Garden Favourites

Some of my favourite flowers are in bloom now, or in bud, waiting to burst forth. There are plenty of Dicentra throughout the garden.

I love the way this one is mingling with the Chives and Aquilegias.

And the Aquilegias, my favourite garden flower, are everywhere. And I do mean EVERYWHERE! These are Clementine Purple, a really lovely variety for contrasting with other brighter colours. 

I have so many, I've kind of lost touch with the names of each one, but I know there are Winky Blue and Whites and Black Barlow around somewhere too.

As anyone who has them in their garden will know, they are prolific self-seeders. I love spotting little patches of their new seedlings, and really don't mind that you never know how the flower on the grown plant will eventually look. I love them all! 

Foxgloves and Poppies are getting ready to bloom, with the promise of glorious colour.

And the Alliums dotted all over the garden are emerging from their jackets.  I added some white ones late last year, so I'm keen to see how they'll look.

As far as work in the garden goes, well, I've been really busy again. We had a few very warm days so I got all the jobs done that I didn't know needed doing until I really studied certain areas.  Some of the Ferns in the  shady area got trimmed back now their new fronds are emerging. The larger Dryopteris ferns were done about two months ago as they looked messy and tend to unfurl earlier. Underneath some of the dead leaves, I was thrilled to find a self seeded baby fern.

It may look like a lot of bare space in front here, but when the fern leaves fully unfurl, they drop and cover this whole area.

I added a new Astilbe, just behind the foxgloves and poppies here.

And a Brunnera, which I love for it's delicate Forget-Me-Not type flowers and variegated leaves.  It should like it here as the soil is  moist in front of the wildlife ponds.

I also think I've solved the climber dilemma I had in THIS post. I've planted Clematis Special Occasion to scramble up the shed, and an evergreen Honeysuckle Henryi to twine around the Lilac. That may take some time to get going though, as I managed to snap off the main growing stem while planting it!

One other purchase was for the back wall. This was exposed when the Leylandii were chopped down a few years ago and since then I've been trying to clothe it in plants to cover up it's ugliness. The Pyracantha has done brilliantly along with Clematis Pixie, and the Ivy is now getting a good foothold and has started to creep upwards. I spotted this pretty Solanum 'Glasnevin' in the garden centre though, and thought it would be perfect to fill the left hand side. The little flowers are so pretty. If it's happy here, it should spread out nicely.

I also did some rather back breaking digging, moving my large Bay from one side of the back area to the other. It was sitting just in front of the Raspberries before and they were threatening to overtake it, so it's now in a new home with only a Hardy Geranium for company at present. I gave it a good trim too, and it's looking much healthier.

A whole new patch in the garden was added too, taking inspiration from my visit to KEW GARDENS. Can you guess what I planted? All will be revealed in my next post.

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It's all happening now!

It's been crazily busy here over the last week or so. I decided to get all the 'boring' jobs out of the way early in the year so I could spend the latter months doing the things I really enjoy, like planting, sowing seeds and taking cuttings, as well as just sitting and admiring the garden when everything is in bloom.

So, I've painted trellises and fence panels, scrubbed a zillion pots, had a shed revamp, re-lined the fish pond and generally worked my little socks off to get everything ready for the coming season.

My beautiful Hellebore Xsternii, a hybrid between Argutifolius and Lividus, is still putting on a great show of delicate green flowers tinged with pink, providing the bees with some much needed pollen.

The petals on my Angel Heart tulips are just starting to fall now. I do wish they would bloom for longer, as their colour is just wonderful.

Dicentra are getting ready to show off their fabulous teardrops. I must have gone a bit made with divisions last year, as they seem to be appearing all over the garden! The white varieties are lagging behind the pink though, no sign of their little blooms yet.

Clematis Freda leaves are appearing...and leaves are all I got last year! They were new plants though, so I'm hoping now they're established in their permanent homes and have had lots of tlc, they will reward me with masses of their deep pink flowers. I have one growing up my shed and another along the fence. I'm hoping they'll eventually meet to clothe that whole corner.

I still have Narcissus Thalia, a beautiful double headed white, in full bloom. And Muscari are everywhere!

Bluebells are just beginning to show. Still nowhere near as many as I want in my garden, so this might be the year I finally get around to purchasing more. I really want to fill the gaps I have in my little woodland areas  with them.

Anemone Blanda still in bloom. Azaleas and Aquilegias waiting to blossom and Marsh Marigolds are adding a touch of yellow sunshine.

And, this is not pest I really wanted to find in my garden again. They stopped me growing my favourite Oriental Lilies because of the devastation they caused, they started on my pond lilies last year, and now, NOW, I find them on my fritillaries! Pfft, darn things. Beautiful they may look, but they are complete pests, leaving barely anything of their favourite plants left. Leaves, buds, seed pods, they eat them all! Bye, bye Liliy Beetles, it's the squish for you!!

But these little darlings are more than welcome. At last, the first batch of tadpoles have emerged! Still lots more to come so the ponds are definitely going to be heaving and I'm going to need more fish food to keep their tummies full!

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