Spring – Page 7 – Notes From My Garden

The Two Ballerinas

Published on April 29, 2023May 20, 2023 by Catherine24 Comments

The garden is currently getting a good watering from above. The wind (thankfully) dropped earlier in the week and the rain arrived on Thursday. I’ve had to take the hose to a good number of plants this week so I’m happy to see the rain as the garden was parched. Now I’d appreciate if it would kindly pause for a while to let me get on with some essential garden jobs that I’d love to tackle today. I’m fairly optimistic that will happen later today.

Moving on to the subject of this Saturday’s post, the first ‘Ballerina’ is the lovely Tulip ‘Ballerina’ that has made me very happy this week by flowering. T. ‘Ballerina’ is a beautiful, elegant, lily-flowered tulip with petals of orange, flushed with red and yellow. To top that off, it’s perfumed. I’m smitten with this one!

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It’s all About Tulips

Published on April 22, 2023May 13, 2023 by Catherine19 Comments

What a difference a week makes in the garden. Last week I was almost despairing about the general lack of colour in the garden and now more tulips have made their entrance, and I’m loving the splash of colour.

Buds on the crab apple and the Amelanchier are starting to open – though I’m now wondering if I’ll be able to reach up to the branches to capture photographs – the trees are growing…I’m not! Maybe that’ll be next week’s Six on Saturday. I think I might have to get the ladder out of the garage.

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April – Sunshine, Windchill and Flowers

Published on April 15, 2023May 6, 2023 by Catherine22 Comments

I’m sure everyone up and down the country has been wondering what happened to the weather, after the lovely sunny & pleasant temperatures we enjoyed last weekend! Where I am we’ve had a marvellous amount of sunshine this week, which has been brilliant, but it’s also been combined with spells of heavy rain and bitterly cold, strong winds.

Those winds were strong enough to break a climbing rose, ‘A Shropshire Lad’, free of the obelisk it was growing on. I found it lying on top of other plants, but remarkably, without any apparent damage. With the help of husband, I managed (with a few scratches) to get it back up and tied in again. It seems none the worse for wear, but time will tell.

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Easter Weekend

Published on April 8, 2023April 29, 2023 by Catherine23 Comments

This weekend we’re forecast to have blue skies and wall-to-wall sunshine. That doesn’t happen too often on an Easter Weekend holiday. I’m planning to spend the day working in the garden, but yesterday we had two young grandchildren with us. Swimming at the local pool took up most of the morning then home for lunch and out again for a pleasant walk in the local nature reserve where we even spotted two deer.

We stopped at the seafront on the way back because I knew the ice cream van would be there. The prom was very busy and I prefer not to be there when it’s like that, instead I’m happy to leave it to those who can only visit on holidays and weekends. The wind was very cold, though it didn’t dissuade some hardy folk from paddling in the water. But you can’t pass by the ice cream van when you have a four-year-old and a nine-year-old with you! After the ice creams were scoffed we headed back to our house where they played in the sunshine in the more sheltered garden until Dad arrived to take them home. It was a lovely day.

I hope you’re all going to have a lovely weekend with loads of sunshine!

But let’s get on with this Saturday’s six. First of all, we have Narcissus Tete Boucle. This is one that I haven’t grown before. Initially, I wasn’t too sure about it, but as the flowers continued to open my opinion changed. I’m smitten. I’ll grow this one again.

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Glorious Spring

Published on April 1, 2023April 22, 2023 by Catherine22 Comments

Perhaps it’s too early to label the Spring of 2023 as glorious. It’s been a miserable, cold winter, and spring got off to a poor start, but this week has seen a huge change in my little part of the world. The sun has finally returned (not every day – that would be asking for too much!) and temperatures have moved upwards rapidly! It’s great to have some real spring weather. Perhaps I should reserve that title until spring 2023 is almost over, for knowing my country as I do, we will have wild stormy days ahead, probably frost and possibly a dusting of snow, along with rain, sleet & hail! But today the sun is shining – and it’s glorious!

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