GBBD – April – the sun shines and the flowers bloom

The sun shone for 3 days during the last week and so many flowers began to bloom I have been walking around the garden open mouthed at how quickly everything is growing.  The Quince tree went from bare branches to a few leaves, to full foliage plus blossom in about 4 days.

Today I will let the images speak for themselves and try to post about individual treasures over the next couple of weeks.

  

I apologise for the lack of spaces between the images but uploading them together was my only option.

What I can tell you is that I am walking around with the biggest smile on my face with the joy that spring has at last arrived.  I hope it will arrive soon with you or if you’re drifting into autumn (which can I know be like a second spring in hot climates I hope you are enjoying the season.  Happy GBBD to you all.

Visit Carol MayDreansGardens for more Bl0om day insights.

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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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GBBD April – Spring Green

We have had a week of grey days and rain, soft gentle rain so far but storms are predicted. Everything is green, even the silver plants look green as their hairs lie flat against the leaf and stop diffusing the light so they are green instead of silver.  Lavender, Perovskia plus the fresh new foliage of the box all add to the green-ness!

The Lavender and Perovskia are almost as green as the Box

Despite the warm winter most plants are slightly shier to bloom this spring, the freezing cold weather in February has obviously had its effect.  In the middle of the week when I walked around wondering what would be flowering for 2012’s April GBBD I believed there were far fewer blooms than last year; and it is true that some plants are just beginning to flower instead of being in full-bloom but today when I ventured out between the showers I found some tight buds had opened so that this April’s post is more similar to last years than I thought.  If you would like to compare with last year please click here.

The yellow roses are just opening to complement the wisteria

Even the weather is not dissimilar to last year, so spring rain is not unusual … and thank goodness for that as the ground was very dry – we have had virtually no rain for a year except for the flood in September.  Temperatures are lower than they were a month ago we had a slight frost the other morning and tonight is forecast to dip to 3°C so I haven’t planted out my tomatoes just yet although they are getting tall and have flowers so I would like to get them into the ground.

It seems early for cistus but it was flowering last year at this time too.

....and this is a very early Thyme

R. mutablis

There are fat buds on many of the Bearded Irises so they won’t be long; all the roses are full of bud and hope for a good show, Rosa mutabilis is always the first to have a lot of bloom and this year is no exception, I do think this is such a good value rose.  It flowers for 9 months of the year and the foliage is a great colour and very healthy.

April is THE month for tulips!

Click on the image below to see all the blooms in My Hesperides Garden this April GBBD, and a very happy Bloom Day to all gardeners everywhere.

I’m linking to Carol at Maydreams who hosts this interesting meme.  Visit her to see what’s happening in other parts of the world at this special time of year- spring in the northern hemisphere and autumn in the southern hemisphere.  From recent posts it seems much of the world is having rain – always good for the garden.

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My thoughts – Tulip combinations

There was a time when I didn’t really like tulips, I don’t even remember why but for many years now they are truly one of my favourite flowering plants.  I love them for their bright colours, for their beautiful flower shapes and because they flower early and tell me it is spring.

In England I would carefully work out the flowering periods and order to have the colours I needed spread over a six week to 2 month period, from Early April to Mid-May.  Here they grow differently, true I don’t have to left them when they have flowered and many will return year on year making it easier to fill the borders with colour but they flower for a much shorter time-frame, from the last week in March to the end of April if I am lucky.  In a warm spring as last year they flowered for perhaps three or four weeks.

Last autumn I was strong willed and ordered no new spring bulbs.  This was partly due to wanting spend the money on other things and more importantly I knew I needed to move and divide many perennials and thought I would be very short on time.  The fact that the weather remained very warm right up until December meant I could have found an opportunity to plant some.

It has been good to review which varieties really do perform well a second year and which need to be considered annuals.

I have decided to plant the varieties I know to be shy about a return visit in pots which I will place on the terrace to enjoy from the windows or even to plant in places where I will cut them to enjoy inside the house.

