Cathy of Words and Herbs has presented a challenge to cheer us all up:
From Sunday the 22nd through to Saturday the 28th let’s share a photo a day (or more than one if you like) of our flowers and gardens and brighten up this dreary time.”
Aconite carpet Tulips Brown sugar and Ballerina Rudbeckia Eschscholzia Coreopsis moonbeam Courgette flowerSquashes and sunshine Celebrating Marigolds
The garlands of marigolds were at the entrance to a hotel where a wedding was underway. Aren’t they fabulous.
Click the link above to see more cheerful floral photos. 🌞D.
Have you noticed how brown things have turned? My six today are mainly all a bit brown.
Hydrangea arborescens Annabelle
Starting with these, the remains of Hydrangea arborescens Annabelle, my first of the six I have to share with you and our host The Propagator .
As the ball heads dry out, they become delicate to the touch with a slight rustle to their sound. Gone may be the creamy lime green of summer but beautiful nonetheless. Last year I cut and then touched some of the flower heads with gold spray to make Christmas decorations. I thought they were rather pretty.
Hornbeam
The hedges of Hornbeam have taken on their winter form, curled brown leaves, crisp and pleated will remain throughout the winter before shedding in spring as the leaf buds begin to swell.
Leucanthemella
The daisies of Leucanthemella which I love so much have lost their fresh as a daisy look and are beginning an elegant shift into decay. The flower heads are dark brown, almost black, slightly bowed and the foliage is slowly fading from green to brown. The stems are holding up well and I shall leave them throughout winter to act as shelter for creatures and insects.
Cercis canadensis
The glorious red heart shape leaves of the forest pansy have gone. Dropped and bagged up with other leaf litter. All that is left is the bare, so bare branches of the tree. That is it until spring. Underneath, a mixed bag of 30 orange and yellow tulips have been planted, along with 25 Allium Sphaerocephalon, the burgundy drumstick allium.
Leucanthemella stems, box shape Box all mulched.
Not brown at all are the evergreen Box. Slowly growing and slowly beginning to take on the square form I am looking for. Topiary takes time, lots of time. Eventually these box shapes will create strong winter structure. What can I say, they’re getting there.
Golden brown Stipa tenuissima and Calamagrostis Brachytricha
I am slowly working my way around the raised beds, bulb planting, weeding and mulching, topping up the bark chippings on the pathway. These grasses are energised by a breeze and arguably look interesting all year round. A lighter shade of golden brown.
These are my six for this week. I hope you have a good weekend and thanks for reading wherever you are. D.
I cannot believe April has been and gone. The tulips came and thrilled me with their vibrant colours. The emerging foliage of Hornbeam all pleated and fresh never looked so good, well not since it looked so good this time, last year.
Cerinthe has emerged from the ground. Self sown and so very striking. Such an exquisite plant, flower and foliage so interesting and different.
Still emerging and opening into May are the perennial poppies. Patty’s Plum is still looking like crushed velvet or crumpled tissue paper.
April gave us some beautiful weather this year. Blue skies against the blood red foliage of the Acer was astonishingly striking.
Violas and mint to dress a birthday cake for daughter Dorris. Another year older. Best she start lying about her age as I cannot possibly have a 24 year old daughter !
Have a good weekend wherever you are. Thanks for reading. D.
A queer kind of Easter weekend for all of us under lockdown. For those without an outdoor space I really hope you are able to get outside for a walk.
As most people who are kind enough to look at this blog are garden lovers I guess you may have a garden of your own to enjoy. Tend your garden but do try not to spend all day working in it! (That is what I shall try to do, but well there is just so much to be done at this time of year).
I hope this Monday, the Easter bank holiday you might have time to pick a little something from your garden to bring into the house. If you do perhaps you could share it with Cathy. Send her a link and you could find bloggers from all over looking at your flowers. What a nice thing to do.
This is a sprig of sparaxis. Bold, bright and brash but small and in its own bottle as it does not want to share space with the others.
The others are tulips, Cerinthe, Forget me nots, Brunnera and Pulmonaria. In shades of white marked with plum to pinks and blues and darkest near black tulip Queen of the night.
