Sunil In the last several blog posts I’ve written about how busy I’ve been working through lists and tasks, jobs and chores. While I’ve been beavering away, so has the garden. We seem to have temporarily skipped Spring and moved into early summer with temperatures at 20+ºC this week. Plants have been emerging, leafing, growing and flowering at an amazing rate. Walking around the garden, I’ve highlighted a few that have caught my eye.
We first start with the tulips – yes, those tulips that I got through for free with an online order for something else towards the end of last year. Initially an inconvenience of having to dig out a pot to put them in, grumbling that it was yet more work on top of having to deal with the bulbs in the original order, I am now seriously considering whether an annual tulips purchase could be a recurring thing. These white tulips (I’ve forgotten the variety) have been flowering like this for weeks and weeks. They started off all white and have developed an attractive blush and streak of pink as they’ve aged.
And they’re still flowering.
Still!
This is the first time I can say that the result in the pot, on the patio, looks just like a photo in a gardening catalogue would for these tulips.
Continuing round and onto the lower terrace (Estate Agent terminology, not how we would describe it), we have the Erodium Pelargoniflorum, which hitch-hiked a ride in the many pots we brought with us from our last house and garden. I hadn’t really intended to keep with this plant as it is a phenomenal self-seeder and virtually indestructible, yet a few plants hung on and seeded themselves into the patio wall, the rest is history.
Many posts ago I’m sure I said that I would probably end up keeping the Erodium just by not being bothered to get rid of it; well, here it still is. I’m just hoping that I don’t regret not getting rid of this plant now while it’s still manageable and not gone to seed. The trouble is, with these delicate pretty flowers and fresh textured leaves, the gardener in me simply can’t pull them out, even if I needed to.
Not strictly a bloom, but fascinating none-the-less are all the ferns planted about the garden. Since we found success with growing ferns from spores they’ve been planted in every part of the garden in every border. When you grow ferns from spores in a seed tray, it’s all about bulk-numbers: millions of spores form hundreds of thousands of prothallus, of which thousands develop into fernlets, hundreds of which can be potted up and grown on; if you’re able to take care of that many at once (so take a half of those for our incompetence).
The ferns in the garden now are starting to unfurl. Depending on their local conditions, we have ferns that are still tight knuckles, while others are busy unfolding, looking like unfurling streamers.
At the corner of the Corner border a once-tiny bay has now grown into a rather statuesque shrub and is flowering heavily with densely clustered small scented blooms. Slightly across from it is a Sand Cherry tree, also with a delicate pale pink blossom on a background of deep burgundy leaves. We were surprised to discover that Sand Cherry is also scented. It’s an attractive looking small tree, especially in spring when the long slender dark branches hold sprays of pale pink blossom. The scent is an added bonus and something we only discovered recently as (at least I) thought the scent was only coming from the bay, it didn’t occur to me to check other plants in the area. After the flowers are supposed to come little red fruits later in the year but with all the small birds using this tree to launch attacks at the bird feeders, I guess the fruits never get a chance to mature.
The large (inherited) ornamental cherry is just beginning to flower. Probably just because of its scale, it is one of the most arresting sites in the garden. I’m looking forward to sitting under it’s long, spreading branches clustered with flowers as pink blossom petals gently rain down. The show is almost three weeks early this year and I think that is due to the unusually warm weather we have had recently. The show doesn’t last long so I will be trying to  make the most of it while it lasts.
Other parts of the garden hold promise for future flowers. The Banksiae rose across the front of the house is smothered with countless flower buds that are still forming, but imperceptibly fattening. Some of the fruit trees are already in bloom, delphiniums are shooting up rapidly while other plants are only just waking up as the sun is now high enough to light and heat the ground that was in winter shadow.
It’s a good time to be in the garden, watching the garden racing into flower.
10 comments
Beautiful, Sunil. Not much is blooming here yet except some wild violets. I think they are lovely. The fiddleheads (mostly Christmas ferns) are starting to unfurl and lots of buds are beginning to form on my roses. Just wish this virus would go away 🙁 Take care.
Hello Lynn, it’s lovely to hear from you, I hope you’re staying safe in the mountains. I expect in the coming weeks more and more will start flowering around you and then before you know it, you will have caught up to us!
But that Erodium is magnificent!…. and you can always pull out what you don’t want. I’ll have a few. You mentioned it in your old garden, and I got myself two miniatures to put in a shallow pot with gravel scree. Only one flowers (some colour as yours only tiny) and they have not grown bigger in 5 years. I think I like yours MUCH better!
Hello Mrs Mac, that Erodium is lovely, but once it’s established, it’s a “friend for life”. It’s so tough I’m now wondering if I can use it on the verge, which is so hostile even grass gives up. It self-seeds so easily I could “catch” a load and sow it into the verge where it will spread into a dense mat, smothering out the weeds. Hmm…
It’s all beautiful! I love those ferns. Ornamental cherry trees are such a gift in the spring with those masses of blooms. I have one in my front garden that I love. My house is 82 years old and I think the tree might be just as old.
Thanks Tammy, we like taking walks and looking at the cherry trees, admittedly most are the same pink double type, but that doesn’t detract from the spectacle. Our cherry is now fully out and even starting to drop petals. The blossom season is so short, that’s part of the magic about it, though, isn’t it?
You’re garden is rushing into summer, albeit summer with tulips, and mine can’t make a final break with winter. Those white tulips are gorgeous.
Hello Jason, I was just thinking earlier that if all these plants are flowering now, several weeks before they’re supposed to, then we might end up with a flowering gap later on in the year – especially if I’m not going to be able to get any annuals for the patio pots!
I love all those shades of pink in spring, and it is a treat to see all your flowers. Here in Maine, the new shoots (“fiddleheads”) of one variety of fern are considered a special food treat.
Thanks, Jean, pink seems to be the predominant colour, not that I’m complaining. I couldn’t imagine eating the new shoots of ferns, but don’t knock it until you’ve tried it, I guess.