Tag: tulips

My Garden Journal April

What strange weather we are having yet again, this being the third year with unseasonal weather making gardening such an unpredictable pastime. Butterflies appear every time we have a warm sunny day while bees, hoverfly and wasp numbers are increasing day by day. Ladybirds come out from their winter hiding places as he sun warms them up.

By mid-month we are regularly visited by three species of warbler who entertain us with their songs – Garden Warbler, Blackcap and Chiffchaff.

I began by writing a few words, “April means tulips, tulips ……” and at the end of the two pages, “……. and yet more tulips.”

I continued with the theme of bulbs and even included two more shots of tulips. The other photos were to show different bulb flowers and wrote, “Tulips are not the only bulbs to be giving colours this month, although some tulips come later than others like T. Purple Parrot.”

On the opposite page I considered some of our gardening tasks we managed to tackle in this month, and I wrote, “This month presents us with so much to do in the garden because everything is growing away so quickly – especially the weeds.”

“Potting up our dahlias and brushing up birch catkins blown down by strong winds.”

Weed burning gravel areas and taking bubblewrap down in greenhouse. Edging the grass paths after mowing.

Preparing the summerhouse for the new seasons to come. Tidying up a new plant before planting.

“Tidying up the Prairie Garden and planting a new shrub in a pot.

In the next two pages I will look at clematis already blooming and on the opposite page fruit blossom.

On the top of my page concerning flowering clematis I noted that, “Early flowering clematis are usually blue with a few pinks and every shade in between.”

On the page opposite I shared photos of the blossom on our apple trees. I wrote, “Fruit trees are full of blossom, but sadly a few seem to be blind this ear.”

Crab apples are so good at multi-tasking. The blossom is beautiful and attracts pollinators and predators. They help in pollinating culinary apples.

We grow a dozen heritage varieties of apple. They taste so different to each other.

We have reached the final page for April where I wrote, “We always plant violas in our pots to accompany shrubs and perennials because they come in such a vast range of colours and they flower for several months. This winter they performed better than ever.”

It feels good to end on such a positive note. Back in May.

Tags flowers, garden, gardening, spring, tulips

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Bridgemere Show Gardens April

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date April 28, 2025

We drove out to Bridgemere to visit the show gardens once again under another blue sky. As usual we started our wanderings at the cottage garden where we found this group of white tulips displayed in a wheelbarrow. Close by this circle of box hedging was filled with red and white tulips.

We stopped next at the pond which until now had no plants giving a display, but now it seems to have come back to life. Kingcups gave bright splashes of gold. One thing a photo cannot do is let you appreciate the wonderful sounds of water on the move.

We found another raised bed close by full of tulips with just two different, delicate colours, ice cream colours really.

It was so heartening to see fresh new foliage bursting from their buds. This acer had bright new leaves drooping downwards with flower buds hanging below in contrasting reds. A feature of springtime is the sight of ferns unfurling in typical crozier patterns.

Daffodils featured in last months post about the show gardens and they are still going strong, but they are well outnumbered by tulips which featured in many different areas of the garden.

This garden is totally dominated by sheets of tulips between hedges of box, creating very dramatic pictures. This garden is on a gentle slope giving much better views of the tulip collections.

In contrast to tulips bergenias are never considered to be a feature of spring gardens but here at Bridgemere there were quite a few different ones flowering well now. I really like bergenias as ground cover or edging plants and we grow many in our own garden.

There are many spring flowering shrubs and small trees here which look extra special against a pure blue sky.

This is the time for magnolias, rhododendrons and camellias. to shine and here they certainly do it well!

So much is happening in this garden this month, flowers bursting from buds and foliage colouring up on almost every shrub and tree, meaning that we could appreciate broader views more than earlier in the year.

One spring flowering shrub that we enjoy in our own garden are ribes, the flowering currants. We grow red, yellow, white and bicolour ones. We really liked this dark flowered one growing here at Bridgemere which sadly was not labelled.

