This month I am joining in with Helen’s meme at the Patientgardener blog.
I will start with the front garden.
I am enjoying this little, dark purple Iris pumila ‘Cherry Garden’ at the moment.
I also love Iris pumila ‘Green Spot’.
The tulips in the front garden are ‘Queen of the Night’ growing in front of Rue.
I can’t resist fringed tulips, this is ‘Curly Sue’ growing in front of a golden Philadelphus.
I can’t remember which this one is, can anyone help me identify it?
By the front door this Camassia leichtlinii looks good with Euphorbia palustris.
There are two shrubs in the front garden which are looking particularly great this month. One of them is: Abutilon x suntense ‘Violetta’ .
The other is Ribes speciosum which is a member of the gooseberry family with prickles and shiny leaves. The bright red Fuschia-like flowers which grow along the underside of the stems remind me of dangly ear rings. This shrub looks good trained against a south-facing wall and it benefits from the extra protection a wall provides.
In the back garden the apple blossom is at its best. I am afraid I have Spanish bluebells all over the garden. I have tried to get rid of them but they are impossible to eradicate. I hope my garden is at a safe enough distance from the bluebell woods for there to be no risk of them hybridising and putting our lovely native bluebells at risk.
My long awaited Paeonia rockii buds have still not opened but by the spider gate is this big blowsy pink tree peony.
Rosa ‘Canary Bird’ is still going strong. Yellow welsh poppies have put themselves underneath her and echo the colour and shape of the flowers.
By my little pond the Acer is in lovely new leaf.
It is a perfect match for this Primula and the orange Geum. The fern behind is the Royal fern: Osmunda regalis.
Another Geum enjoying the bog garden is Geum ‘Lemon Drops’.
By the big pond further down the garden there are nice fat Hostas coming into leaf.
In the damp soil near this pond are some lovely deep pink primulas.
It is a wonderful time of the year with all the foliage so fresh and new and more and more favourite flowers opening every day. The sun has been shining today and it has been quite warm; a wonderful end to a beautiful month.
Somebody else was enjoying the sun today. He was a welcome visitor as I haven’t seen any frogs here for a long time. I hope he will stay.
Do go and see what other bloggers are writing about in their end of the month posts.
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Chloris
The Blooming Garden 
That dark purple Iris is lovely. I bought a similar one last year, but it didn’t return this year. It basically faded away right after I planted it, maybe because I didn’t water it enough. Your garden looks great! I just bought some Geums for the first time, I like them.
I love these little Irises , I have found Cherry Garden to be quite reliable and a fast spreader. A bit of bonemeal in the spring and they are away. I never bothered much with Geums until a year or two ago but now I love them.
Amazing! Your borders are so jam packed full of wonderful plants. I love your colour combos too, especially the “Queen of the Night” with the rue. Loving geums at the moment – must get more! Sorry can’t help with your pink, fringed tulip. Pleased to see your visitor! I do hope he/she stays. We have always been lucky in having frogs in the garden, even without much in the way of water. I’d really miss them if they weren’t there. They’re like our pets!
Queen of the Night is one of my favourite tulips.
You are lucky to have frogs, I have lots of newts but this is the first frog I have seen for a long time.
The Ribes speciosum is wonderful. I have never seen one like that before. Like thelonggardenpath I am a big fan of the Queen of the Night tulip. I used to grow it when I lived in the Pacific Northwest and miss it. Hello to the frog *waves*
Ribes speciosum is native to California I believe. You don’t see it very often, I don’ t know why. Everyone who sees it thinks that it is a Fuschia.
It’s all beautiful! I love those frilly tulips – afraid I can’t help with the name though. I have got a parrot tulip very similar to your Curly Sue, but it’s a bit redder.
It is so nice to observe wildlife in the garden, so I hope Froggy sticks around for you! 😀
I cannot resist frilly tulips. I also have a pale lemon one which is gorgeous. I hope the frog will stay. He seemed to like it on that lily pad, he stayed there all afternoon.