Those that are to be planted in the borders will need to be combined with plants that will grow to hide the tulips’ foliage when they have finished flowering which is not particularly attractive.

Another consideration which may seem strange to some non-gardeners is that I like blooms to dye well, by this I mean that the petals should turn an attractive colour and fall gracefully.  White blooms can be difficult in this respect as white blooms, of many different plants, turn brown.

Here are my thoughts on the tulip varieties I have grown over the last few years and the combination plants I have found successful.

Above is the boundary Photinia hedge with its orange, bronze new foliage with Rosa Westerland whose new foliage is a similar colour with T. Brown Sugar whose petals are a caramel colour.  There are more planted in an adjacent bed with muscari to give a contrast from some angles.  As ‘Brown Sugar’ dies, its petals look like a piece of iridescent silk, almost more beautiful than when they are first out.  Added to this almost all the bulbs planted in 2010 have flowered again this spring.   Tall orange Hemerocallis grow to hide the foliage as it dies back.

T. Brown Sugar with muscari

T. Brown Sugar dying with style

T. Linifolia Planted in 2009, most have flowered this year. They are low growing and suitable for rockeries so should naturalise everywhere. Small sedum grow to cover the foliage.

T. Negrita

Here T. Negrita is paired with a silver leaved Buddleia (I think it’s called Silver Wedding) and a very fluffy, silver leaved Artemisia.  The Negrita were planted in 2010 and I am almost sure there are more now than when I planted them.  Others I planted in 2009 in the circular rose bed are also flowering again although not so well and I think this is because the rose bed is irrigated in summer and the tulips prefer to be left in baking soil if possible.

Above, T. Pretty Woman planted on the upper drive bed – there are some Gaura here but what you can see is wild, self-sown Rocket.  Perfect I can pick the leaves and it will grow taller to hide the foliage of the tulips as they die back.

Fringed Lambada planted among Hemerocallis Stella d’Oro. These are a beautiful tulip, described by Peter Nyssen where I buy all my tulips and other bulbs as rhodonite red, margins chinese yellow. Thye have returned in the same numbers as planted in 2010 so well worth growing.

T. Lambada - close-up

T. Aladdin with Euphorbia mysenites - the perfect foil for many different tulips in my garden. I misnamed this pretty woman in my earlier post

Not many Princess Irene have flowered this year

T. Gavota or possibly Recreado another good companion for Euphorbia with T. Princess Irene

T Peerless Pink? planted with Queen of Sweden roses

I may have mentioned in posts about tulips last year that they have a strange habit of growth in my garden.  They begin to open their flowers while their stems are still very short.  I did wonder if this was due to the fat that this garden is very windy, however, until the last couple of days there hasn’t been much strong wind and the tulips have maintained this growth pattern.  The stems do grow with the tulips continuing to flower but it certainly makes them less elegant at the beginning.

Which varieties didn’t return?  Just as useful and important to know when planning a long-term display.  There was only one Fringed Blue Heron, however there were only a few last year I remember that these bulbs didn’t seem as good quality as the others when I planted them.  I like the colour so I may try again.

T. fringed Blue-Heron

Euphorbia rigida has swallowed most T. Double Dazzle but again worth planting again anyway.

There isn’t even any foliage to show where Double Early Peach Blossom flowered so beautifully last year.

The disappointment is lessened because I had thought they were something else and the colour wasn’t what was needed in the Small Island bed.

For more about early tulips in my garden this year see here.

There are more tulips yet to open so the season will last a little longer, I’ll post about them and their companion plants later.

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Early Tulips

Just some images of one of the flowers I love most!

Abu Hassun with Euphorbia myrsinites

Tulip Brown Sugar

T. Brown sugar again

T. Pretty Woman - isn't she just?

All the tulips are in their second or third year; last autumn I kept to my resolution or not ordering more bulbs.  I am happy as most have come back well, some have even multiplied.  The only ones that have definately not returned are the Water Lilly, doubles; a shame but it won’t stop me ordering some this year.

