Wednesday 30 April 2014

Polgwynne Open Garden

This Sunday we wandered along to Polgwynne Garden in Feock near Truro, which was open as part of the National Garden Scheme. I visited last April and was interested to see how things had changed. There was a noticeable difference as this spring has been so much warmer than last, the Primroses were almost over this year, whilst last year they were at their height.

The water garden had a gorgeous rich pink story...

...perky Primulas...                                                 ...blousy Tulips...

           ...Phormiums (posing as rhubarb!)...                                   ...dark Aeoniums...

...and a beautiful dark red Acer, all creating a sumptuous tapestry with the lush, fresh green spring growth.

There were lots of beautiful Tulips, great blowsy, crumpled white ones...

...and starry, pointy ones streaked with green...

...and lots of other colours and forms.


The Apple blossom was much further on than mine and reminded me what I have to look forward to...


and there was the darkest pink Cherry blossom, with magenta flowers and coppery new leaves - I'd like one of those.



This was the frothiest, most blossom-loaded, bee-buzziest myrtle I've ever seen.


Beautiful dangling Cerinthe...

and erect, purply young cones.

But in no time at all the accompanying teen was heading up to the house to search out what she had really come for (plants are all very well but they don't do much apparently).



Indeed it was worth the wait, a perfect victoria sponge made particularly delicious by the homemade raspberry jam within (Amanda Piercy not only owns and maintains this lovely garden, she also bakes and makes jam!)

Whilst waiting for the consumption of said delicacy (I didn't get a look in) I looked down on the amazing Wisteria that covers the terrace wall. I missed it last year, it was in tight bud in April and was over by the June open day, seeing that was as good as cake (well almost!)





Friday 25 April 2014

Mrs B

Yesterday I lost one of my best friends to cancer.
She was the first designer I ever worked with when I left college over 25 years ago, and she taught me most of what I know about design and all that I know about professionalism and getting the job done. She was ultimately stylish, talented, funny, enthusiastic and loyal and I owe her so much.

In recent years we discovered a shared interest in gardening, and my favourite memory of her will be sitting on her roof terrace with a glass of wine and an amazing view of south London, whilst we dissect the contents of Grazia and she brings me up to date with the goings on on Corrie.



With her flamingos, coloured lights and retro bits and pieces, she adored pottering about tweaking this and that, whilst Mr B pottered in the garage downstairs.


Her terrace was filled with pots overflowing with plants, snippets of which she had gleaned from her parents garden, her travels and her friends, and although she may not have known what all of them were she managed to get them all to grow prolifically. Her terrace was a haven of calm and positivity with her at the centre, and a lovely warm welcome (and a delicious meal) was always guaranteed.


As one Mrs B to another, I miss you Mrs B, I wish I'd seen you more, said more and done more, and I wish I'd seen you waltz.

Thursday 24 April 2014

15 + 16 the list is blossoming!

My garden is dominated at the moment by blossom, so it makes sense to make no 15 in the 'Flowering in my garden' series the Ornamental Cherry. Dripping with frilly, marshmallow pink blooms, there is nothing subtle about my Cherry tree. It is frou-frou, over the top and positively kitsch!

The buds are bundles of tissue paper thin, crumpled petals...

...set against the new bronze green leaves...

...that open up into perfect pom-poms of ultimate pink-ness! 
The only down side is that it doesn't bear fruit - a crop of cherries come autumn would make it the perfect tree!

No 16 in the series has a more delicate blossom, it's my Williams Pear Tree. This is my rescue pear tree which bears delicious fruit and excelled itself last year, despite being it's first year of fruiting.

The lovely, delicate white blossom is decorated with black tipped stamens and golden centres...

...that remain after the petals have fallen (look, you can see my baby pears forming already)...

...together with the bright, fresh green leaves. This spring I have mulched my tree, removed any suckers coming from the base, and when the fruit has set I shall remove some so as not to overstress my little tree. I fully expect another delicious harvest come autumn, I'm very proud of my pear tree - a real surviver.

Now I'm waiting for my rescue Apple Tree to flower, it's still in tight bud at the moment on the cooler, shadier side of the garden so lags behind a little. 

The Apple Tree has had the same treatment as the Pear, neither have needed pruning this year - they are both small trees that had an unpromising start, but I shall trim them lightly next winter.

The only problem with blossom is that it is short lived, in fact the pink blizzard has already started!






Monday 21 April 2014

14 The Daffodil

It would be impossible to have a 'Flowering in my garden ' series, particularly at this time of year, without the Daffodil. I planted a whole new selection last autumn in my new bed so I had high hopes for this spring and they haven't been a disappointment (despite the slug onslaught!)


This is one of my favourites - Pipit, delicate in form and colour. The centre fades to almost pure white both front and back, and the scent is glorious. I have some in pots in the back garden and now some in the front in the my new bed. It's a later variety but it's in full flower in my pots and the new bed has been for a couple of weeks. It has been very free flowering and has multiple blooms on each stalk, and has benefited from flowering after I had got to grips with the slugs (sort of!)



This tiny daffodil has even stronger scent and outguns many larger and showier blooms, which makes it perfect for my pots by the back door. I have no idea what it is, I planted it a few years ago and it has never flowered as well as this year, so I didn't bother remembering its name. I wish I had now - I'd love some more!





This is another of my new daffodils - Jack Snipe - which was lovely, small and perfectly formed, and early flowering so largely flowered before the slugs had marshalled their attack!


This one was particularly popular with the slugs - Martinette. I have quite a lot of tall graceful stems with chewed yellow blobs on top that don't look anything like daffodils. Thankfully they have flowered profusely and I've managed to keep the blighters off some of the blooms as you can see and very lovely they are too!


This is tiny Tete-a-tete, always the first of the season and always so welcome at the end of the winter.



These two are established daffodils that I planted when we first moved to this house and were chosen mainly for the fact that they came in large bags and were probably on special offer! However they have done very well and I wouldn't be without them.

Which just leaves my new 'Cheerfulness' which should be flowering by now. I have just a couple of ragged flowers so I'm really hoping that they didn't get munched and I missed most of them. Perhaps all those non-daffodils weren't all Martinette! - I HATE SLUGS! 

But maybe Cheerfulness will win through and defy the slimy hoards - I can live in hope!

Sunday 20 April 2014

Happy Easter Tulips

On this glorious Easter Day (well it was glorious earlier on) I thought I would share my bonkers, bright Tulip 'Flaming Parrot'.
I planted this as a reminder of my amazing trip to Florence with my lovely Mum last spring.
This is is what we saw in Florence... 


...and here is the tulip in my garden...

...not bad for a first attempt!


They started as frilly green buds and gradually got frillier and more colourful...


...until they exploded!


So a vibrant and explosive success story to celebrate Easter Day.


Although I have to admit when I checked them this morning there appeared to be a few petals missing. 
SOMETHING IS EATING MY EASTER TULIPS - IS NOTHING SACRED!