A little snapshot today of some spring highlights from the garden.
First up a trio of tulips. Orange Emperor, a bunch from the allotment and a mix of Sunny Prince and Purple Prince. Which are your favourite? I love the allotment ones, which come back reliably each year, I must dig some up for the garden.
A view of the garden from the south-east corner. That’s one of our chickens making a dash for it across the lawn, studded with daisies.
Still enjoying the Clematis armandii, now buzzing with bees. I put a little video on Instagram @the_nostalgic_gardener which gets across the feel of this area on a soft spring evening.
Underneath the clematis on the floor of the glade, these lovely wild tulip species, Tulipa bakeri, come back every year. I recently found out they are native to the rocky hills and clay plateaus of Crete. So that’s why they are so tough (the glade gets very dry in summer and the clay is heavy).
Another tough character, the native wood spurge, Euphoria amygdaloides, is a great plant for tricky areas like dry shade under mature trees, which is what we have in the glade. It’s so zingy too!
Clematis alpina seems delicate but has proved to be a strong climber here. Its nodding frilly flowers are a delight on the wall. Later, a rambling rose, Alberic Barbier, will continue the show. Associating climbers with different flowering times keeps things interesting.
Round to the front of the house now, where our hobbit’s window is adorned with Iberis sempervirens, Candytuft, with a few early Geum flowers in between. This pretty little ground cover is in the Brassica family, and hails from the Iberian peninsula.
I think I may have gone over the traditional six for Six on Saturday hosted by Garden Ruminations. Things are starting to get interesting! Enjoy your weekend, hope it’s a sunny one.
Your garden looks like a miniature nature reserve Sel 😉
Enjoy all these beauties and have a lovely weekend.
Let’s hope that the weather predictions will come true for the coming days.
It’s looking hopeful 🤞
I like orange tulips, maybe because I don’t have enough of them here. This year it’s rather red, yellow and pink that are dominant. I had already said it, but the clematis armandii on the wall is fabulous!!
I know you once had this clematis, am lucky it seems to like this nice sheltered wall. Can’t believe how big it has got now!
I’m noticing that many of us have names for parts of the garden. Your ‘hobbit window’ is self-explanatory!
Lovely garden view from the South-East corner. My SOS this week takes the big picture view too
Yes it is redolent of windows in The Shire!
I was taken by your lovely hen, I used to have a few bantams in a previous garden, and just love the sound and watching hens scratching around and calling to each other. Lovely clematis too!
Thanks, the chickens really do add character to the garden. Now of course they are broody and nowhere to be seen!
Such a lovely green oasis- a tiny paradeisos. When it comes to tulips, I go for the small species, so my favourite is the Tulipa bakerei. Thank you for sharing.
The small tulips are charming I agree.
I like all the tulips, but the reliably perennial lot may just about win because of the reliably perennial thing. The Candytuft looks great – it’s a plant I’ve been adding more of because it seems to flower for months. Lovely shot of the garden.
Thanks, the Candytuft has grown on me, it was a bit sad end of season, but looks nice and fresh right now.
The red tulips are fab and especially if they are perennials. Orange Emperor returns here for me. Love both your clematis and you are the second SOSer to show the Iberis. I really need to move mine. What conditions does it prefer? I have moved mine three times and still not found its ideal location.
The Iberis is in a seemingly unpromising spot with shallow soil – there are drainage pipes lurking underneath – maybe this approximates conditions on the Iberian Peninsula! Sage does well in this area too, even though it’s partly in dappled shade.
I’ll move it back to the wall, last time the Erigeron daisies smothered it, but I cut them back hard so maybe it will have a chance to get established.
Lovely Spring display!
Missed your post last week – but I’ve found it now (and the Instagram)! The clematis armandii is stunning. Interesting about the growing conditions for tulipa bakeri. I’ve plenty of clay here for them to grow in!
Great – found you to on Instagram!