Top Ten May Blooms.

I nearly missed the date for my top ten monthly blooms this time as I have become so detached from the calendar. I just rushed out to take some photos but it is blowing a hooley and my lovely irises which I wanted to feature are looking terrible: some of them are lying drunkenly on the ground and they all have tattered petals and look as if they have been partying too hard.

But I am getting ahead of myself, let’s go back to the beginning of the month and look at the May-flowering Magnolia laevifolia  ‘Gail’s Favourite’. I love this shrub, it is evergreen and the buds look as if they are covered in brown suede. They open up into masses of scented white flowers. This used to be classified as Michelia  yunananensis and it is not supposed to be reliably hardy, but mine is several years old and has never been even slightly damaged by frost.

Magnolia laevifolia ‘Gail’s Favourite’

In early May, my excitement mounts as the buds on my tree peonies fatten up. I grew them from seed and at eleven years old they are a wonderful sight with so many flowers I can’t count them all as I did when they first started blooming. They were supposed to be Chinese Paeonia rockii, that wonderful, but elusive white flower with the dark, almost black flare at the base of each petal. But bees have been busy and they range from pale to dark pink but they still have the distinctive chocolatey centre. They should be known as Paeonia ‘Gansu Mudan’ and not rockii.

Paeonia ‘Gansu Mudan

Whatever you call them I think you will agree they are gorgeous and worth the long wait of six or seven years to get flowers from seed- grown plants.
Roses are early this year and so the garden has a June look to it right now but the earliest May-flowering rose is the delectable climber Rosa banksiae ‘Lutea’. It needs plenty of space, mine grows up the trunk of an old apple tree and is just ten years old from a tiny cutting.

Rosa banksiae ‘Lutea’

It is a shame I had to cut this tree down but its mossy trunk lends itself to the rose and also the Clematis montana ‘Marjorie’ which  climbs up the trunk on the right.

Rosa banksiae ”Lutea’

Clematis montana is wonderful for scrambling up trees or along a fence or wall. I have several of them.

Clematis montana ‘Marjorie’

Here are a few others.

Clematis montana ‘Elizabeth’

Clematis montana ‘Warwickshire Rose’

Cleemayis montana var. wilsonii

Clematis monntana ‘Broughton Star’

Clematis montana var. wilsonii and Clematis montana ‘Broughton Star’

Clematis’wilsonii’ is blooming right at the top of the tree and whilst I am sure he must be a lovely sight for the neighbours, I have to crane my neck to see it and I can’t get near enough to smell it.

I have a lovely evergreen tree from Chile which blooms in May. Unlike Azara microphylla which blooms in early March with vanilla scented flowers, this azara has darker yellow, much bigger and more showy flowers. I think it is Azara serrata but I am not sure, I grew it from a cutting from my old garden, it is about about twelve years old now. The flowers look rather like those of mimosa.

Azara serrata

Azara serrrata

Another May- flowering shrub is beautiful right now. It is Calycanthus x raulstonii ‘Hartlage Wine’ and has gorgeous burgundy red flowers which are slightly fragrant. It is a cross betwwen Calycanthus and Sinocalycanthus. I once tried to grow Sinocalycanthus and failed dismally, but this seems very easy and problem -free. It likes a sunny spot.

Calycanthus x raulstoni ‘Hartlage Wine’

Wisterias have been wonderful this year. This one which I have tried to train as a standard, usually gets all its buds picked off by pigeons but this year they have taken a fancy to my thalictrums instead.

Wisteria are easy from layered cuttings. It is a waste of time trying to grow them from seed, they will take years to bloom and when and if, they do they will probably be disappointing. Over two of the arches into my secret garden I have wisterias, one is pink and the other one is white.


I have an unusual flowering shrub from New Zealand , which I now learn is Sophora tetraptera. It has clusters of pea-like yellow flowers and is quite eye-catching, specially against a blue sky. The flowers are followed by large seed pods and so I have a few baby trees coming along.

Sophora tetraptera

Another unusual and eye-catching tree is the Chilean Lantern Tree, Crinodendron hookerianum. It likes a sheltered spot and acid soil. I don’t have acid soil so I grow mine in a large pot against the wall. It has happily grown through the pot onto the soil.

Crinodendron hookerianum

 

Crinodendron hookerianum

I will finish with a few orchids.