We enjoyed the spring colour in the show gardens this months and are looking forward to next month’s visit when we envisage many changes.

Tags flowers, garden, gardening, spring, tulips

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Gardening in lock down – tulip time

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date May 14, 2020
2 Comments on Gardening in lock down – tulip time

We love tulips as they appear magically several months after we planted those beautiful bulbs so full of potential and promises.

Some of the tulips we planted last autumn have ended up looking striped which reminds me of raspberry ripple ice cream.

They provide masses of different colours and varied petal shapes, some even show off their frilly cut edges. We plant more each autumn so our stock is increasing slowly but we also lose a lot each year to winter damp and viruses. Planting new bulbs will carry on every year. Some are extra special such as this one with frilled edges to its petals where they turn from pink to yellow.

Here is a set of photos showing a selection of those we grow for you to enjoy.

By early May most of our tulips will have flowered and then dropped their petals. All the early herbaceous perennials are waiting to take over for months.

Tags gardening in spring, spring, spring bulbs, tulips

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My Garden Journal 2020 – April

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date May 7, 2020
1 Comment on My Garden Journal 2020 – April

Back with my garden journal I will now share with you my pages for April, a strange month as we are in total lock down because of the coronavirus problems. The many sunny warm days allowed us the luxury of leisurely time in the garden and even time for lots of sitting on our several garden benches enjoying coffee and cakes.

On my first page I featured the Kiwi Vine, the climbing plant which opens with beautiful moss green leaf buds which turn a purer green as the days progress. I wrote, “April sprung onto the scene with frost-free nights and days littered with ‘April Showers’, sunshine and sparkling light rain. Leaves change on shrubs, trees and climbers are opening rapidly, changing colour, shape and texture. Our Kiwi Vine has beautiful foliage and we enjoy observing how each bud opens day by day.”

The first batch of photos was taken during the first week of the month.

For the next set of photos I wrote, “The third week of the month and the foliage is fully open and bright green.”

I then moved on to consider some of the gardening tasks we undertook in April. “Gardening tasks for April included planting Gladioli and Asiatic Lily bulbs in the ‘Hot Garden’ and cutting down our coppiced Cornus shrubs and pollarded Cornus Midwinter Fire.”

“The plants on the nursery shelves have now been potted on and returned refreshed to their shelves.”

“Jude has pricked out the seedlings of early sowings of annuals such as Cosmos and Sweet Peas, and I re-potted my succulents, Salvias and Fuschias” which have had winter protection.”

On the opposite page I revealed my foliage plants of the month, our many Acer palmatums, and I wrote, “Foliage plant of the month is Acer palmatum the wonder of spring and autumn.”

Tulips featured on the next double page spread where I shared photos of “Tulips – open and closed!”

The final double page spread of this month’s journal features the early Imperial Fritillaries, of which we grow two cultivars and on the opposite page my plant of the month for bark and stems, Cercis siliquastrum.

“Flowering plant of the month for April is the very bright extravagant looking Fritillaria imperialis. We grow just two in our Shrub Garden, F.i. ‘Willliam Rex’ which is a rich orange-red colour with each flower topped in purple, and F. i. ‘Lutea’ a beautiful clear yellow one. But they attract the dreaded Lily Beetles!!”

I created i-Pad paintings of each when in full fat bud and then took photos of them when they had opened up.

I wrote, “Plant of the month for ‘stems and bark, for April is Cercis siliquastrum, a tree that I have chosen not so much for its colour or texture but for its attraction to lichen and its unusual trait of displaying its little cerise flowers directly appearing from its bark.”

“A close-up phot of the bark of the Cercis bark shows its texture and the variety of colour coming from lichens.”

I created a painting of the flower and lichen on a twig of the Cercis, using watercolour pencils, fibre tip pens and watercolour colour washes..

And that is my journal for April so soon I will be starting my May entries.