A quick post this Monday. Food to prepare, tidying to be done. Happy Easter. D.
When I left for my trip away, the tulips were just beginning to bud. Two and a half weeks later they are in glorious technicolour.
Delicious marmalade colours in an old Dundee marmalade jar.
Cathy our host of IAVOM always manages to find props to accompany her vases which I rarely do. Today however I have added some origami swans, yes they are swans! The colours compliment the tulip colours and indicate where my trip was to.
Back to the flowers, the tulips are Ballerina, Brown sugar, Avignon Parrot all of which are scented. Belle Époque is the soft smoky pink one. Queen of the Night is the dark one.
Cerinthe has self sown and is flowering beautifully, such an accommodating flower, mixing well with the tulips.
That’s it for me today. Enjoy the short working week if you are lucky enough to have the Easter weekend off. D.
I picked these yesterday morning before the day warmed up to its predicted 22 degrees. Can you believe how the weather has become Summer almost overnight? Every where you look people seem to be enjoying this long weekend of weather and making the most of the long awaited sunlight. Anyway the tulip flowers are open and a day out in the heat would have finished them off.
I popped the tulips in the large blue glass vase brother Dorris gave as a gift many years ago. It always works well with tulips as it hides the somewhat messy leaf and stalk set up that tulips do have.
From above the black table sets off the striking colours of Ballerina and Angelique while the dark near black of Queen of the Night seems properly black, she does seem regal.
So these may be the last of my tulips but I have been pleased with them as they all flowered in pots last year and were lifted and repotted in a raised bed this year. I think they may have done better this year than last.
I hope as it is a bank holiday Monday you will have a few minutes to spare and to pop over to see Cathy. There will be lots of other vases full of wonderful flowers, maybe some foliage and some will have accessories to look at. It is a lovely way to start the week, go on, take a quick look, it will not disappoint.
Now if you will excuse me, I am hoping to get some garden work done before it gets too warm for an English gal like me.
I fear I am having my own tulip mania thanks to my trip to Keukenhof last week.
It was my first visit and I was completely blown away by the beauty of the bulbs. The weather was warm which let’s face it, always helps.
Against a blue sky, the bulbs were beneath trees in full blossom which created a perfect haze of pink or in this case white. The warm air carried the heady scent of hyacinths which were planted in thousands.
I think I was expecting regimented rows of bulbs in blocks or bands of colour.
This was the case in some places but elsewhere the bulbs were planted in glorious colour combinations mixed with muscari or hyacinth or anemones.
Keukenhof plants about 7 million bulbs every year, admired by some 1.5million visitors, over the eight weeks that it is open. Mind blowing figures. Certainly it is a busy place to visit but its 32 hectare site copes well.
The bulbs are planted in nets as the soil is heavy clay and these are all lifted at the end of the show.
The lifted bulbs are sorted, the larger ones are kept for another year, the rest are disposed of. Mature trees cast shade once in leaf and the grass is reseeded each year for the show. The work that goes into this show is remarkable.
So this brings me to my vase. Tulips, a handful of tulips. They are pretty good in my garden this year.
I picked a selection to take to a friend.
Tulip Spring Green, Tulip Angelique, Tulip Ballerina, Tulip a La Belle Epoque, Tulip Brown Sugar, Tulip Antraciet
Joining Cathy with in a Vase on Monday. Should you like to join in add a link back to cathy’s blog and join in this popular Monday meme.
Apple blossom is covering the tree this year and it looks fabulous against the blue sky. I am a little fearful for the damage risk, posed by the forecast of cooler temperatures next week, but we cannot control the weather, can we.
We shall just have to enjoy it while we can. Another palest white with pink/ purple margins are these tulips
Named Graceland they are part of a lovely mix of tulips with so called ‘Apricot Beauty’ and ‘La Belle Époque ‘. Planted lasagne style they have not disappointed.
Close up La Belle Époque are very beautiful
Even their insides are attractive
I am so pleased with these.
I also planted a ‘scented’ mix of tulips. Surprisingly to me they actually do what they say i.e. they smell. The colours are strong and rich, the scent rather similar to freesias.
An eye catching bunch that are making me smile today. Enjoy your weekend.
digwithdorris.com 
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