Purple, White and a Splash of Orange

Published on by Catherine27 Comments

This will be my last Six on Saturday for a few weeks. Next week I’ll be busy doing final preparations and starting to pack for a trip to the US to visit one of our daughters and her family.

The biggest job will be in the garden – trying to get the remaining plants into the ground, moving potted plants from their sunny areas into more shady areas, and leaving loads of instructions for various family members on how to look after everything.

Here’s my Six for this week.

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Farewell Tulips – you’ve been amazing.

Published on by Catherine17 Comments

I couldn’t let the tulips leave without posting at least one final shot of my absolute favourite of the year, Tulip ‘Ballerina’. She looks as though she will last for another few days, after which she’s being planted into the ground. I’ve been really pleased with all the tulips this year, but I should have bought some more late flowerers to keep the show going a little longer. Lesson learned.

We’ve had some great weather this week, with only one day of wall-to-wall rain. There’s been an isolated shower or two, but otherwise, it’s been warm enough to discard jackets and change out of my gardening sweatshirt into a lightweight shirt. That’s great for mid-May in our area.

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The Crab Apple v The Wind

Published on by Catherine19 Comments

The crab apple, Malus Evereste is a delight to behold every May. It’s Spring – the days are getting longer and we can finally feel warmth in the afternoon air. April winds tear through this little garden at a ferocious rate, then ease off at the beginning of May, I was happy and relieved that the old crab apple hadn’t flowered too early this year.

But the reprieve from the wind was short-lived as once again it tore through the trees, the bushes and the flowers at the start of the week. The blossom was just opening on the Malus when the grass below started to turn white. Our littlest grandson had gone into the garden to play and returned within minutes calling out, “Quick Gran, come and see this”. It’s becoming a regular cry when he discovers something new. This time he spotted the petals strewn across the grass. I stood him under the tree and shook one of the lower branches. The blossom came tumbling down on his head and he squealed with joy.

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The Two Ballerinas

Published on 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 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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