After my post on Wednesday; I awoke on Thursday morning to gale force winds from the north east. Lots of flowers gave up the will to hang on and the garden was covered in petals. Only one wisteria still has blooms but that is over the table so if the weather warms up we will be able to enjoy it for a little longer. The crab apples, which had been covered with flowers, are now almost without flowers, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that at some have set so that there are some apples in winter.
But I am not depressed; there are lots of other blooms. Today is very grey and cold, still with a cold wind, although not so strong. The soft light has been good for the images. I am also happy that the garden is beginning to have a strong ‘presence’ so I have included some views as well as photos of individual flowers.
Rosa mutabilis is just beginning to flower and I am pleased that the tulips I chose to plant with them, assuming that they would flower at the same time, are the same tones of pink and yellow. It is so funny how one’s taste in colours for the garden change. In the past the one colour I definitely didn’t like was orange; now I am enjoying many orange tulips as well as the Arbutilon and Hemerocallis in the back border.
Orange Californian poppy
Tulip Lambarda
T. Abu Hussan, wonderfully honey perfumed
Actually the Arbutilon has been badly affected by the cold winter; there is new growth coming from ground level but I was hoping that it would begin to shoot from much higher up. Last year it was about 2 metres tall – it is fast growing but it won’t reach that kind of height in one season’s growth.
Some plants have decided to flower TODAY, obviously they know about GBBD and wanted to be included! I found a sage, Rosa mulabilis and R. Clair Martin; plus buds about to open on the climbing rose on the pillars and the buds of Aquiligea are about to open.
As there are so many images, I have, as in the past, put together a slide show. Please click on the image below to see everything flowering today in My Hesperides Garden.
Thanks to Carol at May Dreams Garden for hosting GBBD again this month. If you want to see what’s flowering all over the world today, pay her a visit.
&©Copyright 2011
Christina.
All rights reserved.
Content created by Christina for
My Hesperides Garden.
Creating my own garden of the Hesperides 
The garden is beautiful,even after a gale.My favourite is Abu Hassan,with that glorious strong colour.
Thank you, I am happy with progress, it is beginning to look like a gardenrather than a collection of individual plants
I enjoyed your photos, you have a beautiful garden!
thank you.
Very nice garden “walk”.
Thanks Greggo, thats what GBBD is all about.
I always look forward to your slideshows! I must buy some Abu Hassan in the Autumn. I love that first shot of the path lined with loveliness – good to get a sense of that emerging presence. You are creating something wonderful there Christina.
Thank you Janet, it is nice to hear that on this very cold and, now, wet GBBD.
Christina, Orange and purple flowers are my favorites, especially together. I love the landscape shots of your gardens: what a setting and what beautiful use of plants. Is Melianthus hardy there, it looks like it. Carolyn
Thank you Carolyn. Melianthus is usually hardy here, although I know some friends lost theirs this winter which was the coldest we’ve had since we moved here, eight years ago. But would it like the shade? I always think of it as a plant for sun.
I love how you have sprinkled the tulips among some of your other plants with interesting foliage. That works very nicely!
Thank you, yes I try to either plant among foliage that will be there with the tulips or will grow to hide their decaying stems.
So many wonderful tulips! Just beautiful.
I am also feel a need for larger swaths of color… not just to look at isolated specimens.
What is the name of the pink tulip that is the 8th photo in your slideshow? I really like it.
Hope it is sunny there today… we have the rain now.
Thanks,
Julie
Thanks Julie, yes today is sunny but very windy, so windy it bent the tube of my washing line! Slide number 8 is Tulip Burgandy Lace and this is the second year it has flowered. It’s actually quite red so I’m not sure if the slide show always starts in the same place. Other pink tulips I have are: T. China Pink (Lilly flowered) and T. Peerless Pink (not sure if there was a photo of this – I think it was out of focus).
Oh, Christina, I almost missed it. I haven’t checked your blog in a while, and today I am in awe of your wonderful spring garden! I have been browsing the last few posts I missed. It is all so gorgeous: the river of muscari, your formal beds filled with tulips, the wisteria, the curving path looking down on a hillside of beautiful blooms. I am still struggling to make something of my sunny hillside on the far side of the herb bed. You have given me inspiration to keep working at it.
Thank you so much your your comments. I miised some of your posts too and was very pleased to see how lovely your wood is looking in spring.
I love your bright tulips – what are they growing amongst in the bottom photo. I wonder if moving to Italy with the brighter light has impacted on your dislike of oranges?
Thanks Helen, actually the bright jewel colours were a bit of an accident as the Burgandy fringed are from last year and I thought they were planted a little to the left of where they actually were so I planted 2 other varieties very close. They are growing through a Californian poppy which is adding its own bright colour to the group. Lambarda is growing amongst Hemerocallis Stella d’Oro, which I like very much as it completely diquises the foliage of the tulips.
Wow! What a garden! Do you have problems with your tulips not coming back? I am so impressed with your colors, path, everything. The photos are perfect. Thank you for responding to my mouse count blog. I am so happy to have my front bed back.
Hi Bonnie, I left a reply on your blog, and I’ll post about tulips later this week.
So many tulips! I love the dusky colors of some of them ~ a wonderful foil to the brilliant colors.
You’ve created a wonderful Mediterranean garden. It fits so well with the surrounding landscape.
Thank you, I wanted to create a garden that sits comfortably in its landscape.
I love that tulip, Lambarda – what lovely colours. Thanks for visiting my blog and commenting, I think I’ve discovered life in my Aramandii!
I’m glad your Armandii isn’t dead, and I hope it flowers for you.
Oh Christina, so sorry to hear about your Wisteria blooms. I would hate to lose mine like that.
Just to say, loving the longer shots of your garden… very nice. More please 🙂
Yes, I agree about our colour preference changes – I too have found a new love (previously disliked) for the colour orange in my garden too. I have a fav Geum for that.
I love your tulip Lambarda and photographed Abu Hussan at a Tulip talk last year. Quite a beauty that one… pure genius in planting you have there with a euphorbia in the background (big, big smile seeing that).
Wishing you a belated Happy GBBD 😀
Abu Hussan is perfumed too, a delicious scent of honey.
All your tulips are amazing! I love the colors of theT.Abu Hussan. Amazing! Welcome to Bloomin’ Tuesday! Jean
Thanks for the welcome, Jean and welcome to my Hesperides garden.
Hi, what a beautiful garden you have there, I really love your gorgeous tulips.
Suffia.
Sadly almost all the tulips are already over! Something to look forward to for next year. Christina
Pingback: GBBD April – Spring Green « Creating my own garden of the Hesperides