Home from Chelsea

What is the first thing you do when you arrive home after a few days away?

Last evening when I arrived home from Chelsea, I didn’t even open the door of the house but immediately needed to walk around the garden to satisfy myself that all was well.

The sun was going down do the light was coming from a low angle and the garden seemed magical to me.

Even more of the roses were blooming, Madonna lilies were opening and Stipa tenuissima was wafting about in the wind, tempting me to run my fingers through it.

Sambucus and rose Scepter’d Isle in the triangular rose bed

Dwarf gladioli in the large island

Buddleia alternifolia

Trachelospermum jasminoides, hides the gas bottle from the vegetable garden, and its scent fills the air all around the garden

Cotinus catching the last rays of the sun

The slope

From the drive you can’t even see the paths between the beds

I hate being away from home at this time of year, all the more because later in summer it will be too hot and many plants will go into summer hibernation so this is really the moment for abundance in the garden.  I did enjoy the Chelsea Flower Show and when I get my thoughts together I’ll post about my impressions.

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GBBD – May Profusion

I usually try to post every bloom there is in the garden for GBBD (for my own record of what is flowering if nothing else), but I’m beaten today!  There are just too many flowers and to be truthful even though I love every single bloom it is the overall effect of the garden that is giving me the most joy.

I will try to post about more of the flowers individually during the next month. Cistus, Eschscholzia californica (and not just orange), Roses, Iris – all deserve their own post.

Thanks to Carol for hosting.  You might want to peek over the garden wall at some blooms in other gardens so do visit Carol at MayDreamsgarden.

So here (grab a cup of tea maybe) is My Hesperides Garden on GBBD in May.  I hope your gardens are giving you as much pleasure as mine is to me, happy bloom day.

Rosa mutabilis on the wall that divides the vegetable garden from the drive

Large Island

Iris Kent Pride with white blotched with brown Cistus

Philadelpus scenting the garden

Iris Before the Storm with Eschscholzia californica

The slope

This cistus is one I took as a cutting

The slope

The slope

Eschscholzia californica, on the slope

Buddleia alternifolia, I am tryijng to train as a weeping tree

The pillars on the west facing side of the terrace with Rosa Clair Martin

My favourite rose

Rosa Rimosa, South facing Terrace

Large Island

Large Island

Large Island

Large Island

Large Island looking towards the formal beds

Large Island

Looking along the back border from under the fig

Looking from under Mulberry along the back bed

Left Hand Border

Under Mulberry

Left Hand Border

Left Hand Border

Left hand border

Rosa Stanwell’s perpetual, Triangular rose bed

Sambucus with lovely dark foliage, Triangular rose bed

Triangular rose bed

Triangular rose bed

Triangular rose bed

Triangular rose bed

The quality of the images isn’t as good as usual as today was very sunny but rain is forecast for tomorrow so I needed to get them today.

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Iris in the garden

When I lived in the UK I never grew Bearded Irises, now they have become one of my favourite flowers.  Partly because they love the climate here and my very free draining soil in particular, they form clumps of colour very quickly.  I also enjoy the strong form of the foliage, perfectly making a strong full stop when planted next to more softly rounded forms.

This Dutch Iris has been flowering for a while

This is a real beauty, it came from a friend when he thought he was giving me a different variety

I’ve decided on a new place for this clump, I want to put them in the Large Island in front of Phlomis

Looks like velvet in close-up

Pride of Kent came from the same friend when I first had this garden

This was an unknown quantity from a plant swap – rather nice. When it has made a clump I’ll move it from the slope

I bought some new varieties when I visited Courson last autumn and am pleased to see that they are producing strong flower spikes in their first year.

Iris Grand Canari, planted close to Rosa Molineux, almost exactly the same colour

Iris ‘Immortality’, a lovely pure white from a local supplier

Iris Jane Philips – not shown well here, it is a very pure pale blue

It’s now raining too hard to take any more photographs, so I’ll post the rest tomorrow.

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Pink

I wouldn’t really describe myself as a ‘pink’ person but I do love very deep fuchsia pink.  Last year I started planting a small area of the garden with just this colour, the idea being that there would be something flowering in that colour for most of the year.

If you’ve seen any of my previous posts over the last few months you will have seen Anemone Sylphide.  I am thrilled with the colour and how long it has flowered; it is still producing new blooms now and it began on January 15^th.

