With winter continuing into April, albeit with some lovely warm spring days to make you believe that spring is really here; I have been busy trying to catch up with clearing the garden of weeds (which, of course, only need a little sunshine to encourage them to grow) and cut back perennials which I usually leave overwinter as habitats for small creatures. All the work has meant that I have found very little time to share the garden with you.The first thing to say is that the cold autumn has results in a tremendous show from the tulips which mitigates (a little) the lack of flowers on the wisteria whose already slightly swollen flower buds were badly damaged by the icy winds.
Let me share with you a quick walk around the garden.
Looking across from the top of the drive
View across the garden
Red Parrot, these have been in the garden 8 years but have returned better this year than in the last several years
These have been in the garden for at least 5 years
Tulip Ballerina, these are usually the last to flower, but this year all the tulips are flowering at once
Orange or red tulips always look amazing with Euphorbia myrsinites
Tulip Huis Ten Bosch. An ugly sounding name for a very pretty tulip
New life but the Trachelospernum on the secret garden may be dead!
Long views reveal the quantity of tulips in the garden
Tulip La Belle Epoque
La Belle Epoque is beautiful in a vase but looks rather washed out in the garden.
Left side path
Tulip Jan Reus
Tulip Jan Reus must have been in the garden for at least 8 years as some of the bulbs have formed 8 stems this year. I will try to lift and separate the smaller bulbs, perhaps they will produce larger flowers, although I rather like the smaller flowers.
This is just a taste there are many more.
Creating my own garden of the Hesperides 
The tulips look absolutely wonderful Christina, as does your garden, despite the ravages of winter. I love the winding path drawing the eyes towards the house in the distance.
Sadly the house seems visible from everywhere in the garden however hard I try to obscure it.
That’s funny, because I thought the house looked very Italian and acceptable!
It’s not that bad, it’s just I would rather not see other houses. But I’m not really complaining, it is a about 150 metres from our boundary so isn’t as close as it sometimes seems to be.
Love the frilly pink tulips with the ugly name!
it is a ‘stand out’ tulip
Those tulips lift the heart, they are so beautiful. It really is a tulip year, ours are beginning to look lovely. Ballerina is so good, and I love the perfume.
The perfume is a bonus
Wow, it’s looking glorious Christina. The grasses and Euphorbias really set them off.
Yes, I’m really happy with the combination and the grasses hide the stems when they’ve finished flowering.
Lovely. xx
What a great display! Just as well it is not too hot, or they would wilt so quickly. I bet you would be hard pushed to choose a favourite! I have got mice in my rockery and actually caught one in the act of nibbling on a tulip bulb still buried in the ground… I wonder how many have survived!
There is a natural deterrent in the form of a Euphorbia. I’ll check the exact name and mention it in my next post. If I forget do remind me!!!
Ooh, that would be useful!
Oh Christina what a welcome glimpse of colour and warmth on what is another interminably grey day here. Thank you 🙂 Do you know the name of the dark tulip with the orange edges in the fourth photo down? My first tulips of very few have opened this week. No label in the pot but they look like ‘Spring Green’ with a touch of anaemia.
Maybe Gavota?! I’ll try to check but that one was planted a long, long time ago.
Thanks Christina. Will investigate further 🙂
Or Abu Hassan
Tulips everywhere! It must be so exciting every year when they appear.
One of my favourite times.
If it’s just a taste, it’s a delicious one. La Belle Epoque is looking as lovely as ever.
It is lovely but somehow out of lace with the other tulips on the garden.
You’ve got a great excuse for cutting them then… not that you need any excuse!
Actually I don’t cut many from the garden. I pick the ones I grow especially to pick. But yes, I think these will go into a vase.
What a wonderful selection of tulips, and how nicely you have planted them in naturalistic drifts! I am amazed that they are looking so good 5-8 years on! My oldest in this garden are 3 years’ old, and some are looking very bedraggled – I will definitely have to replant next year. Is that ‘Abu Hansa’ (the maroon and yellow one with ‘Ballerina’? (4th pic) It is a really nice combination. It is lovely to see ‘La Belle Epoque’ as I am growing this for the first time this year – I think in pots, but I can’t exactly remember!! It is interesting that some blooms look better when cut and vice versa. I have a dahlia ‘American Dawn’ which looks vibrant on the plant, but dull in a vase.
Some of mine need dividing, Ali, then I think they would be larger blooms. I’m glad you like how I’ve planted them, I try to combine them with plants that will grow up and hide their stems.
It might be Abu Hasan, it is in the garden, it’s one of the first I ever planted so must be more than 10 years old.
Your spring walk is magnificent. Such a lovely colt on Tulip Huis Ten Bosch. Tulips wouldn’t make it year after year here.
The tulips love my free draining soil, one of its only advantages.
(“lovely colt” makes no sense at all does it? “Lovely color”)
It happens all the time – predictive text!!!!!
Christina, I am very sorry that this glacial winter has caused you casualties in the garden. The photos are magnificent. But all your tulips have agreed to flourish at the same time. Wonderful! I love the silver foliage with the purple tulips and the pink and white tulips in the background. The pink tulips with the Euphorbia I like a lot. The Tulips “Red Parrot” are divine after eight years. Tulip “Ballerina” I like them a lot. The Tulips “Huis Ten Bosch” I love despite its ugly name. The Tulips “La Belle Epoque” are divine. The Tulip “Jan Reus” are very beautiful. Christina walking through your beautiful and gorgeous garden seeing so many tulips of different shapes, colors and sizes, is like walking through a fairy garden; where the fairy is you. I want the weather to improve and be more stable and without air. I still go to the country house on Saturday if the snow and ice let the roads go there. Have a good week and a happy weekend. Take care. Greetings from Margarita.
I hope you will be able to get to your country house and that you will have some lovely surprises of spring bulbs when you arrive.
What a glorious turn out, Christina! It must be a delight to stroll your garden every morning.
Your success with tulips pinpoints how different our climates really are. Summer-like conditions here usually extend well into the fall months and we never get freezes even during winter, which makes growing anything that requires winter chill difficult to impossible. I’m planning to try some species tulips again next year as those lasted at least a few years in my former garden, although the weather has become steadily warmer on average since those days…
It is probably my favourite time of year, the tulips followed closely by the bearded irises.
Glorious! love this,thank you. Winter cold has its benefits.
Yes, cold early winter and hot dry summer is just what the tulips want, so I shouldn’t complain.
It’s worth it right now!!
These are all so beautiful – the euphorbia enhances their beauty. Clearly, tulips love living in your garden!
It is lovely to see the difference each year that maturity brings to the garden. Amelia