Tags Acer palmatum, acers., April, April garden, cercis, Cercis siliquastrum, Fritillaria, Fritillaria imperialis, garden journal, gardening in spring, imperial fritillaries, kiwi, spring growth, the garden in April, the spring garden, tulips

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The Citadel – a May garden full of colour.

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date May 22, 2019
1 Comment on The Citadel – a May garden full of colour.

We started our monthly garden visits with our friends from the Hardy Plant Society Shropshire Group with a visit to a garden called The Citadel, which although it is close, within 20 miles of where we live, we had never visited before.

We enjoyed our morning greatly as we found a garden of colour and surprises set around a beautiful red sandstone building. The colour was mostly from Rhododendrons and Azaleas, many of which were also richly scented. The entrance to the garden took us past a wonderful perfectly shaped Copper Beech in its reddish copper colouring. It made a wonderful picture with its neighbouring trees and shrubs.

Around the corner of the house we met the owner who did most of the gardening and his rather grumpy dog, Freddie. We immediately noticed a circle of colourful tulips and nearby a lovely seating area and a wisteria draped pergola.

After an introduction we took off along a series of pathways up a raised section covered in Rhododendrons. We found surprises along the way which adds an extra dimension to any good garden.

As we left the rhododendrons behind with their bright colours and large blooms, the views opened up in front of us. We discovered an old rustic and very highly decorated summerhouse, an open view over the countryside and much softer plantings.

We were surprised to find a beautifully maintained and productive looking productive garden. From here we made our way to the castle for refreshments and a chat with the owner, and that is how our lovely morning ended.

Tags fruit and veg growing, kitchen gardens, ornamental shrubs, ornamental trees, rhododendrons, tulips

countryside flowering bulbs garden arches garden buildings garden design garden paths garden photography garden seating garden wildlife gardening gardens gardens open to the public hardy perennials meadows National Garden Scheme NGS ornamental trees and shrubs pathways spring spring gardening village gardens wildlife Yellow Book Gardens

Another NGS Garden : Gorsty Bank – a wildlife friendly garden

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date May 18, 2019
1 Comment on Another NGS Garden : Gorsty Bank – a wildlife friendly garden

This a wonderful wildlife friendly garden which opens for the NGS and is owned and gardened by fellow Hardy Plant Society Shropshire Group members Annie and Gary Frost. The garden is a short distance from home so we soon arrived after a short journey and enjoyed the walk through the village of Hyssington and up the drive to the garden. We found some lovely primulas along the lane and the driveway itself was atmospheric with old stone walls on one side and native hedging alongside.

We were warmly greeted by Gary and as usual made our way to the refreshments and enjoyed talking with Annie as we enjoyed tea and tasty homemade cakes. The views from our seats afforded an idea of the richness of the experience we could look forward to.

We then enjoyed a slow wander around this gentle garden with its paths and gateways to guide our way. We loved the two meadows and the mini-arboretum.

Another enjoyable return visit to a favourite NGS garden afforded us a great day out. We will be back!

Tags daffodils, garden wildlife, gardening for wildlife, gardening in spring, gardens of Powys, meadows, NGS, NGS gardens, Powys, primulas, spring blossom, spring bulbs, tulips, wildflower meadows, wildlife gardening

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My Garden Journal 2019 – April

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date April 30, 2019
2 Comments on My Garden Journal 2019 – April

April is one of our busiest months in our Avocet patch, a month when we are busy, our wildlife colleagues are busy and the plants are growing apace. We have tasks to complete as well as usual garden routines.

As I often do in my journals I began with the weather and wrote, “April burst onto the scene with a crazy few days of weather. The first day, April Fools’ Day, was bright and mild after a frosty start which gave us hope for a few good days for gardening. Sadly this was far from the reality as during the following few days the weather treated us to rain, sleet, snow, hail and freezing winds! Not good for gardening!” I added a few photos of frozen rain after it had settled on the garden.

Frozen rain on the garden was an unexpected event.