T. Negrita - this has probably doubled in number - I love it, sorry about the misty image, but I quite like it.

Negrita again

Not so many T. West Point have flowered again.

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Wordless Wednesday First Tulips

Don’t forget GBFD on the 22nd March.

If you’ve posted under any other foliage meme you are still very welcome to join in here too.  I’m looking forward to seeing some beautiful foliage now that it is spring/autumn depending what hemesphere you’re in!

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Tulips update, my thoughts on Tulips

I promised in my last posts about tulips that I would tell you how long the various tulips flowered this year and which have flowered again from previous years.

Looking back at my photos for last year I can see that although this has been as amazingly warm and sunny spring, the fact that the winter was cold (even if also with many days of sun) some of the tulips were at least 2 weeks behind this this.  The roses are also later – but most are just beginning now.

Because I don’t irrigate I am able to leave my tulips in the ground.  I only began planting tulips in the ground in autumn 2008 so I am only talking about  tulips that have flowered for their third year at most.

T. White Dream in formal beds

I planted 1000 Tulip White Dream in 2 formal beds in autumn 2008.  I planted by digging largish planting holes and putting 10 12 bulbs in each hole, I also planted alliums at the same time and at a slightly higher level than the tulips.  Even in spring 2009 I don’t think 1000 bulbs came up – I think this was my fault for planting too close together.  They were also quite short in their first year, possibly because the site is so windy.  I have noticed this year that tulips planted in positions more sheltered from the wind grow taller!

The same beds in early April 2010

on the 3rd April 2011

There have been less appearing each year but they have still given a good show.  Triumph tulips flower early here and I intend planting another white tulip possibly Swan Wings into these 2 beds and the other 2 which haven’t had tulips before.  This number of tulips is quite expensive but I like to have something in these beds that will flower relatively early.  I am considering also planting the local blue Iris that grows wild everywhere in these beds with the perovskia.

T. Negrita 21st March 2010

Negrita is another favourite; I love the strong colour and its large size.  This is another Triumph type and is one of the first to flower and usually lasts well, often losing its petals long after others that opened later.

It is also very similar in colour to Double Dazzle which was also very long lasting I intend planting more Double Dazzle close to where the Negrita are planted to keep the colour tones but increase the period of interest.

Negrita in close up in 2010

The same tulips 5th April 2011

Long lasting T. Double Dazzle

Even as they died the colour in the petals remained again increasing the period of interest.

Another Triumph type tulip I enjoy very much is Abu Hussan; I particularly like the fact that it is perfumed, smelling delicately of honey.  I first planted these in 2008, some in a pot that didn’t re-flower this year and a few in the ground some of which did appear again but probably only 25%.  I planted a lot more in autumn 2010 in the small island bed close to two different varieties of Euphorbia.  They have a real presence in the garden so I may plant more next autumn or wait another year or so to replenish those that fail to regrow.

T. Abu Hussan, 5th April 2009

the same tulips, during the first week in April 2010

New planting but amazingly pictured again on 5th April 2011

In 2009 I planted parrot tulips for the first time – I don’t really like as tulips but if I just think of them as a different strange flower then I think they are fun.  I planted Texas Flame, the flower-heads were large and top heavy.

15th April 2010, the flower head is larger than the height of the stem

I didn’t have any real hope that they would re-flower, I thought them too hybridised; however not only did the majority of them flower again this year, each bulb produced three flower heads!  Maybe not quite so large as last year but still larger than their stems.

2011, pictured on 17th April, T. Texas Flame

Tiny Tulipa Linifolia begins with strangely twisted stars of foliage, last year I thought they were Alliums rather than tulips; they flower as if the flower is coming straight out of the ground, completely hiding the foliage.  The colour is truly scarlet red and they appear to me to be smiling faces in the sun.  All last years bulbs re-flowered and some divided to give an even better show this year.