Cypripedium

Dactylorhiza fuchsii

Epipactis

I seem to have missed out so many May beauties that maybe I will do another post soon. I haven’t said a word about my beloved irises and they deserve a post of their own. But that is enough for now. I hope your gardens are surviving this awful wind if you live in the UK. And I hope wherever you live you are keeping well and safe and don’t forget to be A Lert. All this staying at home and enjoying the garden every single day is lovely, if you can forget the horrors all about us. But it does mean I haven’t bought one single plant since February and that is very strange for me, in fact it’s an all-time record. Still, when I look round the garden I think I probably don’t actually need any more plants, although that has never stopped me in the past.

Please join me and share your favourite May blooms.

In a Vase on Monday. Plants for Free.

May seems to be the month when the garden is full of carpets of colour made up of self -seeded plants. The gardener can sit back and enjoy the show without having to do anything at all to create it. I didn’t even have to introduce many of the self-seeders here. Sheets of blue are provided by forgetmenots, camassias, brunnera and bluebells.

The Spanish bluebells in one part of my garden are a strain with enormous flowers which are more like hyacinths.

Scilla hispanica

Mysotis and Brunnera

Yellow looks wonderful with the blue and comes in the form of  Welsh poppies, cowslips and acid- yellow Smyrnium perfoliatum .

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I did start off with a few plants of Smyrnium perfoliatum a few years ago and now I can just sit back and enjoy them. They always put themselves just in the right place.

Smyrniium perfoliatum

The delicate flowers of the Welsh poppy, Meconopsis cambrica seem to find the most charming places to bloom too.

Meconopsis cambrica

The double orange poppy, Papaver rupifragum comes up everywhere.

Papaver rupifragum

Tellima grandiflora has spikes of small green bell shaped flowers and it comes up everywhere but it looks very elegant.

Tellima grandiflora

Yellow Archangel is very invasive too but quite useful for shady corners where not much else grows.

Lamium galobdolon

And of course, May sees the start of the aquilegias and if you start off with a few packet of seeds in different colours you are never without them.

Aquilegia vulgaris

Honesty runs around everywhere and is always welcome, especially in the white form, or better still the white variegated form. An added bonus is the number of orange tip butterflies it attracts.

Lunaria annua

White Lunaria annua

Lunaria annua ‘Alba variegata’

The starry white flowers of Star of Bethelehem, Ornithogalum umbellatum put themselves everywhere too and they can become an awful nuisance, but the flowers are very pretty.

Ornithogalum umbellatum

So my vase today is made up of these willing and sometimes over -enthusiastic volunteers in the garden.

Cathy at Rambling in the Garden hosts our Monday meme and today she is sultry and sophisticated. Do go and see.

International Dawn Chorus Day.

The first Sunday in May is Dawn Chorus Day. This celebration  was started in the 1980s by the naturalist, Chris Baines.  I still have his influential book, How to Make a Wildlife Garden.  The first dawn chorus party was a 4 a.m. gathering to celebrate his birthday. Now it is an international event celebrated all round the world. So this morning, I got out of bed at 4.40 a.m to go into the garden and have a party with the birds. The first thing I noticed was how loud it is. Lying in bed listening to it is just not the same as being out in the middle of it. Standing in the garden surrounded by a glorious symphony of sound on every side was a wonderful experience. It was cold standing out there in my nothings and there was a heavy dew, but it was amazing. I’ve never done it before and I’ll probably never do it again as I’m not an early riser, but I am glad I experienced it. Now I need to learn how to identify the different songs. Maybe you can help identify them. I hope you enjoy the recording I made. If you can get out of your nice, warm bed one morning soon, I can recommend it as an unforgettable experience. And I would love to hear which  birds are singing in your garden.

 

In a Vase on Monday. We’ll Gather Lilacs in the Spring Again.

‘There were few houses that did not contain in their gardens… lilac bushes…And so it came about that, all through the month of May, each small house found itself dowered with an expected magnificence, a whole, silent household staff of young lilacs gathered about the door and filling the interior with sweet air and fragrant smells, a staff which could have been supplied in an Eastern fairy-tale only by a  fairy gifted with poetical powers’. Proust.

Syringa vulgaris

The scent of the lilac wafts all over the garden, so at some point each day I am stirred by Proustian moments of childhood memories. Their flowering time is so brief and so evocative of bygone times. It makes me think of Edwardian ladies with parasols. I love to cut armfuls to enjoy in the house. If you are superstitious you might believe it is unlucky to bring it into the house, but I am not, so I do it, and always have done. I think that once it was believed that the lilac belonged to the fairies and then the Victorians associated them with death.  Anyway, I am defying the fairies today and enjoying this lovely vase full of gorgeous frothy blooms.