Anemone Sylphide

Last spring I saw two tulips that caught my eye on other blogs.  Hillwards showed Tulip Barcelona, just the colour I wanted and available from my supplier; I have not been disappointed by its silky loveliness.  Wife, Mother Gardener raved about the little tulip Persian Pearl (she has shown it a couple of times this year too.  I think it must like her cooler conditions better than mine because mine was over in about a week, but as it is a species type it should at least bulk up for next year and will hopefully make a better impression.

Tulip Barcelona

T. Barcelona, I like the way the petals curve out in a most elegant way

The petals look like silk

The first tulip opens in 2013 – T. Persian Pearl

Tulip Persian Pearl

I included Hyacinth Miss Saigon, but again this opened and finished very quickly so the jury is out as to whether I would plant others, it will depend on its performance next year.  Little Gem irises were pretty but their colour didn’t live up to their description but they did flower for a long time so I enjoyed having them in the garden.

Hyacinth Miss Saigon

I also bought Tulip Purple Dream not expecting it to be a similar colour.  This tulip is indeed a dream I’ve never seen a tulip with a larger flower, the images don’t do it justice.  It was very tall too, although this could be because it was planted with Cerinthe all around it so it might just have been reaching for the light. I hadn’t planted it in the same bed as the others but I might be tempted into buying some this autumn (don’t think about it yet) to give a different form in the bed.

T. Purple Dream

T. Purple Dream with the light behind its petals, this is a new favourite

Wide open showing a white throat T. Purple Dream

The same applies to T. Double Dazzle planted in autumn 2010 in the large island; I think it would look great with the other tulips.

T. Double Dazzle

T. Double Dazzle looks great with Euphorbia rigida

Sadly the tulips have all finished now but I’ll post about some of the others that were especially beautiful this year and the plants that associated well with them.

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GBFD – There may be masses of blooms but the Foliage is what holds it all together

The title of this month’s GBFD post says it all really.  When I went into the garden to photograph foliage this morning I thought it might be difficult this month to take images that didn’t feature flowers rather than foliage.  But then as I walked around I was reminded why I had wanted to start GBFD; Foliage is EVERYTHING in a garden.  In some seasons it might be all there is, but when it is spring and the garden shouts with colour and tells me it is truly spring it is the foliage that makes the blooms sing in a harmonious way.

The garden is full of colour, maybe more colour than at any other time of year; yet without the foliage the garden would be nothing!

The structure of the formal garden works all year. Now supporting the white tulips in the front two beds

Structure, form and shades of green are enough to create a beautiful garden

Box needing to be pruned give a slightly wild feel; the pale green new foliage is too lovely for me to want to remove it

The slope is green in a different way; Stipa tenuissima waves in the wind

Silver foliage is a strong part of my Mediterranean garden, the bright spring light makes the silver leaves shimmer and also make a wonderful contrast to Tulip Negrita.

Various Artemisia and other silver foliage plants

Sedum Purple Emperor glows against a santolina

The purple and almost jade foliage of the Sedum is stunning when it is new

Sedum Matrona has pink edges to its leaves which at present are an attraction to many snails

Festuca glauca highlights the deep purple of Heuchera ‘Obsidion’

The bright spring light bleaches the true deep colour of the Heuchera

Heuchera ‘Patty’s Plum’

Remember sometimes to turn your images into tones of grey to help you understand the forms and texture that your plants are creating.

Some large round leaves would be a good addition here.

I think the form of the foliage here, works well with strappy Iris in the foreground, with Cotinus, santolina and Phlomis and a tall stand of Cerinthe in the background.

New foliage on a Mahonia

There is of course the pattern and colour you enjoy only when getting close.

A lot of new foliage is pink or red and not green.  I think this is just amazing

and the foliage of wild lupin is a wonderful pattern

Nandina domestica’s new foliage is as colourful as any flower

Hedges are very important for the form and texture they provide in the garden, the back of my garden Has Photinia, giving orangey-red new foliage which emphasises the colour of Tulips Brown Sugar and gives a good background to the rest of the garden always.

The large tree on the left is a White Mulberry

Please feel free to use GBFD in your own way; to maybe highlight one plant that is making an impact this month in your garden or to show the combinations that work for you.  Please post and add a link to your comment.  I really look forward to seeing what is happening in other gardens.  I hope you are enjoying spring as much as I am.

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Tulip time again!