“Succulents love hot dry areas but look good with hats of snow and ice.”

“Pitcher with snow and black lichen.”

“Frozen rain on fresh herbaceous foliage.”

On the page opposite my weather report I considered some of our flowering shrubs that add a fresh dimension to the spring garden.

“April seems to be the month when our collection of flowering shrubs come into their own, many of them will continue to give colour for weeks on end and then delight us with their foliage in summer and autumn and also the addition of berries.” I then shared a set of photos of a few of our spring flowering shrubs.

Next I shared a few of our spring tasks around the garden

I wrote, “Our list of “non-plant” jobs continued well into the spring, when we made a new shed, in a bright blue painted sentry-box style, specially to fit in our seaside garden.”

“The flat-packed shed arrived in a box and we soon opened it up and lined up all the pieces in readiness.”

“It took longer to make than expected and the finished shed was a bit flimsier than we would have liked so I will add more structural wooden struts to it.”

On the opposite page I looked at other jobs we undertook in April.

“More jobs to launch a new month ….. Jude created a new insect hotel.”

“We planted potatoes in bags.” “We sowed wildflowers in Arabella’s Garden.”

“Roses on arches needed a trim and some shrubs needed pollarding.”

When we turn over the page we see that the next two pages are all about those special flowers of spring, flowering bulbs.

I wrote, “We seem to have more daffodils to enjoy in our garden than ever before, and they soon get the company of tulips joining the Muscari, Leucojum and the little blue flowered bulbs.”

I shared a collection of photos of our tulips on one page and of our daffodils on the opposite page.

“This is just a small selection of our dozens of varieties of tulips spread around our garden.”

“Daffodils appear in almost every bed and border, like brightly coloured children’s sweets. The garden becomes a sweet shop of delights.”

Over to the next double page spread we return to the garden tasks we performed during April.

I wrote, “When we host visitors to our garden we sell plants and Jude has established what we call her ‘micro nursery’. We also take plants with us when we give garden talks around counties close to us and in neighbouring Welsh counties. We needed to increase our nursery space as we go out to give talks more and more. I doubled the size of Jude’s herbaceous plant sales shelves. We mostly used re-cycled wood.”

I carried on to the next page saying, “I also created a shrub nursery at the bottom of the garden in the space where our compost was made. We needed space for cuttings in ‘long tom pots’ and the individually potted shrubs.”

“The first job was to get Ian, our garden helper, to bag up our compost ready to be used as a mulch around the many borders.”

“We put up tables to show our shrubs on and put membrane down underfoot.”

“All that is left to do now is to put slate down on the membrane to give a comfortable and attractive surface.” That is a job to be done when we revitalize our central path, replacing slate that has been down for several years so now has a bit too mush soil mixed in, with fresh clean slate mulch. Watch this space!

So once again turning the page the next double page spread features bluebells and Primula auriculas. I wrote of bluebells, “Towards the end of the month the first of our native Bluebells come into flower. They give us a shot of bright blue and enrich the air with their sweet aroma.”

I then shared a couple of i-Pad drawings I attempted to show the vitality of these amazing flowers of spring.

On the page opposite the bluebells I looked at some of our Auriculas, with their unique colour range and combinations. I wrote, The wide range of unique colour combinations, sometimes enriched with a fine ‘meal’, seen in the flowers of Primula auricula are what made these flowers appeal to the enthusiasts and show men in their hayday. Today they are grown more as alpines. Jude bought a tray of mixed seedlings a few years ago and she has selected out some special ones.”

The final page for my journal in April features another popular collectors’ plant, the Hostas, “We love Hostas and grow many with a wide variety of leaf shapes, colours, sizes and variegation patterns in different areas of the garden.”

“These are some of our miniature and small varieties, surrounded by sharp grit to deter slugs and snails.”

And that is where my April entries into my garden journal came to a conclusion. The next visit to its pages will be in May when the garden should be looking even better.