Some years ago, in another life I had a lovely German mother-in-law who claimed that when the lilacs are in bloom then everybody suffered from ‘Frühlingsmüdigkeit‘ or spring tiredness. I don’t know whether this strange condition afflicts just German people or if it is more widespread than that. Fortunately, we don’t get it here and it is just as well because like you, I am having to spend an enormous amount of time on cleaning my shopping and washing everything in the house. And this week is National Gardening Week so of course I have to celebrate that by working in the garden. But of course, just like you, my dear blogging friends, I don’t need a special week for that, I do it anyway when I can spare time from washing my hands or my light switches and door knobs.

Cathy from Rambling in the Garden hosts this Monday meme and today she has a bit of glitz and glamour, so perhaps she is in a party mood. Lilac always makes me  feel nostalgic and this year I am nostalgic for a time when I could hug my family and friends – and be a domestic slob.

 

Top Ten April Blooms.

Top Ten Bloom Day falls on St. George’s Day this year. Why somebody who was born in Turkey should be the patron saint of England has always baffled me, even if he was a handy man to have around if you had dragons  to be slain, or ‘worms’ as our ancestors called them. I know the early crusaders adopted him and had a red cross on their tunics in his memory as they embarked on their murderous campaigns, but nowadays this dark part of our history is not one that should be celebrated. I think we should reinstate St. Edmund who was King Of East Anglia and our patron saint for 300 years. He was beheaded by those dastardly Danes led by Ivor the Boneless and his head was thrown into the forest. But a talking wolf magically led his searchers to the head, saying ‘hic, hic, hic.’ I think that is a much more impressive trick than slaying worms.

And what has this to do with my top ten April blooms you might ask? Sorry, nothing at all.  Really, it is impossible to pick out just ten blooms for this month when every day brings new delights. April is blossom time and apple, cherry and quince are all looking fabulous but crab apples are my favourites because not only do you get blossom now but you get decorative fruit in autumn. My biggest  one was here when we arrived, it is Malus ‘Golden Hornet’ and it is huge and full of bloom. It looks splendid sitting next to the glorious Acer ‘Brilliantissimum’

My favourite is one I grew from a seed of Malus transitoria. As far as I can see it has come true from seed and it has the daintiest blossom followed by small yellow fruit that look like little beads.

Malus transitoria seedling

My newest crab apple is planted in the large area of garden rescued last year from an ever encroaching hedgerow. I have planted trees and shrubs here and put down a weed membrane and wood chippings. I can’t ask the Pianist to play dodgems with all the trees on his lawn mower, it would be carnage so although a primavera  meadow would be nice I can’t have one. The tree is Malus ”Wedding Bouquet’ which has lovely pink buds opening to creamy white  blossom followed by red fruit.

Malus ‘Wedding Bouquet’

The first rose to bloom in my garden is the primrose- yellow, single ‘Canary Bird’ and it is a welcome sight as it sits in a froth of blue forgetmenot. It is an old bush and was here when we came.

Rosa ‘Canary Bird’

Rosa ‘Canary Bird’ with apple blossom.

I have planted another early flowering yellow rose which is more of a buttercup yellow. It is called Rosa ecae ”Helen Knight. It has lovely ferny foliage.

Rosa ecae ‘Helen Knight’

I have talked about my love of magnolias on this blog and I have three April blooming ones which are much appreciated, specially as they usually miss the frosts which can ruin March -blooming ones. Magnolia lilifora is a dark pink one and I am pleased with this one because it is one I propagated myself by layering the tree in my old garden.

Magnolia liliflora

Magnolia ‘Susan’is one of the ‘Little Girl’ series created by crossing Magnolia liliflora with Magnolia stellata. They all have girls’ names and they are all lovely. Susan is four years old and she is only just starting to get lots of blooms.

Magnolia ‘Susan’

I also love the primrose yellow one called ‘Elizabeth’ and this year it is blooming quite well.

Magnolia ‘Elizabeth’

The prettiest white-flowered shrub at the moment is Exochorda x macrantha ‘The Bride’ which is sometimes called the Pearl Bush. It has a nice weeping habit and is smothered in pure white blooms.

