Just a few days of sunshine in amongst the cold winds and hail has pushed the garden forward once again. Now I feel that there is momentum. Pillows of new growth from the perennials are appearing everywhere and the birds are in full voice. The clematis armandii continues to do the heavy lifting but there is more and more to enjoy. Here’s this week’s six.

One

More tulips have opened up. ‘World Friendship’ mixes in the thin border with narcissus ‘Thalia’. I haven’t topped up the tulips for maybe two years now. There are just about enough to make a reasonable display but I have made a note for July to think about ordering some more. This week for the first time ever I noticed that aphids had taken a fancy to the tulips. They were swiftly despatched.

Two

The second narcissus ‘Actaea’ poeticus has opened. The first one presumably did get to open, but the slugs got there before me. These are sweetly scented, I haven’t noticed it yet but once a few more have opened I will pay them a little more attention. These are scheduled to arrive in late April so I am pleased to see them having a go at flowering now.

Three

I did mention last week that the scilla had opened up, but I lied! These are not scilla at all. They are ipheion uniflorum aka the spring starflower. I remember that I was trying to decide between the two, and eventually chose the ipheion. I can’t remember what the deciding factors were but I’m happy with them anyway.

Four

The blue anemone blanda were open several weeks ago, but in the last week the white ones have got into their stride. They were soaking up yesterday’s sunshine, providing a sparkling spot of white in the border. Acknowledgements also due to the photo bombing celandine!

Five

There are signs of growth even in the colder shadier parts of the garden. I planted a few erythroniums last year and I think they have all survived the winter. Now they have to survive the slugs. These are erythronium californicum ‘White Beauty’. They are billed as ideal for a north facing border and shadier spots so I am hoping they will settle in and in due course make some cheerful clumps of nodding flowers.

Six

The very first of the plum blossom appeared this week. All on the lower branches of the tree. That gave me a nudge to making sure the cherry tree growing against a wall was securely netted.

The long Easter weekend here is a great opportunity to finish the tidying up of the stems left over winter. The grass had its first cut this week and I am on the edge of planting up the potatoes. Some seeds have been sown, but there are more to start. I was planning to grow a selection of annuals to fill out the thin border this year but the thin border is really very thin (about 90 cms) and once I plant up the 16 echinacea ‘Pallida’ and some other perennials that I have been growing on I may well have filled the border. After six years of building the borders here I may be approaching capacity. But does that ever really happen? I suspect Jim, our host, would say no, never. His garden always has room for more. Take a look and see what Jim has this week. Happy gardening.