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Tags April, April garden, daffodils, flowering bulbs, garden tasks, gardening, gardens, spring, spring blossom, spring flowers, spring garden, the garden in April, the garden in spring, tulips

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My Garden Journal 2018 – April

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date May 13, 2018

I began my April entries in my Garden Journal 2018 with the words, “April this year is a month to play “catch up” as the poor weather in the first quarter of the year has held us up so!” But as will be revealed during my entries this month things didn’t play into our hands as far as the weather was concerns. It rather dashed our hopes!

I continued, We had two weeks at home to garden before we went away for a Spring holiday. There was very little sign of the new season, a few daffodils and other Spring bulbs flowered but little fresh growth on perennials. Strangely, our Witch Hazels had a quick second flush of flowers.

Coppicing and pollarding feature strongly when we turn over to the next page, two of my favourite garden activities.

We usually aim to coppice and pollard our shrubs grown for their colourful stems, Cornus and Salix, before the end of March. The weather prevented us doing so this year so we tackled the job in early April. It is a job I love because I like to picture the results of my actions.

Some pruned stems are selected as cuttings to produce new plants to sell or as replacements.

Hazel rods become bean poles and the brash become pea sticks to be used on our allotment. We tidied up around the hazel stools and gave the footpath a mow over.

On the page opposite to the notes about coppicing and pollarding, I moved on to look at re-instating some of our grass paths, writing, A major job for this April was to repair and re-seed our grass paths. This is a result of having so many visitors when we open our garden for the National Garden Scheme.

We used my big vintage Bulldog fork to spike deeply into the lawn surface and top dressed the lawn with compost. We brushed this in and added fresh grass seed into bare patches. To stop our garden birds eating too many seeds we spread prunings over the surface.

Over onto the next page we can see that I shared a quote from Dan Pearson’s Natural Selection, then looked at more of this month’s jobs.

Dan Pearson in his book Natural Selection wrote early in April, April is spring at its best, with the intensity of green being notched up daily until it is as vibrant as it ever will be. It is the time of some of my favourite plants and an opportunity to get to know better those that flourish in this brief window.

He moves on to speak of three of his favourite spring flowers namely Magnolias, Snakeshead Fritillaries and Tulips. We do not grow Magnolias here at our Avocet garden as we feel it difficult to justify growing a plant that performs for such a small period and sits static and dull for the rest of the year. We enjoy those growing in our neighbours’ gardens instead. Snakeshead Fritillaries and Tulips however we grow in profusion.

For the first few weeks of April this year there was no sign of the “intensity of green” mentioned above. We left to go away for the third of April, leaving our patch still firmly in the grip of Winter.

Before we left however we had jobs to do such as featured in the previous pages and several others which I feature next.

Our key job of this month was to add a single step to the slope into our Japanese Garden. The gravel tended to move beneath our feet as we stepped down the slope. A half-sized “railway sleeper” did the job nicely.

We topped up the log edging to the wildlife pool, topped up the bark paths and spent a day cleaning and sharpening all our secateurs and loppers.

Turning over to the next double page spread I wrote about the birds in our garden and then mentioned a sudden sign of spring.

I wrote, When we work in the garden we do so to a soundtrack of bird song as birds mark their new season’s territories. The loudest songbirds of all are members of the Thrush family, the Blackbirds and Song Thrushes and the more diminutive Robins. All the Titmice and Finches join in calling busily from songposts.

We enjoy watching all of our garden birds collecting nest materials and taking it off to well-hidden places. Throughout the UK people have nicknames for our most common birds. I did some research and came up with these.