So many beautiful plants! I especially love the Ribes speciosum and the primula planted with the geum.
It is a pretty coloured Primula. I think that it is Primula pulverulenta.
Your garden is indeed looking wonderfully, all terrific flower & foliage combinations. Unfortunately I am away from my own garden for a few weeks now. This year I have a similar Camassia/ Euphorbia paulstris combo which I haven’t yet seen. I hope it looks as well as yours. My garden seems to be at least 3 weeks behind yours, so hopefully they will be just coming out. I wonder do you find T. ‘Queen of the Night’ comes back well annually? I find T. ‘Ballerina’ long lived in the ground – so far! They combine well I think. I am a recent reader & look forward to your posts.
Hello Meriel, welcome to my blog and thank your for your kind comment. This Camassia leichtlinii is still in bloom, it is later than Camassia cusickii which I have in the back garden. None of them last very long which is a pity, they are so beautiful. What part of the world are you from?
I do grow more Queen of the Night each year, they don’t come back very strongly.I love Ballerina, I recently saw it growing with Queen of the Night, Curly Sue and Marriette. A stunning combination that I shall try next year.
Beautiful Chloris, especially that first pic. A perfect cottage garden!
Thank you Jessica.The front garden is mainly a summer garden and is just getting going.
What a pretty front border you have. ‘Queen of the Night’ growing in front of Rue makes a great pair.
Thank you, Susie. Queen of the Night is a great favourite.
Oh my..I have been down and under with the flu the past week + I can hardly believe what you have growing!!!! We are still early spring and A LOT of rain with high winds. It is cold still and spring is not coming. I just started checking out blogs I have missed reading this week + OH MY!!!! Your garden is just stunning, and so magical. Just a gem + great photos. I don’t have as much space as you,but you sure use it wisely to pick the best of the bests! My hat is off to you:-)
Sorry to hear that you have been ill, Robbie. What a dreadful spring you have had there. Perhaps spring is cancelled this year and you will go straight into summer. Thank you for your kind words about my garden.
It is still 40 degrees during the day + dipping in the upper 30’s some nights. The trees are having a hard time getting started + all this rain is making it a mess out there. It is so nice to stop by your garden and see such lovely flowers, and Oh how I wish one could press a button on our computer, and it would “puff” fragrance from your garden!!! Oh wouldn’t that be grand:-)
Everything looks beautiful, Chloris! I wish I could grow half of what you’ve shown here. I’m even envious of the frog – I haven’t seen one of those in my own garden here ever. I have more than my fair share of lizards, though…
Thank you Kris. But you grow lots of gorgeous plants in your garden which I am envious of. How lovely to have lizards in the garden.
I believe it would take me hours to work my way through your garden, there are so many treasures laying around in the beds. I love the longer views, it really does give a feel for the garden, but the closeups make me want to try all kinds of new plants. Beautiful.
Thank you Frank. We are further on in our spring than you, in fact our gardens are moving into summer now. But you will catch up soon. I love the flowers which bloom at this time of the year, they are my favourites.
Beautiful photos of a beautiful garden, the long views say such a lot about how you combine your plants. You seem to be ahead of us in Devon, Hostas are only just showing their noses and I’m waiting impatiently for my first primula, it won’t be long though.
Thank you Pauline. I am surprised that we are ahead of you, I always thought that Devon was far ahead of Suffolk. But we have had some lovely warm weather bringing everything along fast.
I really enjoyed this post. I especially loved the front garden photograph – it is just how a garden should look. I am hard pushed to say which of your other plants are my favourites as there are so many. You really have a wonderful garden. I too am getting a real problem with bluebells. They used to be just at the back of the main border which I didn’t mind, but they are now spreading everywhere. I don’t mind the blue ones, but I am getting more and more yucky pink ones. And, as you say, you can’t get rid of them, the more you try to dig them up the more they spread.
