My Little Garden 11th May 2024
This week has been the first in a very long time when it hasn’t rained. The sun has shone, temperatures have gone up, and I had to be sensible and put some sun cream on when I spent six hours planting on Wednesday.
Last weekend, the husband and I headed down the M6 to see John Massey’s garden at Ashwood Nursery in Kingswinford. It’s the second time that we’ve visited and it was lovely to see this wonderful garden in spring. It’s open for charity every Saturday, and if you get the chance I’d highly recommend it.
After an overnight stay near our Sunday venue of Morton Hall Gardens, we had another amazing garden visit. The tulip festival there is something that I’ve wanted to see for a few years now, and it didn’t disappoint, despite the fact that many of the tulips had gone past their best due to the weather conditions this year. This combination of yellow Iris and Tulipa ’Antoinette’ was just stunning, and we had a glimpse on BBC Gardener’s World last night. Bloms Bulbs were also there with tulips on display, and I have a list. It’s not a particularly short one ….
Anyway, back to the serious business of picking six things from my own little garden this Saturday. I’ll start with.
- Roses and Lilac
Rosa ‘The Generous Gardener’ with oodles of buds and the beautifully scented Korean Lilac. All of my roses are in bud, but the race to be the first is between ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ and ‘Handel’ as usual.
2. Rhododendron
A random fact is that I learnt to spell ‘rhododendron’ when I was five, about the same tine that my Dad taught me morse code. Despite this, I’ve never been a great fan of these shrubs. This one got plonked behind the swingseat’s predecessor many years ago and has been totally neglected since. The only reason that it is blooming profusely this year is all the rain.
3. Alliums
These are now taking over from the tulips, so my garden is very purple.
4. Aquilegia
This might be ‘Kristall’ but I think it’s just a random white one.
5. Geranium
Geranium phaeum ‘Lily Lovell’ has always been the first geranium to flower until I acquired Geranium renardii. I like them both.
6. Clematis
Nelly Moser and Josephine are in flower. Nelly is quite easy to take a photo of.
Whereas Josephine is rather attached to the physocarpus, and a little more challenging.
And that’s it for another week. I’m taking advantage of the fine weather today, and doing some fence maintenance that I’ve been putting off. The husband is happily back on the golf course rather than garden visiting, so I don’t think I’ll get any help.
Thanks for reading and have a great weekend.