The Tulips are the best ever this year.  I am sure this is due to the long cold (but not very cold winter) we have had.  Tulips need 13 – 15 weeks of cold followed by the soil warming to flower well.  I think newly purchased tulips have had some cold treatment already as new tulips usually flower quite well; although they are often over very quickly.  This year some that were planted in Autumn 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2012 are all flowering; I didn’t purchase any in 2011.

Many that are several years old have even multiplied and I can see that one original bulb is producing up to 4 stems of flowers.

Given that tulips are one of my favourite flowers I am walking around with a very happy smile playing around my lips as I enjoy the show!

So no more words, or even names for this post – just an orgy of tulips glowing in the spring light (day and at sunset).

  Newly planted Negrita in the foreground with others planted 4 years ago behind

There are others lovelies in the garden too, Clematis armandii is full of deliciously scented flowers, making the pergola look as if it is covered in snow.

Viburnum burkwoodii has grown to be taller than the Photinia hedge and is filling that corner of the garden with such a wonderful perfume I wish I could bottle it.

Viburnum burkwoodii

As guess what?  I can’t resist showing you that Anemone Sylphide is still flowering!

What tulips grow well for you; and which reliably flower in successive years?

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GBFD – Spring has Sprung

So officially spring has sprung; but what tells us that this is true?  What does spring mean to us?  In Italy there is a proverb: “One swallow doesn’t mean it is spring”; in the UK the proverb is almost the same except that the swallows proclaim it to be summer.  The birds take a while to fly north waiting to follow the increasing insect populations that provide the food for their young.

Returning to the idea of spring I was thinking that it was the first appearance of a particular flower that convinced me spring had arrived.  When I lived in the UK is certainly was a flower. To me daffodils WERE spring, but in Italy because of the lack of long cold winters where I live the daffodils often appear at the same time as tulips.

Spring is the moment of rebirth, rejuvenation, renewal, resurrection, and regrowth so I think that for me, now, it isn’t a flower but much more the fact that the garden and the surrounding countryside is becoming freshly green that lifts my spirits and makes me believe that Spring has truly Sprung!

Bright green fields tell me its spring

In winter many of the fields are green but not in a new, bright fresh way they are now.  Everywhere in the garden new shoots are pushing through the soil, new foliage is opening even on evergreen shrubs giving them a new rejuvenated appearance.

There is enough grass for the sheep to be left in the field all day and not just an hour or so

Yes it is FOLIAGE that makes it spring, not a flower at all.  For this Garden Bloggers Foliage Day let me share with you some of the ‘greens’ that make it “spring”!

Bright green foliage on the pillar roses

Even the Acanthus looks different in the spring sunshine

Spring light shining through tulip foliage

Tulips and Hemerocallus – green, green and more green

Green in the garden, green surrounding the garden, glimpses of green – foliage says it all

What makes it spring for you?  Is it flowers?  Is it the Foliage?  Or one particular favourite plant that whispers in your ear that spring has arrived?

…..and if you’re in the southern hemisphere I haven’t forgotten that it isn’t spring where you are but I’m sure you will forgive us longing for longer days and for our gardens to once again begin their cycle!  But we’d still love to know about the foliage in your garden as you slip into autumn.

You are very welcome to join in GBFD, just write your post and link it to your comment here, thank you.

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First Tulips

Yesterday the sun shone and the first tulips of 2013 opened!  I am so happy!

The first tulip opens in 2013 – T. Persian Pearl

Not just one, and doesn’t the new foliage of Sedum Matrona look nice with them

Hyacinth Miss Saigon is opening more each day too

Today is not sunny, this morning was grey and this afternoon there is steady gentle rain (good for the garden unlike the heavy rain and horizontal winds at the weekend) so the tulips aren’t open but Hyacinth Miss Saigon is opening more each day.

Thank you all for your response to my appeal for a plant ID.  Here is an image of the foliage so that even though the stems didn’t exude an orange liquid it seems clear this is a Celandine, just that it has pointier petals than any of the images I saw when searching.

Here’s the foliage of the flower I posted about 2 days ago

Talking of foliage just a quick reminder that it is GBFD on Friday 22^nd please feel free to join in with anything that takes your fancy foliage-wise.

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GBBD March – spring begins

Not in the sense that we have spring weather, no, it is cold, it is wet and the winds have been gale force; there has been some sun but mostly March has definitely come in like a lion…..

But despite this, blooms have opened, some bulbs are already finished, Crocus have been shredded by the whipping wind and Iris reticulate, although lasting longer than other years are now putting on foliage rather than flowering.

