APPLE BLOSSOM AND TULIPS

At first glance the garden appears to be in a state of suspended animation.  The cold, dry weather has held back growth, and many plants that have sent up tender new shoots have soon regretted it.  The frost damaged foliage on the roses looks particularly sad, and one would be forgiven for thinking that the hydrangeas will never recover.  

But nature being what she is, some plants are soldiering on regardless, which brings us to number 1 on this week's list.

1. Apple Blossom

This tree is smothered in blooms of the most delicate pink.  It's an eating apple with a pink tinge to the flesh which tastes good as long as they are eaten fairly quickly.  They don't store well.  Needless to say this tree was here when we moved in and I don't know the name of the variety.  It leans rather alarmingly, but was reduced in size this Winter which I hope will help.





2. Later Tulips

For the second and third place spots, I've chosen some of the later flowering tulip varieties.  Around Mercury the earlier white tulips have been succeeded by a white lily flowered variety (White Triumphator) and Tulip Queen of the Night.




3. Tulip Carnival de Nice

Some tulips just surprise me by coming back year after year when I really think they won't.  I wouldn't have expected a fancy double to survive on this wet clay, but it has.  I'll admit that the flowers are a bit on the small side, but still...

This was one of the first tulips I grew.  It just appealed to me.  Then after a couple of years I thought I would try something different.  I still think it's one of my top 3 and yet it's been years since I bought any.   Where's the sense in that?


4. Rhododendrons

I'm very fond of a Rhododendron, and there are a couple of these large specimens in the garden.   


The buds have a lovely purple/pink colour to them, with the inner petals been much paler with a speckled throat.  The effect with the bluebells is very pretty.


5. Bluebells

I confess to having a love/hate relationship with bluebells - or rather with bluebell leaves.  A small amount of perky leaves I can cope with, but vast quantities of floppy leaves in what should be an herbaceous border? Yuck.  

Still I'm stuck with them for it would be impossible to dig them out of what is an area of permanently wet clay.



I do like bluebells in the woodland though - I'm nothing if not inconsistent.  





6. Mr B's new bird


Mr Baileyana has a little friend in the garden who follows him around when he is digging.  He has been feeding her worms.
 


Perhaps it will lead him to a Secret Garden, or maybe that only happens with robins.

Plans for the weekend include filling some large planters with shrub and planting more Dahlias and Clematis.  I hope the weather holds, though some rain would be welcome.

Thanks to the Propagator for hosting Six on Saturday.  Until next week...

Comments

  1. Beautiful apple blossom and tulips.

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  2. Beautiful apple blossom and tulips.

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  3. I think you are quite right, Mother Nature will sort it all out. The frosts seem to have gone on and on, don't they. Not bad here, but the apple blossom is definitely looking a little bit singed. Lovely tulips and the bluebells are wonderful, especially the woodland ones. Hope things warm up a little bit very soon!

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    1. We've not had a frost for a couple of nights now thankfully.

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  4. We have some large patches of those hybrid bluebells, a cross between the English and Spanish, and I consider them a curse on the garden. I have them banished to a wilder area of the garden - The Lane - and have then almost eliminated from the rest of the garden. Of course, I'll go out now and be confronted by some in full flower in exactly the position I don't want them! They are persistent. I had a funny episode with a Spanish Bluebell found growing wild during the week. Because of the poor site in which it was growing it was very, very stunted and I though I had found a Squill which would have been a never previously recorded wildflower in our area! Disappointment followed quickly with deeper examination - the foliage differs.

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    1. I keep finding them popping up in odd places too, where they are dug out if I can.

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  5. Beautiful apple blossoms and bluebells. I'm finding myself getting a bit impatient with the foliage of most bulbs once they've finished flowering, impatient for it to die back. I was going to refer to the female blackbird as 'Mrs B' (as we do in our garden) but that would get rather confusing in this case.

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    1. I agree daffodils hang around for far too long too.

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  6. Bluebells, especially hybrid or Spanish ones, are easy to get worked up about and I've been trying to enjoy them in flower then to have no compunction about removing flower stems and leaves without waiting for them to die down. I'm not going to be upset if I lose some.

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    1. That sounds like a very good approach - which I think I will adopt.

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  7. Oh, apple blossoms may be my favorite fruit tree flowers! I had an apple for a few years. So many things attacked it and the fruit. Sigh... I'm not a very competent fruit tree grower.

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    1. That's a shame. I'm sure it's nothing you are doing though. Ours gets no special treatment.

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  8. Tulip Carnival de Nice are very appealing, they remind me a bit of raspberry ripple ice cream, yum. Blackbirds are among my favourites in the garden, I like the way they hop around quite unassumingly. Mine do not get handed worms though!

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    1. Raspberry ripple - yum! It seems to have been neglected in favour of a salted caramel, triple fudge, chocolate cookie mash up.

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  9. I think I would be happy about bluebells flowering happily in a wet clayey spot, as probably not much else does. They do look beautiful in your woodland: I would like to follow that charming path and see where it takes me! I hope your frost bitten plants will survive.

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    1. Very true Jane - very little else would be happy there. I will try to appreciate their good points more.

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  10. With the cold nights , the trips back and forth from the garden to the house are boring. Can't wait for the true spring to arrive!
    Apple blossoms seem to be resisting until now, they are the last to arrive. (Pear trees and peach trees suffered some time ago.) Fingers crossed to have lots of apples , ..the same for you !

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    1. I thought you would be slightly ahead of us in the blossom opening. With the amount of blossom on that tree we should have a good crop.

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  11. The contrast with the white tulips and the queen of the night is very lovely, and please do plant some more carnival de nice! They look like raspberry icecream.

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