power plant

I suddenly realized yesterday that April is almost over and wondered briefly if I had slept through a week or so! Where did April go?! So many shades of green! Anyway, here are a few things that happened in my garden this month, starting with my aubergine seedlings. Well, they are still indoors here actually, but have since been put in slightly larger pots and placed in the cold frame on the south-facing and partially covered patio – wrapped in garden fleece to keep them warm at night and stop them from burning in the sun in the daytime. They haven’t grown an awful lot, but hopefully the sunshine this week will give them a boost. We got a lot of sunshine this month, albeit frequently with very cold and often stormy winds. The housemartins still returned bang on time though on the 17th (it is always between the 12th and 24th of April). I was constantly reminded of these lines from Robert Frost’s “T wo Tramps in Mud Time”… The sun was warm but the wind was chill. You know how it...

Beautiful sunshine and one full day of rain last week have really brought the garden to life, but a cold wind prevailed until today, so I decided to pick one of the lovely Anemone coronaria I have in a patio pot from a collection called ‘Pink Dusk’ before they fade. The colours have ranged from sugary pink, a somewhat clashing red, and deep purple. Each one of them has been a wonderful surprise as they open, and this deep purply red one is perhaps the loveliest of all. Let me zoom in for you…. I wish you could see the shimmery mauve at the centre, but my camera simply wouldn’t pick it up among all that rich velvety red! The Heuchera leaves are almost the exact same colour, but I couldn’t resist adding some fresh Alchemilla foliage for contrast. Two no-ID tulips also lighten up the arrangement a little, and next to them I spotted my first Aquilegia. It is lovely seeing what colours and shapes evolve as they reseed and cross pollinate. I am pretty sure this frilly mauve one is relate...

Tulipa linifolia ‘Red Hunter’ — Tulipa ‘Ballerina’ — Tulipa ‘Yume no Murasaki’  

This week everywhere I look is suddenly green! A day of light rain has helped and flowers and blossom are opening all around us. It is the perfect time to pick flowers and bring them indoors, so I am joining in with In a Vase on Monday with a couple of  posies picked over the last few days. First of all I chose my vase with the Epimedium in mind. Epimedium Orangekönigin and E. sulphureum Epimedium can also be known as Fairy Wings, but in German ‘Elf Flowers’…which do you think is more appropriate?! Sadly, some of them wilted very quickly in a vase, so I refreshed it and added to it the following day. I added some Pulsatilla, known as ‘cow bells’ here, more Pulmonaria, some forget-me-nots, a Hellebore, Muscari and a single peachy tulip. These all filled the vase out nicely. Isn’t it time we found a more endearing common name for Pulmonaria? Lungwort is too ugly for such a pretty flower! I have read that it can be called Jerusalem Cowslip, but have no idea why. Any other...

Pasque Flower , Pulsatilla vulgaris

Prunus spinosa