The Fairweather Gardener - April under Covid 19

Heather, tulips, muscari and, fritillaries.

April in the garden, under semi-lockdown.  I do know how lucky we are to have a garden when so many are stuck in flats.  Sitting out here writing is splendid! Everything seems to be flowering, so that and the sunshine has dragged me outdoors.  The Heather has been in bloom since November and is going a bit brown, but several small bumblebees are still finding something to enjoy in its tiny, faded-pink cups.


 The little Tete-a-tete daffs are over.  I’ve just deadheaded them, but the taller
Daffs and Narcissi which I bunged in the earth any-old-where last winter are flowering merrily, most of them seem to be multi-petalled ones and some are two-tone as well, orange and cream or sunflower yellow and white.  Never had those before, they’re very pretty, but heavy heads are dangling on over-long stems. It the prevailing sea-wind gets up it will demolish them.  Life’s too short to stake daffs!



Also flowering are things I had assumed would be dead, having done well last year.  Osteospermums I think they’re called.  Looked them up – Cape Daisies, that’s easier!  They were a birthday present from Josie and it never occurred me that they could carry on, but they’ve hardly stopped flowering since. Should I prune them?  Some are reddish-purple with black centres, others are quite pale, with pretty mauve edges and, again, the back centres.

Rosemary

A small blue tit is serenading from the tree behind my bench, but I don’t think I’m the object of his song!  Amazing what loud song some tiny birds have.  Also have chattering sparrows in the semi-background – sparrows are not really background birds, they seldom blend!  Starlings chirping and whistling from the gutter and a pair of pigeons being enthusiastic with each other on the neighbour’s mossy roof.



Rosemary still has its soft mauve flowers, to the joy of small bees.  Grape Hyacinths (muscari to you!) are everywhere, I put quite a few of them in last autumn, may have overdone it, their leaves apparently grow up to 18 inches long - I nearly measured them, managed to restrain myself!  Like the Snowflakes, which are finished, their foliage is swamping other plants.  I’ve been trimming both of them quite brutally.

Kerria

The red Wallflowers which I nearly threw away last year are now blooming a beautiful fiery scarlet, next to the sunny faces of Dandelion and no they are not weeds, I love them! So do the bees. Marigolds, in marigold orange, are starting to put in their annual appearance and  my Bluebells are up, mostly the Spanish variety but still gorgeous.  Fritillaries with their extraordinary checkered flowers are almost over, the bumblebees have been enjoying those too.



Planted a lot of Tulips last autumn in a trough, after watching Monty Don, who said plant them in layers, the don’t mind being crowded.  They’re coming up now but don’t seem keen to put on a mass display, which is what I was hoping for, some are already open while others are barely above soil level.



Kerria Japonica has been in bloom for several weeks now, very pretty in hues of apricot and above it the Clematis Montana is absolutely smothered in buds as it in turn smothers the garage, so I’ll get my mass flowering there!  After it’s flowered I will have to prune it or we’ll never get the garage doors open.

Camellia and forsythia

Round the front of the house, the rich pink Camellia is past its best.  Its massed flowers are going softly brown and papery now, but the Forsythia is quite splendid.  Beside those two the Skimmia Japonica is palely loitering.  I have a Mahonia in a pot, I might plant it next to the Skimmia for a bit of colour and drama



On the patio right up against the house, various things have been rammed into pots sometimes with strange bedfellows.  Cyclamen in their little pots are almost over, big, rotund seed-heads are forming, I must try to propagate some of those.  In flower are more tulips, scarlet geraniums which have almost kept flowering continuously for three years now, more Cape Daisies, more Fritillaries,  who share a large blue tub with a huge, self-seeded Foxglove, we’ll see what colour that flowers later.

Finally and unexpectedly, I have a pink and paler-pink-striped Freesia and a white Freesia is about to bloom, which I had entirely forgotten I shoved into the pot with one of the perpetual geraniums two years ago.  I had a bunch of Freesias for my wedding posy – I don’t do bouquets!



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