Thank you Annette. The bluebells are a nuisance but they are pretty. If we had never seen the lovely native ones we would think that they were wonderful. And as you say the trouble is that they spread.
Your garden looks wonderful Chloris, I love this time of year and especially after all the winter rains there is so much early lush growth, you are further ahead of me though, lots of buds on Irises but no flowers yet. The Ribes is interesting does that smell? I had not realised there were Geums suitable for bog gardens, Lemon drops looks a really lovely plant, nice with the Euphorbia too.
These dwarf Iris pumila flower before the big ones.
To tell the truth I am not sure whether Ribes speciosum is fragrant. I have never noticed that it is. I’d go and sniff it now but it is raining. It does have gooseberry- like fruit, but not here, because it is pollinated by humming birds.
Geums like a moist ground. Lemon drops was a chance seedling in Beth Chatto’s garden.
I always enjoy a nose around your garden as you are so good at combining plants. I do like the white and green iris so pretty. Thank you for joining in with the meme
Thank you Helen and thank you for hosting the meme. It is nice to look around at the end of each month and see what is happening in your own and other peoples’ gardens.
I love the little Iris pumila. Green spot is a great favourite. I am also fond of one I forgot to show called Hocus Pocus which is a very unusual colour.
A enjoyable post with wonderful photos. No real favourites as I like them all.
Good to see a frog, and I hope that it’s a resident. xx
Thank you Flighty. I do hope the frog will decide to stay. I need a few frogs to help me with the terrible slug problem this year.
Oh how lovely to see all these different residents of your garden, Chloris – I thoroughly enjoyed having a good look round with you. Is ‘Lemon Drops’ a G rivale? I wonder if your tulip is ‘Blue Heron’? I have a single one left from some I had from PN a few years ago and I was admiring mine only yesterday and thinking I would order more but they are not in the most recent catalogue 😦
Blue Heron! That’s it! Thank you Cathy. It was really annoying me that I couldn’t think of the name.
I think the Geum is Geum rivale. It appeared as a chance seedling in Beth Chatto’s garden and that is where I bought it.
And it is still in the PN catalogue, first in the list of fringed tulips and overlooked the first time I looked
Packed full of loveliness!
Thanks, Gill. It’s giving me a lot of pleasure at the moment.
Looking good! I really ilke your Abutilon and Camassia, but most of all I wish I could have your frog!
Thanks Jason. I’ m not sure if he is ‘my’ frog or just visiting.
I hope you are fully recovered now.
Chloris, what can I say – stunning!! I’ve scrolled up and down several times and each time I fall for something else! My favourite just has to be the Acer, Primula and Geum – what a marvellous combo. Do you happen to know the name of the Primula – it’s a very nice colour, sort of inbetween Miller’s Crimson and Apple Blossom.
Your garden is amazing this spring – a real credit to your hard work, I’m sure.
Thank you Angie. I’ m not entirely sure about the Primula, I’ve done my usual trick of losing the label. But I think that it is Primula pulverulenta which comes in various shades.
Just lovely. You are so much further ahead than here in zone 3, it is nice to see actually flowers again!
What a lot you have flowering! Beats us in North Wales by about three weeks I think. The photo of your front garden is stunning. It makes me realise quite how much my garden is not a garden but a collection of areas carved out of hillside and field.
Thank you Elizabeth. I didn’t realise that we are so far ahead of you. We have had some lovely warm weather bringing everything on. The trouble is, it’ s all happening too fast. We need it to slow down a bit so that we can savour it.
Your garden looks lovely and what amazing views you have.
The dark purple tulips and rue look wonderful – I had never thought to grow rue! Sounds very Shakespearean…I always get ideas for new and lovely plants whenever I visit your blog. Oh for garden borders like these…My plants are currently being grazed by several happy families of rabbits, and my errant chickens (the fences are all down after lots of building work). Sigh!