Robin – Redbreast, Bob Robin

Song Thrush – Mavis, Throstle

Blackbird – Merle, Woofell, Colley, or Black Uzzle

House Sparrow – Spadger, Spuggie, Spaggie

Wren – Stumpy, Toddy, Sumpit, Old Lady’s Hen

Dunnock – Creepie, Shufflewing, Scrubber

Greenfinch – Green Olf, Greeney, Green Lennart

Great Tit – Black Capped Lolly, Black Headed Bob

Blue Tit – Tom Tit, Blue Cap, Pickcheese, Blue Bonnett

The most exciting bird spotted this month was an early Cuckoo who sat on top of a bush. This is a bird often heard but rarely seen, so it was a memorable sighting.

The third week of the month saw Spring arrive very late and very quickly and dramatically after a few days of record setting high temperatures. Suddenly our spring flowering bulbs burst into life and leaf buds opened to reveal the brightest of greens, bronzes and pinks.

Tulips take over every part of our garden splashing their brightness among fresh greens of perennials growth.

A cold easterly wind blew back into our patch as the month came to an end. It has been a destructive force in our garden this Spring, burning leaves of even the toughest of shrubs. Every variety of Mahonia has been hit hard but do seem to be fighting back, dropping the dead browned leaves as new buds thrust from the branches.

So here I finish my report on my April pages in my garden journal. I will return in May when the weather may be more kind to us.

Tags coloured stems, coppicing, cornus, daffodils, dogwoods, garden birds, hellebores, lawn care, ornamental grasses, pollarding, salix, spring, spring blossom, spring bulbs, spring flowers, spring weather, the garden in spring, tulips, willows

colours flowering bulbs garden design garden photography garden ponds garden pools garden wildlife gardening hardy perennials log piles logs National Garden Scheme natural pest control NGS ornamental trees and shrubs outdoor sculpture sculpture spring bulbs spring gardening village gardens water garden water in the garden wildlife woodland Yellow Book Gardens

Celebrating the Glory of Spring – the garden at a cottage called Cartref

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date September 5, 2017
1 Comment on Celebrating the Glory of Spring – the garden at a cottage called Cartref

I thought I would look back at a visit we made with friends, Pete and Sherlie in the spring to a garden called Cartref. It was a “pop up” NGS garden which is a garden that opens unplanned but that looks good so the owner wants to share it with other NGS, National Garden Scheme, visitors. It is a way of seeing gardens at their best. It is a new idea so we look forward to seeing if it continues to happen. We certainly hope so as we visited two this spring and loved them both.

We decided to celebrate the glory of spring by visiting this NGS garden, a one acre modern cottage garden with borders, woodland and ponds. The main features of the garden were the lovely colourful collection of tulips which were at their best when we visited.

Throughout the rest of the garden we found relaxed styles of gardening and in places emphasis on enhancing habitats for wildlife and attracting wildlife into the garden. The wildlife pond had an island reached by a narrow wooden bridge.

After this visit to the cottage garden at Cartref we decided that “pop up” open gardens were definitely a good idea because we felt we had seen Cartref at its best.

Tags April, April garden, NGS, NGS gardens, spring, spring blossom, spring bulbs, spring flowers, spring garden, the garden in April, tulips, Yellow Book, Yellow Book Gardens

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A Walk in the Park – Attingham Park April – Part 2

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date May 28, 2017

In this, the second part of April’s report of our wanderings around Attingham Park, I want to feature the flowers of the park , the wildflowers living in the woodland and the cultivated flowers in the borders and walled garden. I will also share pics of the fresh growth of the bursting buds on the trees and shrubs.

Most new leaves that had burst from buds on trees were the brightest of green imaginable.

Some buds had opened to reveal more colours than simply green, they glowed with hints of bronze, browns and purples.

Fresh growth on evergreen trees and shrubs were also bright green, on both conifers and broadleaves.

Beneath the trees and shrubs ferns revealed their leaves in such a beautiful way, unfurling from a tight spiral like slowly unwinding springs. As their shapes change so do the textures.

We found so many plants flowering on our April wanders that the best way to share them with you and illustrate the huge variety so early in the year is by presenting my photographs as a gallery. Please enjoy by clicking on the first photo then navigate by clicking the right arrow.