T. Linifolia in 2010

T. Linifolia, April 12th 2011

Burgundy lace also flowered well for a second year.  In 2010 they faded so slowly they seemed to be flowering for ever,  this year despite hot sunshine and strong winds they have again outlasted many others.

T. Burgundy Lace, a fringed type

I didn’t remember accurately where they were planted and sowed some California poppies right where they were planted; the red of the tulips mixed with the orange and yellow of the poppies gave a surprising colour shock to the large island bed.  Combined with purple (not sure of the name as they seem to be different to the description) and some Gavota planted nearby, the brightness reminded me of visits to Sissinghurst to see the spring walk (a part of that wonderful garden I always enjoyed almost more than the more famous White Garden or the wonderful roses).

I think this and all the tulips look much better when planted with foliage of other plants close by.  But I’ve written too much already, there is time for one more post about tulips and their complementary plants next week.

I wish you all a very happy gardening Easter.

&©Copyright 2011
Christina.
All rights reserved.
Content created by Christina for
My Hesperides Garden.

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The Roses Begin, in a small way

The weekend offered, again some glorious weather, although unseasonably hot.  The tulips will not last very long this year; already T. Brown Sugar and Negrita are losing their petals.  I wanted to share the joy the tulips give me so I invited lots of friends to come to visit the garden.  Gardeners and not all enjoyed the show.  Fringed, Parrots, and even Lilly shaped are pretty much unknown so I was repeatedly asked if “this one” was also a tulip.  Some were surprised that they didn’t need watering during the summer and others unbelieving when I said that watering in summer actually stops them flowering for a second year.  It is the third year for the white flowers in the formals beds and I think they actually look better this year than in the past, so I am back to toying with the idea of planting more in the other 2 beds this autumn.  Maybe I could plant T. Swans Wings to add a little variation – Fringed varieties usually repeat well.

Looking down from my bedroom window

Above: looking out accross the garden from the terrace.

When we were looking for houses to buy we saw one that had an ancient wisteria on a pergola over the terrace; we were both so bowled over we nearly bought the house even though the house so terrible and probably needed to be pulled down.  But it meant that when we found this house putting in a terrace and building a pergola were very high on the list of priorities.  The pergola was finished in autumn 2008 and even before the builders had left I had planted wisteria on two sides of the house.  I have to admit that the  four white ones have never done so well, being planted on the north east side of the house.  This year they seemed full of bud, but yet again I am disappointed, the birds have pecked out almost every single bud, see more about this here.

This is what is left of the long racemes

Wisteria prolific planted on the pillars facing south have also been damaged, first by the birds and now by the huge black carpenter bees that scatter the petals to the ground, frenzied by the perfume of the flowers

Walking along the terrace the perfume is so strong I think we would find it impossible to sit here for very long; but sadly this show will also be over all too quickly, leaving the delicious shade we also desire as the foliage fills out and later smaller, less intensely perfumed flowers, that are hidden amongst the leaves.

The garden is looking full of growth and probably more colourful than I’ve ever seen, I must admit that my breath is taken away sometimes when I turn a corner or catch sight of something from a different angle.

Crab apple in foreground

Both the crab apples are full of blossom this year, I’m pretty sure that this is due to the cold winter; apples need cold during the winter months to flower well.  Last year after a wet but mild winter there were hardly any flowers and of course, very little fruit.

Happy accident with bright Californian poppies and scarlet tulips.

Last year the first roses were flowering at the end of March, this year despite it being so hot for much of the last month the first rose didn’t bloom until Sunday 10^th April.

The first rose - Stanwell Perpetual

Followed today by this delicate looking, but actually very tough rose. Grown by a friend as a cutting I’m not 100% sure of its name, maybe china pink (but that’s surely a tulip!)

To finish something I think will make you smile or maybe cringe!

Would you buy these?

Yesterday I went to my seed and plug plant provider, more about this soon.  It could only happen here in Italy where the countryside is scoured for tasty leaves to add to a salad, but would you really want to BUY dandelion seeds?????????????

