Yesterday it was raining heavily nearly all day, definitely not the weather for meandering round the garden! Today it was warm and sunny so I sat outside for my morning cup of coffee…
As you can see everything is growing pretty quickly. The tall blue spires of flowers are camassia, I’ve quite a few clumps now as they seem to do well in my soil., you’ll see them in quite a few photos at the moment!
Behind my seat is this gorgeous aquilegia, it’s right outside the window where I sit in the conservatory, I love watching how the petals unfurl themselves. Behind them is another clump of camassia, the brighter blue next to it is brunnera Jack Frost with a camelia above which is near the end of it’s flowers.
Up in the Amber and Amethyst garden the bluebells have gone a bit mad, these are Spanish bluebells which can get somewhat invasive, I think I’ll be thinning these a bit once they’ve finished flowering, maybe move some to the front garden. With the camassia as well I have quite a sea of blue!
The beech hedge behind is starting to green up, it’s strange how it turns green, as different trees within the hedge green up at different times, there’s not even a pattern according to how much light they get. We have a stripy hedge at the moment!
At the other side of the arbour, just in sight peeping through the roses in the foreground, is my tree peony, my pride and joy! It was a big investment for me at the Harrogate Show a few years back, I seem to think it was about £25 which is a lot for me on one plant, (comparable to a rose but at least with David Austin roses they’re guaranteed for 5 years!) Luckily it has thrived and this year has a lovely display of it’s huge pink, blousy blooms. According to the picture on the label they were meant to be more purple, so it’s lucky really that it flowers before it can totally clash with it’s neighbours!
The pond area is starting to look good, the hostas are spreading their leaves and the stripy iris leaves are shooting up. The tall plants with tiny white dangling flowers are Solomon’s Seal, we did thin it last year, but I think we need to reduce the area they cover a bit more, they’re pretty but once they’re done that’s it for the year. The pond as you can see still needs clearing out, having picked up a pond specialist catalogue at this years Harrogate show I’m quite enthused again, I just need to sort out the pond weed and the duck weed.
Back down by the patio, the cytissus is stunning at the moment, these are more common in yellow but this one is a gorgeous creamy white. It’s scented too and the bees love it. Unfortunately I’ve planted it in the wrong place, it’s just too big for the spot it’s in and it’s only going to get bigger. My plan is therefore to prune it once it’s finished flowering and try and move it to the border at the side of the house. It’s a hot dry border there which I think it will be happy in, so long as it survives the move.
Hopefully in another three weeks or so I can get back to a bit of gardening, at the moment I’m still in the 6 weeks post-op of no heavy lifting, I’m sure the weeds will still be there waiting for me 🙂
thecraftycreek 
Looking lovely Margaret. It’s a busy time in the garden at the moment isn’t it – or so Mr, Tialys tells me when he disappears into the greenhouse for hours on end at the weekends. Too much rain at the moment for comfort but at least it’s fairly mild,
Those Spanish bluebells are pretty but, apparently, there’s a worry they’ll take over from the native ones and they spread both from their roots and their seeds. They do well in a vase though so I’m doing my bit by picking them before they seed at least.
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Spanish bluebells are a big worry over the native ones, I certainly wouldn’t move them to anywhere near the back lane as there are some native ones down there. The front garden is self contained so I won’t worry about them spreading too much there.
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Beautiful! 🙂
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Thank you 🙂
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I enjoy walking through your garden, we have many of the same plants. Here in California, our weather is similar, but not as cold as yours. It’s like we skip December, January, and February, plant-wise it’s definitely May here. I am trying a peony plant this year, so far it’s got one leaf, I have seen beautiful tree peonies growing near here. I didn’t want to invest that much in a plant (they are about 2x the price you paid, here) so I went with an Itoh hybrid. Camassia is a native flower here, I have much luck with them, and the deer don’t eat them. The bulbs were harvested and eaten by native Indians, the story goes that they would replant one bulb for every cluster the took. Thanks for sharing your garden as well as your stitching.
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Hi Tracy, I think skipping December, January and February sounds like a good plan! Perennial peonies like my clay soil so I have a few of those. The tree peony was about 5 years ago and it was the cheapest on the stall 😀 I didn’t know camassia bulbs were edible, not that I think I’ll try one!
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Beautiful garden with everything blooming
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Thank you, it’s starting to get a bit of colour
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Your garden is looking fabulous with its a variety of green and pops of colour
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Lovely article.
Much enjoyed.
Thank you
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