Cairo

It has been a mixed week. Sunshine, showers and fog. But no wind! And the vernal equinox! It has been very still in the garden and warm too. Warm enough to encourage some of the tulip bulbs into flower. I hope this doesn’t mean they will be all over by May! Unfortunately a little light weeding caused me to hurt my back. I have suffered over the years with sciatica pain, often caused by doing the most normal of things, this time awkwardly bending to pull out a patch of chickweed! So no gardening for me, but I did manage to go out and take a few photos of the spring garden.

Tulips. I have a huge passion for tulips and each year I like to have a pot or two to welcome the spring. Last year with the severe cold followed by unusual heat early in the year meant that the tulips weren’t as good as normal and didn’t last too long. This year the unusual mild February brought the bulbs on very quickly and I was fearful that the gales last week would destroy them, but so far so good. I try out different ones each year, though these below are ‘Apricot Foxx’, ‘Cairo‘ they seem very similar to ‘Brown Sugar’.

Orange Emperor

Cairo

Cairo

The ‘Orange Emperor’ (left) were planted in the raised bed in 2016 and were splendid in their first year of flowering. Now only a few produce flowers and they are a lot shorter and smaller. I shall stick to buying new bulbs each year and grow them in pots.

In the pots of tulips I have planted various ‘toppers’. Often pansies or primulas, but this year I used other bulbs as well as Wallflowers and Sweet William. The Iris histrioides ‘George’ has already been and gone. Now it is the turn of the Anemone blanda ‘White Splendour’ forcing its way through the rest of the leaves. Next year I shall plant these little beauties on their own.

Looking for something other than bulbs I came across this Epimedium, planted under the willow tree and now sending up graceful spikes of orange and yellow. I am hoping it will spread a bit more under here, but it is certainly taking its time.

Most evident in the garden now are the self-seeded Forget-me-nots. Not always the pretty pale blue colour but sometimes throwing up pink or lilac flowers too. I always pull these out after flowering, but they manage to scatter their seeds throughout the garden!

Under the corkscrew hazel I have several plants that love to live in shade. After dying back over the winter now is the time that they put on new growth and take advantage of the light. Heucheras and Heucherellas and Brunnera live here with a bark mulch to prevent weeds from growing. On the other side of the tree is another Epimedium, but that one is not yet in flower.

The last plant to feature this week is a Tiarella. I was surprised to find it with so many flower buds. This one lives under the Willow tree, on the edge so receives dappled light throughout the summer. It seems very happy here.

I am hoping that the back will have improved by next week as the sun is supposed to shine here and there are more Cornish gardens for me to visit. As always if you want to have a nosy around other gardens where there are bound to be more spring (or autumn) flowers to admire and desire, then please pop over to our host, the lovely Jon, AKA ‘The Propagator’ where you find links to many more wonderful garden enthusiasts from all over the world

See here for the participant’s guide.

Six on Saturday