Exochorda x macrantha ‘The Bride’

I love anything fragrant and the scent of Genista spachiana from the Canary Islands is fantastic. I kept it in the greenhouse for a couple of years because I wasn’t sure how hardy it is. But it came through outside this year with no die- back at all.

Genista spachiana

Nearby I have the lovely lilac-flowered  mallow, Abutilon suntense. I think it can be short -lived but it is easy from cuttings or seed.

Abutilon x suntense

And now for some smaller treasures, earlier in the month I would have been writing about erythroniums, epimediums and and anemones. But we still have gorgeous trilliums. This is a clump of Trillium grandiflorum that I have had for years and it gets bigger and better every year.

Trillium grandiflorum

Another treasure which spreads is the double form of the Bloodroot, Sanguinaria canadensis f. multiplex ‘Plena’ which is a bit of a mouthful for such a pretty little plant.

Sanguinaria canadensis f. multiplex ‘Plena’

I like to show at least one climber in my monthly top bloom round up and this month it will be the chocolate vine, Akebia quinata. I believe this has become a noxious weed in many parts of the States, but not here in the UK, although it does need a large area to scramble on it. It is supposed to smell of chocolate but I can’t detect it but it is a pretty and unusual flower.

Akebia quinata

and I also have a cream form.

Akebia quinata ‘Cream Form’

I will finish with an orchid as orchids always thrill me and this is the first time this has bloomed for me. It is a Lady’s Slipper Orchid, called Cypripedium ‘Lucas’.

Cypripedium ‘Lucas’

I am sorry to have left so many beauties out this month, I did try to make a video today because the garden is looking so beautiful. But when I sat and watched it I felt sick for an hour so my video-making skills need a bit of work. Please join me and show some of your favourite April blooms.

In a Pot on Monday. Tulip Time.

I couldn’t bring myself to cut my tulips for a vase so I have adapted Cathy‘s Monday meme to be in a pot instead of a vase. I planted  sunset colours in pots, I wanted them all in one big pot but I didn’t have one big enough. They are all sitting on a table outside my window and I have enjoyed watching them come into bloom. There are still plenty of buds to open.

These are the tulips I used. ‘Jimmy’ ‘Cairo’, the delicious ‘Brown Sugar’ which I first saw on my friend Christina’s blog a few years ago. ‘Jaap Groot’ is lemon edged with ivory. The two double ones are ‘Sun Lover’ and the delicate peachy tulip ‘Charming Lady’.

Tulip Sun Lover’

Tulip ‘Charming Lady’

Tulip ‘Jimmy’

‘Brown Sugar’ with ‘Cairo’ and ‘Jimmy’

Tulip ‘Brown Sugar’

Tulip ‘Jaap Groot’

In another pot I have a viridiflora called tulip ‘flaming Spring Green’ which would probably be lovely in a vase if I could bear to pick it.

Tulip ‘Flaming Spring Green’

Well now I have rather adapted the rules of the meme to have flowers on pots instead of arranged in a vase I might as well take you down the garden to look at some tulips planted in the ground because they are looking stunning right now.

Still in the sunset shades we have Tulip ‘Daydream’ which looks lovely with the striking Tulip ‘Abu Hassan’ which is deep red with a yellow edge.

Tulip ‘Daydream’

Tulip ‘Abu Hassan’

And if its pinks you like then how about lovely soft pink Tulip ‘Gabriella’?

Tulip ‘Gabriella’

Or the gorgeous fringed Tulip ‘Gorilla’?

Tulip ‘Gorilla’

Or for a really luscious tulip which looks as if it should be served up with raspberries for dessert Tulip ‘Hemisphere’ is stunning.

Tulip ‘Hemisphere’

‘National Velvet’ is a gleaming maroon red .

Tulip ‘National Velvet’

The trouble with tulips is they have no staying power and after a year or two they dwindle away. I have found  the lily -flowered Tulip ‘West Point’  stays around for a few years.

Tulip ‘West Point’

But the most persistent  in my garden is one that was here when I came and it has  spread all round. It is a large yellow Darwin called ‘Golden Apeldoorn’  and it  looks lovely with brunnera and forgetmenots.

Tulip ‘Golden Apeldoorn’

The flowers  are black inside.

Tulip ‘Golden Apeldoorn’

I have lots of red Darwins  which increase happily too.

