Goodbye Summer-Hello Winter

Published on by Catherine

The warm and sunny weather we enjoyed during the first half of April ended suddenly last Sunday afternoon when the skies grew dark, thunder roared overhead, and hail came crashing down. My husband went out to close the greenhouse door and brought back two small snowballs! Summer in April was lovely, but now it feels like winter has returned. Let’s hope it’s a brief visit.

Gardens, fields and reservoirs were bone dry during those weeks, and it was a shock to find that we were under wildfire alerts. Yesterday was the wettest day in a long time, but the garden has greened up, and plants are finally starting to do what they should be doing: they’re growing.

Let’s take a look at this week’s Six on Saturday, starting with a glimpse of a cosy corner on The Patio.

Summertime in April was wonderful while it lasted.

Camellia ‘Daintiness’. Last January’s Storm Éowyn hit this Camellia, and many other trees and shrubs particularly hard. This camellia has always been very dense, but I can see through it now. After it finishes flowering, I’ll prune it; perhaps that will help. However, it has flowered beautifully and gives me hope for its future.

Tulipa praestans ‘Shogun’. This is a must-have for spring. Shogun is multi-headed, bright, cheery, has lovely leaves, and, I’m assured, is reliably perennial.

  • T. ‘Shogun’
  • The sun is opening the petals
  • Almost like spiders crawling out of the flower

Acer ‘Bloodgood’. The Acer leaves haven’t fully opened yet, but I love their vibrant colour when the sun shines through them.

Acer ‘Bloodgood’

Tulip ‘Foxy Foxtrot’ is not the colour I expected. ‘Golden yellow, tangerine orange, apricot and touches of salmon pink’ are the promised sunset colours. Perhaps those colours will develop as the flowers mature. I’ll be watching.

  • Tulip ‘Foxy Foxtrot’
  • Yellow, but sunset colours hoped for

The first flower of Geum ‘Scarlet Tempest’. Today’s featured image, ‘Scarlet Tempest’, has flowered in the garden for several years and always provides welcome colour. It’s being joined this year by Geum ‘Mai Tai’ (from my sister), Geum ‘Totally Tangerine’ and Geum ‘FireStarter’. Although the latter two are new, small plants, I’m still hoping for a few gorgeous blooms from them.

Geum ‘Scarlet Tempest”

If the rain stops this afternoon, I can pot up my dahlias, which I should have done weeks ago. Some trays of seedlings are ready to be potted on too, but if it doesn’t happen today, I have a free day on Monday to tackle my growing list of garden tasks. I’m hoping it will be dry, and a few extra numbers on the Celsius chart would really be appreciated!

To see more Six on Saturday gardens, visit Jim’s blog at Garden Ruminations. Enjoy your Easter Weekend – I hope for sunshine for you too, wherever you are.

Catherine x

25 thoughts on “Goodbye Summer-Hello Winter”

  1. It’s true that the camellias were gorgeous this year. And I also plan to prune mine after flowering, which is ending. It climbs up to over 4m like a column and is becoming a bit unsightly. The result in 1 or 2 years? I don’t know if the rain will stop, so good luck and have a good Easter weekend.

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    1. That’s a very tall Camellia, Fred. Mine is wide and outgrowing its space. Good luck with your pruning, I think mine will flower for another couple of weeks yet. That gives me time to learn the best way to prune it! Enjoy your Easter weekend too.

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    1. We live in a wet & windy place, Rosie, so we’re used to the chaos of the seasons – but we also do love to complain about it. 😂 Have a lovely Easter Weekend!

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    1. Tulips & Forget-me-not are the perfect combination. My borders are awash with them right now, a perfect sea of blue. I know some people don’t like them, but I’d hate to be without them at this time of the year. Enjoy your Easter Weekend, Gill.

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  4. When you mentioned hail, I feared for your glasshouse. Many people in my state lost their car windows/windshield around my state yesterday. I had never heard a weather report that said “If you live in these town, you have less than ten minutes to get your car into the garage.” Most people around here would have the car in the garage unless there is no room, either because it is a second car and they have a one car garage, or they are using the garage as a storage unit. We are definitely in the April Showers phase with rain forcast from Sunday through Friday.

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    1. We don’t tend to have extremes of weather here (we’re just talented complainers!). I’ve seen the results of massive hailstorm damage in other countries, but here, the stones are smaller…though, perhaps as our climate undergoes more change… 🤔 If that happens my husband really would have to clear out his garage! I hope you didn’t have any damage yesterday.

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  5. So much rain after all the sunshine was a bit of a shock, but at least we didn’t have hail stones like you! Lovely photo of all your spring flowers looking so pretty together, really like the tulips and camellia.

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    1. I think we’ve just gone back to normal April weather now, Pauline – I just wish it was a little bit warmer. But I finally managed to get my dahlias potted up today though! Yeah! 😄

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  6. A great selection and your planting combination near the patio is lovely with Shogun, Daintiness and pale yellow Hellebores. I couldn’t help but admire the white screen too – very nice indeed. We do seem to go from one extreme of weather to another these days.

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    1. I’ve got to say – I like the screens too. 😀 They were put there to hide an ugly fence, and they’re doing that rather nicely. I’m tempted to add a few elsewhere, though probably in a grey colour.

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  7. Your garden is lovely, as always, despite the drought and the hail. (Interesting…as “Wisconsingarden” said, we just had a major hailstorm nearby a couple of days ago, here in the Northern U.S. The hail was the biggest many in the area had ever seen–some hailstones were larger than 5 cm in diameter. Fortunately, no damage in my neighborhood.) Anyway, your plants and blooms are stunning! That Camellia…wow!

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    1. I’m glad to hear that that dreadful hail missed your area. Let’s all hope for a quiet spell of spring weather, preferably with loads of sun, warm temperatures and plenty of rain at night. 😉

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  8. Acer palmatum ‘Bloodgood’ is my favorite. I have two that have done well in large containers. I also enjoyed your tulips. Hope spring returns soon.

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    1. I hadn’t thought of that as a possible reason for the naming of the tulips. But I think they might have outfoxed me – as they don’t appear to be changing colour. 😁

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  10. Shogun is beautiful – do they have more than one flower per stem? A great show, especially in pots. It does look like summer in that photo of your patio! I love your Geum too… none of mine are out yet but buds are showing. Hope you have good weather for gardening tomorrow!

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    1. It appears that T. ‘Shogun’ can produce four to six flowers per stem, but so far I’ve only seen up to three per stem. I’m not complaining – it makes each bulb equal to three of many other tulip bulbs. It fills the pot beautifully!

      As for Easter Monday gardening – we went into the garden in the morning to plant a rambling rose. Husband was tasked with digging the hole. It was dry for the first 20 minutes – then the rain arrived. Well, it poured down all day. I can’t believe we stayed out in that all morning, and again in the afternoon. I went through two pairs of trousers, two jackets and two pairs of shoes! At the end of the day, the rose still hadn’t been planted! 😆

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  11. Such a beautiful camellia and so floriferous too! Love those screens – this corner of your patio looks like a really nice place to hang out. ‘Shogun’ and the FMNs go so well together. I have only once intentionally bought yellow tulips, but I do have some that come back each year, I might pop these ones on my list for next year.

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    1. Thanks Jude – I’m quite a fan of these screens. 😁 They were put there to hide an ugly fence and I think they do the job fairly well!

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