The best blooms are still the Anemone sylphide, close to them the other bulbs I chose for their similar fuchsia pink colour are showing their buds.  Hyacinth Miss Saigon, another bulb I’ve never grown before will be open in a few days and Barcelona, Persian Pearl or Antraciet Tulips are showing colour in their buds.  I don’t know which tulip this is because I planted all three here hoping for a continuation of intense colour, I’ll know when it is fully open I hope.

Anemone Sylphide, no apologies for showing these again!

Hyacinth Miss Saigon

Barcelona, Persian Pearl or Antraciet Tulip?

The plum is now flowering with the promise of small sweet yellow plums later in summer.

Plum blossom

The rest of the blooms are those you would expect in March with one exception, Rosa rimossa on the south-facing pillars has two flowers, one has already been almost destroyed by wind by the other is more tucked away so will hopefully bloom for a little longer.

Rosa rimosa three days ago

and now after the wind

R. rimosa, another bud opening

Ceanothus repans continues to flower out of its usual late spring season, the plant is dying back in the middle and I fear it will die, they are capricious shrubs that often die for no apparent reason, I will replace it if it does die, I am trying cuttings but they are slow to put down roots.

Ceanothus repans

Cerinthe is late flowering this year but there are masses of self-seeded plants in the large island making quite a statement.

Cerinthe

Cerinthe’s purple bell flowers

Viburnum tinus still not fully open, it really is a short season here

Periwinkle grows in the hedges

Violas have been flowering all winter in large pots which will some be displaying tulips

Euphorbia rigida is still putting on a great show

Euphorbia mysernites is adding colour around the garden

A few Verbena are flowering in sunny spots

Prostrate Rosemary is doing a great job of forming a strean of blue on the slope

There’s lots more flowers to come.

Lonicera fragrantissima is at its best now, sweetly perfuming the air by the drive

Teucrium is reliable for flowering all winter

Clumps of Muscari are beginning to bloom

Where-as Eleagnus is coming to an end

Osteospmum also have a few blooms

Thank you Carol at MayDreams for hosting GBBD; visit to see what gardeners around the world have flowering in March.  Happy GBBD to everyone.

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All is Revealed!

I promised not to keep you waiting for the name of the two plants that have been wowing me this winter.

I am surprised none of you guessed as I’ve mentioned the plants over the last couple of months.  Maybe you thought I was implying a shrub, well sadly there isn’t a shrub that flowers all winter here, I really wish there was.  Yes Rosa mutabilis flowers into December and this year actually managed blooms in January but it doesn’t flower in the bleak months of January and February, the months when I want some colour to cheer me.

So first is Iris unguicularis, I wrote about it as a plant of the moment on November 26^th, not expecting that it would flower almost continuously until now March 7^th.  There was only a two week period when there were no flowers; my clump is quite new (three years old) and already it has sent out a new clump about 30cm from the original plant.  This is the first year that it has flowered so much, I knew it would take a while to establish but it has certainly been worth waiting for, a delicate colour but not a delicate plant it has stood through strong winds and 6 weeks of sub-zero night-time temperatures, but it began flowering before any cold weather had arrived so it isn’t dependant on the cold to start it flowering.

Iris unguicularis

I am sure the Iris will continue to spread and flower even more profusely in years to come, I intend leaving the main plant where it is (I couldn’t bear to not have the flowers next year, but I will move the off-shoot and hope to have a few clumps in strategic places in the future.

I hope with my second revelation that I’m not jumping the gun.  I planted Anemone Sylphide for the first time last autumn (at £2.00 for 25 corms from Peter Nyssen not an expensive experiment).

I didn’t soak them before planting although I did soak a different variety that I planted a bit later under the Mulberry; it did rain very heavily soon after planting them so I think I was probably lucky.  The growth appeared after about a month and I was surprised and a little worried that it should appear so early.  I showed the first bud about to open in January’s GBBD and that first flower lasted more than a month!  I call that pretty amazing.  Other buds appeared and the group still has lots of new buds waiting to open, I’ll report when the last bloom fades.  For something that gives such impact through these dull months I think it must be hard to beat.  At the price I paid I would even be willing to consider them an annual.  I will plant more next autumn and I’m looking forward to knowing whether they will return for a second and hopefully more years.

The bud appears with an elegant bent neck

then shyly puts its head up to show the colour of its bud

The colour becomes stronger

and shines in the light

Slowly it opens to reveal the black centre

In the sun it opens fully

I want swathes of this colour to brighten winter days

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