Thank you Cathy at Rambling in the Garden for hosting In a Vase On Monday. I am sorry I cheated a bit today and there is no sign of a vase. I do have vases in the house full of Spanish bluebells but my tulips are much more exciting.

In a Vase on Monday. Easter Eggs.

What a funny Easter- no chocolate Easter eggs, no hot cross buns, no Simnel cake and worst of all, no family lunch. But what fantastic weather we have had and a wonderful day in the garden yesterday. And here in the Blooming Garden a once in a life time event; The Pianist planted a tree. He planted it it in its pot but once we got over that little problem and I explained that the hole had to be big enough to accommodate all the roots and it really wouldn’t do if half the root ball was sticking up out of the hole, it was plain sailing all the way. And I am very grateful because the whole of this part of the garden where my new trees are going is full of roots from the old hedge line, so it wasn’t an easy task. And the Pianist is averse to physical labour and anything to do with spades, so bless him. And then we spent the afternoon reading in the garden which is a lovely way to spend Easter Sunday.

But today it is cold so I have brought a few special Easter flowers into the house. I have a French porcelain Easter egg to display them in so no calories are involved in this arrangement.

I used bluebells and for scent there are dark red  wallflowers, Skimmia x confusa ‘Kew Green’ and some little narcissi.

Erysimum cheiri ‘Blood Red’, Skimmia ‘Kew Green’ and Narcissus ‘Pipit’

I love the tiny narcissi that bloom after all the others, three particular favourites are the highly fragrant jonquils  ‘Bell Song’ with a peachy trumpet, ‘Segovia’ and yellow and white ‘Pipit’ which has three or four flowers on each stalk. They are all irresistible.

Narcissus Segovia‘ Narcissus ‘Pipit ‘ and Narcissus ‘BellSong’

Look how cute ‘ Segovia’ is with its white petals and neat flat cups inside.

Narcissus ‘Segovia’

I have quite a few Pasque flowers in different colours, this is a ruby coloured one.

Pulsatilla vulgaris with tulip.

The erythroniums are in flower now, ‘Pagoda’ is the most common one and the easiest to grow, it clumps up quickly.

Other flowers include a  tulip, cowslips, pulmonaria, a white snakes head fritillary, the perennial wallflower Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’ and a bit of the chocolate vine chocolate vine, Akebia quinata.

And I found two Eater Eggs, one is agate and the other one is amethyst, we can’t eat them but they are quite pretty.

And not only do we have flowers and inedible Easter eggs, but the Pianist has made a delicious carrot cake. That should go down very well with a nice glass of Sauternes.

Thank you Cathy at Rambling in the Garden for encouraging us to keep on picking flowers for the house to bring some normality into our lives as we try to adjust to these strange and worrying times. Cathy has tulips today and what a cheering sight they are.

Once in a Pink Moon.

Last night the pink super moon was such a wonderful sight that I had to run outside to get a shot of it.

Super moon

The pink moon is supposed to represent rebirth and renewal and the pink flowers that bloom in the spring.  So I celebrate it today with my beautiful dark pink crab apple Malus ‘Princeton Cardinal’ which is a stunning sight right now.

Malus ‘Princeton Cardinal’

And I have a good reason to be in the pink today because at last my path through the winter garden is finished. It looked like this in the autumn and throughout the winter it was a bog.

But one of the advantages of being locked up is that you can get things done and now at last it is finished. Yippee! Come and look.

And looking back.

So now I have to get on with the other big project; it is coming on but there is a lot more to be done before I can plant my maids in waiting.

We are having such glorious weather at the moment that having to stay in the garden is a delight. Even when everything outside is grim it is wonderful to escape from the news and spend time with just the birds and butterflies for company.

In a Vase on Monday. Primroses.

Out on our daily hour of exercise we are enjoying the banks of primroses lining the lanes round us.

I wasn’t the only one admiring these beauties, matching Brimstone butterflies were enjoying them too.

I love primroses so much that I have them everywhere in the garden in every colour imaginable and they seed around and hybridise. I wrote about them here so instead of repeating myself I will show you my little primrose dish.

I filled it with a selection of primroses from round the garden. Not only do they look pretty but they are delicately perfumed.

A girl can never have too many primroses, here are  just a few of the many which are looking gorgeous  right now.

Many thanks to Cathy at Rambling in the Garden for encouraging us to join in her meme of In a Vase on Monday. Looking round the garden for flowers for a vase is a lovely thing to do on a beautiful spring day and having a vase on Monday helps to anchor us into the week at a weird point in history when every day seems the same and we can quite easily become adrift from the calendar.

