It has been a lovely week here in the south-west. A little bit hazy at times and temperatures only reaching a high of 12°C but this is Cornwall and it has been dry. So dry in fact that I have had to water some of my spring bulb containers! A little more tidying up has been done, the wayward Phygelius has been dug out of the bed (though some of the runners are proving harder to remove) and the older osteospermum which have been really good over the past three years have been removed as they were getting very straggly. I am keeping my eye on the Martagon lilies so the S&S don’t get to them and have in fact just received my first batch of slug nematodes, though it is too dry to water them in at the moment. Sadly I noticed that they had already been munching on the new shoots of the Heleniums.
(Please click on any image to scroll through the gallery)
Looking around the garden I noticed a lot of yellow. Now yellow is not my favourite colour for flowers except during spring when it just screams ‘Sunshine!’ A couple of years ago I went mad and bought a lot of different Narcissi and I am happy to say they are still doing well. This year I added some (1) species tulips to the garden as they are supposed to come back reliably. We’ll see about that. Tulip ‘Sylvestris’ is the original wild tulip. It’s a dazzling, lemon-scented (though I haven’t got close enough to detect any scent) bright yellow, which is taller than I expected, and loves a sunny spot. Tulip humilis ‘Persian Pearl’ on the other hand happily grows in either sun or part shade. It is a deep magenta pink with a yellow base and very low growing. In amongst these is a (2) Marsh Marigold with the most glorious big yellow buttercup type flowers and very large, rounded, scalloped leaves. .
(3) Narcissus ‘Martinette’ is a brightly coloured tazetta daffodil with a small orange cup and several flowers on each stem. It was planted in containers and in one of my raised beds. It has the most heavenly scent and prefers to be in full sun. In the shady bed, where the (4) Kilmarnock Willow tree is bursting out in new buds and catkins, are two (5) Cowslips, though only one is flowering at the moment. As a contrast to all the yellow is my (6) Muscari collection. This week showing M. ‘Dark Eyes’, M. ‘Mount Hood’ and M. ‘Ocean Magic’ in close-up together with last week’s bowl of ‘Pink Sunrise’ and ‘latifolium’ as they are still changing daily. (I’m counting these as one of my six since they are all Grape Hyacinths)
This year I am removing some of the plants that have outgrown their spots and those that need too much mollycoddling or are too desirable for the S&S. I have vowed not to purchase anything from online nurseries other than an order for patio plants which was made due to a refund of last year’s poor performers.
As always, if you want a peek over other people’s garden walls 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.
Cornwall in Colours 
It’s all so beautiful and the yellow really brightens up your garden. 12 degrees is a tad brisk. Brrr. Here it’s raining – again! we got 57 mm overnight and more is forecast today and tomorrow. It’s bucketing down in all the places which flooded a few weeks ago. The bonus is that everything is flourishing in our garden. The dahlias just keep on blooming and our citrus trees are loaded with fruit.
It did actually reach 17 degrees so almost a summer’s day! 😂 I’m surprised that your dahlias haven’t been eaten, given all the rain.
We have blue tongued lizards and shingle backed lizards in our garden. They love eating snails and slugs. I could count on one hand the number of snails I’ve seen here in 17 years.
I could do with some of those here!
They’re fine unless you mistake them for a snake. I’ve had quite a fright at times, coming across one by accident.
You have reminded me about slug nematodes and I will need to check when they are best first applied – I have used them for the last couple of years but have no idea if they make a difference. Last year I was aware more snails than previously and they are not affected by the nematodes,. Sadly we have not seen ‘our’ hedgehog for a while, although someone is eating the food… Sounds as if you have started the promised cull in your garden, Jude
I didn’t use nematodes last year and I did notice more slugs and big ones too that I haven’t seen when using them. I usually use them in early April and then again in mid May, which gets me through the time when seedlings and young shoots appear. Until then I have to be vigilant.
Being vigilant always seems a faff to me, but I suppose if it proves to be worth it… 😉😁