Wordless Wednesday – Beautiful bells – Allium nectaroscordum

More Irises and a correction

Here are some more of the Irises flowering at the moment in the garden.  I needed to check on the name of some of the ones I bought from Cayeux at Courson last autumn.  I incorrectly labelled one yesterday, I’ll go back and correct it and show it again here with the correct name.  When I checked on the Cayeux website I found about 15 warm tone yellow tall bearded iris so that although I knew the names of the ones I purchased it was still difficult to be sure that I was even sold the correct ones!

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

Above is the real Grand Canari. Below is the iris I featured yesterday and is Iris Dear Jean, sorry for the confusion.

Iris Dear Jean just unfurling

Iris Dear Jean

Iris Dear Jean

Iris Chelsea Blue

Iris Chelsea Blue

The above is a real beauty; I can’t wait for this to increase.  At the moment it is in a bed near the vegetable garden, when there is a big enough clump I will plant somewhere much more prominent.

Iris Rustic Jewel

Iris Rustic Jewel

Iris Rustic Jewel

Iris Rustic Jewel is in the large Island, it seems that I am putting a lot of my Irises there.

What’s flowering today in your garden?  Do you have any special treasures that you want to share?

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.

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.

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.

Deadly trap

The spider has used the Californian poppy to trap its prey, it must have kept it from being hungry for a while!

A little vase of spring for the table

Tulips, fresias and foliage from the garden