Six on Saturday. True Blue.

If you think about it, true blue flowers are quite rare, the flowers listed by nursery men as blue are very often shades of mauve or purple. In fact there is no blue pigment in the plant world and colours that appear blue to us are actually permutations of violet or purple. To make flowers appear blue, plants carry out some sort of biochemical magic using red pigments called anthocyanins. I have read the science but I can’t get my head round it, it is magic to me. Blue flowers are universally appealing, as long as they are naturally blue and not the hideous dyed carnations and even orchids that you sometimes see for sale in supermarkets. The perpetrators of this crime against plants need locking up.

The blue flowers of spring are particularly magical. Years ago I sorted out the confusion in my mind about the names of the most gorgeous early-spring blue flowers; the little bells of Scilla lucilliae  and the starry flowers of Chionodoxa forbesii by reminding myself that chionodoxas don’t hang their heads, but have their chins up; I know it’s not quite chin, but if you slur ‘chion’ a bit it sounds like it. Chionodoxa is a lovely Greek word meaning the ‘Glory of the Snow’ which is a bit misleading as here they are blooming away now and we don’t usually get snow in April.  Anyway no matter where they point their chins the arrangement of their anthers and filaments are quite different if you look at them closely.

Scilla lucilliae

Chionodoxa forbesii

But now after getting my head round the differences I find that chionodoxas have been subsumed into the Scilla group anyway. But this is handy when doing Six on Saturday as I can count these as one and still have five more blue flowers to write about. But first, I am going to cheat a bit and show you how Chionodoxa forbesii comes in a pretty shade of pink too.

Chionodoxa forbesii ‘Pink Giant’

I love the pretty, starry flowers of the Turkish Squill, Scilla bithynica. They are produced in pyramidal racemes of starry flowers.

Scilla bithynica

Still on the theme of sky blue flowers I have creeping carpets of Omphalodes cappadocica ‘Starry Eyes’. If this name is a bit of a mouthful for you, its common name is ‘Navelwort’ but I have no truck with common flower names, specially ones as ugly as that. This plant does best in dappled shade.

Omphalodes cappadocica ‘Starry eyes’

The flowers of Omphalodes look rather like Forgetmenots as do those of Brunnera macrophylla. There are several variegated varieties of this and I started off with ‘Jack Frost’, Looking Glass’ and several others. They have all seeded around now so they are quite varied.

Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost.

Grape Hyacinths spread around everywhere too and can become a nuisance but there are some very refined ones which stay in nice clumps without getting everywhere.

Muscari armeniacum spreading happily in a corner of a spring bed.

Muscari armeniacum ‘Mountain Lady’ is a much smarter and quite new variety with bicolour flowers.

Muscari armeniacum ‘Mountain Lady’

I have a lovely powder blue one which Jenny Robinson found in Cyprus. It is called Muscari latifolium ‘Jenny Robinson’, but to confuse matters it is sometimes called ‘Baby’s Breath’. To confuse matters even more it is very similar to Muscari ‘Valerie Finnis’. The only difference I can see is that Jenny has slightly broader, tidier leaves.

Muscari neglectum ‘Jenny Robinson’

I am going to include Bellevalia  pycnantha in with my Muscari because it looks just like it and in fact it used to be called Muscari paradoxum. It is very dark and sophisticated.

Bellevalia pycnantha

 

I love daisy flowers and the sky blue Anemone blanda  is wonderful for naturalising and spreads around into great pools.

Anemone blanda

Veronica peduncularis is a mat-forming herbaceous plant that gets better each year as it spreads into a large pancake bearing cobalt blue flowers in spring. I grow mine next to the buttercup -yellow Euphorbia polychroma.

Veronica peduncularis

So that’s it. As I am linking in with the Propagator’s popular Meme ‘Six on Saturday’   I have to limit my blues to just 6 species.  Except I will bend the rules just a little by putting a few more April blues in a collage;  they are all so lovely it is difficult to leave anything out. Today is glorious and in these troubling times we gardeners are lucky to be able to get out into our gardens and enjoy an abundance of wonderful spring flowers. Do see what all the other keen Six on Saturday fans are up to at the moment.

Hyacinth

Pulmonaria angustifolia

Mysotis

Primula

Pulmonaaaaaaria

Primu;a

Ipheion uniflorum