Goodbye April - you were an interesting and persistent month. You persistently decided not to rain to any great amount and you persistently decided to be more frosty more often than is quite frankly polite.
Yet whilst the magnolia in the front garden has sustained frost damage it still looks good. Every year when it flowers I remember it was in flower the first time I saw this house and I smile. The moment I saw the magnolia was the first tick in the box that this might be the house for me.
In the driveway the few cowslips I planted some year ago are starting to become a goodly clump. They are wandering now and this makes me very happy. It is, very definitely, the sign of a plan coming together.
The side front lawn is probably looking scrappy in the view of most people including me, but it is a scrappiness I will put up with. The Winter Aconites are now in their foliage stage and it is important that I let the foliage die down of its own accord so they have enough energy for next year. There are also some Narcissus Hawera flowering and some Tulipa sylvestris starting to appear. This means the grass will not get cut for a while yet.
The back garden is showing some good colour from various tulips, and the yellow of the doronicums also is a joy this time of year. I cannot recommend doronicums enough as a Spring flower. They will flower for weeks and are easy to propagate from division. I started with a couple of plants and now they repeat along the Conservatory Border creating a nice rhythm.
In the Courtyard Garden everything is looking very green. The Rhododendron luteum is budding up ready to flower. I planted out a luteum into the Accidental Shrubbery a couple of years ago and think this year it might flower for the first time. I shall report back.
and the pink Camellia you can just seeing edging into the shot in the Courtyard is managing to survive the frosts and is flowering well this year.
Regular readers might remember that I bought a bonsai tree from the RHS Chatsworth Flower Show a couple of years ago. Time blurs at the moment so I had to look up when it was and it was in 2019. The little tree is still alive and I have been adding to my collection. I have a lot of trees that seed into my garden so I have been potting up a few seedlings and I am starting to train them. I also successfully took some cuttings from my Catalpa tree, so they are going to be trained too. Bonsai was one of my first plant obsessions. I cannot claim any expertise at all, but it is fun having a go.
The Prairie Borders (spot His Gingerness) are starting to grow well now. They always look a bit scrappy this time of year as they are still recovering from their Spring hair cut.
This is one of the Aldi acers, bought as a bargain over ten years ago. It is now developing into a fine tree.
The Malus Rudolph is also developing into a wonderful tree. It is covered with blossom and I love the dark pink of it.
and the Liriodendron is growing into a tall, amazing tree. Every year when it leafs up it brings me real joy. One day it will flower, it might not be for another ten years, but one day it will and I shall be over the moon.
The Wild Garden is entering its lush stage. The grass is starting to get long,
and the cow parsley is starting to flower.
Down by the Accidental Shrubbery the Chaenomeles Geisha Girl is flowering well next to Trev's Chair.
and there are cowslips popping up where I have no memory of planting them.
The pleached hornbeans are leafing up.
and the Four Sisters are struggling a bit with two of the four original shrubs looking a bit dead. I have not totally declared them dead yet, but I am not hopeful. The Carol Klein Acer and the Edgeworthia however are far from dead and I shall look to give them new company should the need arise.
Esme is helping me inspect the Rose Hyde Hall Hedge. It needs a bit of a clip really but it is looking very green and healthy and will soon be flowering.
I end as is traditional on the pond. The frogspawn has gone and I think the newts ate all the eggs as I can see no tadpoles. The pond is getting a little low from the lack of rain but as I write some is due in the next week so I am hopeful the level will rise even if only a little.
With thanks as ever to Helen for originating this meme.