&©Copyright 2011
Christina.
All rights reserved.
Content created by Christina for
My Hesperides Garden.

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Evening Light

The other day Helen the Patient Gardener wrote about realizing she had chosen a huge amount plants with white flowers; I commented that maybe she had subconsciously known that she would mainly see her garden when she arrived home from work and that white flowers add something very special to the garden as the light fails. White becomes luminous.

This evening I arrived home just before that moment; but with a Campari and the new issue of my Italian gardening magazine (yes, it arrived on the 8^th of the month!) I sat enjoying the last rays of the sun and watched as most flowers lost their colour to the dusk, but White Dream Tulips in the central beds shone as if each had a light bulb inside it.  Other white flowers also glowed: Choisya ternate, Convolvulus cneorum, a crab apple that didn’t flower at all last year is covered with delicate blooms that promise a good amount of fruit in the autumn (NO, I’m not wishing away spring and summer!) and in the background of one of the images I spotted the first flowers of Viburnum mariesii, that also didn’t seem to flower last year, but maybe I missed it.  It has grown enormously in the 3 years since I planted.  I love the form of its layered branches and the beautiful pleated leaves as they open, it was a present from my mother in law and I think of her whenever I look at this part of the garden, under the white mulberry, as she very generously bought all the plants for this difficult dry, shady situation.

Formal beds with Tulip White Dream, you can just see the Choisya

Convolvulus cneorum

Crab Apple

Viburnum mariesii is top right in the image

On Wordless Wednesday I posted about Tulip Brown Sugar, sadly with the very hot weather we’ve been having and the gale force winds it is already going over, but a lovely discovery is that it also dies beautifully – always an added bonus in a flower.

Tulip Brown Sugar

I hope you are able to enjoy your garden at dusk and I hope you have at least a few white blooms to illuminate the garden.

&copyCopyright 2011
Christina.
All rights reserved.
Content created by Christina for
My Hesperides Garden.

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Frilled Tulips

I noted when I uploaded the photos from the last two days that I had taken 92 images almost all of them TULIPS!

Too many? Yes, maybe, but as the real proclaimers of spring I wait expectantly from the moment I plant them (almost form the moment I place the order) to see if they are as beautiful as I had hoped the day I walked around the garden deciding what to plant where; I should write this down as I forget when the box arrives and I waste time checking what each will look like before committing them to the ground.  At least last autumn because I knew I would be writing about them for this blog I did write down where I had placed each variety.

Several visitors to the garden have commented on the beauty of the frilled varieties I have.  My Italian friends had never seen anything like them before, today I will share them with you.

T. White Swan

Here, open in the sun

White Swan is very crisp and a pure, pure white.  These are planted in the raised bed on the east side of the house.

T. Lambada

Lambada is unbelievably beautiful, described in the catalogue as rhodonite red, margins chine yellow.  I choose them to plant with Rosa mutabilis as the colours should be the same, but I didn’t plant them together but instead with yellow Hemerocallis Sol d’oro

T. Blue Heron

Blue Heron is maybe a little insipid in the strong sunshine we’ve had for the last 10 days.  (It’s been so hot that the solar panel heats the water to 55° C – I have to be very careful when I turn the tap on to wash my hands). It is planted just off the path between the large island and the upper side of the slope border.

T. Red Hat

Red Hat is placed on the slope, beneath the Persimmon tree amongst seedling of Euphorbia which will cover the dying foliage of the tulips later on I hope.

Last year I loved Burgundy Lace for its colour and for the fact that it last for a long time and even as it died it retained its colour and so seemed to be still blooming.  This year I planted more but they aren’t quite open yet and not many of last year’s have repeat flowered; this may be due to the fact that some perennials have spread to cover where they were.

&copyCopyright 2011
Christina.
All rights reserved.
Content created by Christina for
My Hesperides Garden.

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