The garden

Our new garden continues to surprise us.

Yesterday I was suddenly struck by the appearance of a flower, so dark it almost looked black. I had to go & have a look. It turned out to be an almost chocolate coloured clematis.

We seem to have gained various varieties of clematis & so different. On the main pergola a white one grows. It seems to be an early spring-flowering variety with small white flowers akin to the montana variety.  Those flowers are now nearly gone. On another upright of the pergola is another clematis that is almost over, only this one is even smaller & more wispy than flowery. That was even earlier flowering. Maybe we just had too many winds at the time for the flower to properly set.

As the year’s gone on a large mauve & white clematis opened up. It is now joined by a large pink & white one & this chocolate one. Even further up is another wispy one, more like a beard than a flower.

Way up the top end of the garden a foxglove stands so tall his head peers over the 5ft fence. Truly gorgeous. I love the markings on the inside of bell flowers.

What looked like a rather boring silver leaf plant suddenly opened into white bells. Nearby is another plant that is covered with pretty pink, rather papery looking flowers. The flowers only seem to last a day but there are so many buds that there is no shortage of pink.

The delphiniums, too, are opening up, white, navy & cobalt blue, as the lupins die down & turn to furry seed pods.

The roses are covered with white blooms that smell so sweet. They look quite beautifully shaped as buds but turn more cabbagy as they open out. I can forgive that for that wonderful scent.

The peonies are opening up, two deep red with bright yellow stamens, two pink ones. All are standing very erect, unusual for peonies as their blossoms almost seem to be too heavy for the stems to remain upright without staking.

The lavender is turning purple but that we expected. It was in flower when it was planted last summer. So many of these other plants had bloomed & lost their flowers before they were planted so we had no idea of what to expect. So many name tags either meant nothing to me or blew off during the winter months so this year has been one long wonderful surprise.

Some plants have seeded themselves so we have a huge red poppy in the midst of a group of hostas, some tiny violas with their smiley faces peeping out behind the astilbe.

We were also delighted last night to find the small birds have finally found the new bird feeding station. The collared doves & wood-pigeons found it immediately. The blackbirds too. But last night, as we waited for the dinner to cook, we saw the arrival of a flock of starlings & some house sparrows. We even had a jackdaw turn up & we haven’t seen one of those here for a long time if ever. Hopefully all will return in the coming days.

It’s been a real pleasure & delight seeing how the garden evolves over the year.