t waste any more time, I’ll get on with showing my Six for this week.
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Lots more Welsh poppies, Meconopsis cambrica, are flowering in different areas, they do shine out of the shady corners, looking like patches of sunshine.
Well, what can I say about the weather this week, especially on Tuesday. Everything seems to be against me getting out into the garden and tidying it up at the moment. Tuesday we were warned that it would be bad, I did manage to do a session of weeding first thing in the morning, but then the storm arrived, with a vengeance.
The weather still doesn’t know what it should be doing so we are being treated to a bit of everything, at least it is getting warmer, except when there is a cold east wind. The flowers keep coming, lovely to see wave after wave of different ones making changes from one week to the next. My six for this week are as follows………..
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Paeonia mlokosewitschii is having its moment of glory in the driveway border. Buds have been promising for weeks and now at last they are starting to open.
I’m beginning to think that the garden will never dry out, we have had so much rain this last week, parts of the garden have been under water again and there is only so much work that I can do from the paths, I have never known it to so wet in previous years. Flowers still come and go, blossom has started to make a difference to the garden, so I grabbed the camera yesterday when it was actually dry for quite some time and found six to show you…….
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The Berberis down by the garage is in full flower, keeping the bees very happy.
We had a blast of winter again yesterday, we had been warned that we were going to have a lot of rain, but we had large hailstones which lasted for quite some time. Quite a few sunny spells meant that I managed to get quite a bit of gardening done, but still lots more needed. So now, six things that have caught my eye this week ………….
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A dwarf prunus on the rockery is starting to flower, Prunus glandulosa Rosea plena, to be precise, a big name for a little shrub. The flowers are like little pom poms, very dainty and pretty.
What a wet week that was, hopefully this weekend will see the start of some better weather. The garden is under water again in places and I know from experience that it will take a few days before it all drains away. The wind or should I say gales, have brought lots of small branches and twigs down from the trees so clearing them up has taken quite some time, but in spite of all this I have managed some gardening between the downpours and hailstones. Time now for 6 things that have caught my eye during the week……
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I’ll start with the unveiling of my carving in the bog garden. Having done a lot of restoration work on it last year , I wanted to protect it over the winter so it was covered with a bin bag until Easter, to keep it out of the rain and frost. It seems to have worked.
This week has been a great improvement, weatherwise. We’ve had lots of sunshine, a few gentle showers, warmer temperatures, in fact good gardening weather for a change. My flood is drying up and blossom is coming on the trees and shrubs as well as new bulbs and perennials flowering, so no more messing about, lets get on with my six for this week.
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I thought Pulsatilla vulgaris looked lovely on the scree with the sunshine showing through the petals.
For those of you who have been with me for a long time, know that each year at this time, I do a post purely about Fritillaria meleagris or Snakedhead fritillaries.
