I ended last month’s post saying there was still plenty to do, and that’s what I’m starting with on this post too. But then again, there’s always something to do in the garden isn’t there, often though it’s just getting the weather to behave to spend enough time out there amongst everything else that’s going on, but as the month has gone that’s been more manageable - especially with an influx of plants from this year’s visit to the Newark Garden Show, oops.
The wallflowers have been fantastic, brightening up their little corner by the garage - I love how the colours change as they mature, which often means there’s a multicoloured display at any one time.
Our lavender’s have mostly done well - we have many of these large bushes, but one less than last year it would seem. One has mostly not survived the winter and while I haven’t looked at it in any great detail yet, there’s not much green new growth on it. In better news the small-ish self seeded plant that we pulled out from between our garden and the pavement has survived and seems to like its new position in our outer border. It’s a good few years behind the larger bushes but with one bush failing it’s a good reminder to take cuttings - so that’s another job on my list!
After the daffodils had a poor show this year - just three flowered - the tulips said ‘hold my beer’ - this was the only flower we had this year, and so some bulb attention is clearly needed too. I’d been growing both the daffodils and the tulips in pots, but I think the time has come to sow them into the ground and see if they do any better there for next spring.
The crab apple tree has been busy this month - the blossom has formed, flowered and gone! It’s delightful to watch the little tree come back to life, but it seems I have very few pictures of it this year - I’d given it quite a trim in March so I was doubly delighted to see it in leaf, let alone blossom.
The acer by our back door also sprung into life - and has since had a bit of a trim - but just look at the sunlight on those red leaves. Divine.
It’s not all been quite so rosy though, or in this instance rosey. One of my roses was looking decidedly dry, and I think it along with the small peach tree got caught out by that very warm spell at the start of April. We weren’t home for those few days either so it was a bit of a double whammy.
But with some careful pruning I think this one will be ok - it’s already started to form new leaves, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed. I know I say it every year, but I really do need to get these roses out of their pots and into the ground - maybe this year will be the year, who knows?
My succulents overwintered well in the garage (mostly) until they didn’t. I brought them outside and later in the month I lost the single one on the right. The two butting up against each other seem happy enough though, as does the tiny one on the left. My plan for my succulents is to load them up into the pots I have - partly as I think they look better en masse, but also to help with the the ongoing pot shortage situation.
The aeonium decided it wasn’t happy after all and so now I have a twig! My indoor one is also not happy, but a tad happier than this one - but I’m going to persevere with these as plants as I think they’re gorgeous - though I may need to buy one to replace this one, I’m not sure that one is coming back!
The gravel weeding can be a full time job, as well as the usual dandelions and weeds this month I’ve been pulling up baby trees. And I’m glad to do this while they’re still small as it’s a relatively easy job. The gravel is great for propogating plants on its own though, I’ve got a couple of buddleia and some lady’s mantle that I want to pot up (thankfully smaller pots aren’t an issue) and I think I’ve several hellebores forming too, though these are teeny tiny at the moment and MOH is under strict instruction not to touch them, or even walk on them - so we’ll see how we go!
The mahonia has been jewel-like and gorgeous in the sunshine. It seems we’ve lost the smaller of the plants we had, and I’m not surprised it seemed to be a lot wetter than the other two. But two of these is plenty enough, and the blackbirds are enjoying them as much as me, perhaps even more so.
It was really quite satisfying and mindful to sit alongside this lady’s mantle and remove all the dead leaves which had done such a good job of protecting the plant over winter. The leaves are fascinating and you can quite clearly see how they’re folded as they develop and before they unfurl themselves. This job was made all the better for its position in the sun, I have another large plant which doesn’t get so much sun, so I need to time that one right - and haven’t yet!
I also overwintered some amaryllis in the garage, leaving these in there a bit longer than the succulents. Imagine my joy then to discover that it looks as if I’ll be rewarded with a flower.
I mentioned at the start that we’d been along to the Newark Garden Show again this year, and this year I went with a plant list - taking my cue from visiting quilt shows! We even bought some of the plants on my list - irises, tomatoes, strawberries and foxgloves, but there was some off list shopping too, including a lemon coloured red hot poker and a glorious lilac rhododendron.
A RED HOT POKER (THAT’S NOT RED) AND MORE IRISES
TWO FOXGLOVES
A GLORIOUS LILAC RHODODENDRON
STRAWBERRIES AND FOUR TOMATO PLANTS
So now you now why I continue to have a pot shortage!
I also spotted that one of the hebes was having a crisis - a kind of Cruella de Vil kind of crisis, as it were with a central stripe dying back. It was as dead as could be, so it needed to come out, but it doesn’t look that much better after - hopefully I’ve been able to act quickly enough so that it can recover and grow more healthily - fingers crossed.
But it’s far from all bad. The new olive tree looks like its ready to flower soon - just look at the number of buds, so I’m taking it that its happy in the large patio pot.
And if this snapshot of the small crab apple tree is anything to go by, then I should also be in for plenty of crab apples later in the year. Which is good news as I’m hoping to be able to make even more chilli jelly this year!
Let’s hope there’s more ‘at least pleasant’ weather to come, as I’ve got a to do list as long as my arm!
