Six on Saturday - In the garden on a sunny Easter weekend

 Just a few days of sunshine, and the garden is coming alive, the effect of anticipating a delivery of plants by post is to get all the outstanding plants in pots planted out to their positions such as grasses Anemanthele lessoniana or Pheasants Tail, and the orchid Bletilla ochracea that had been growing in pots, as well as a few others.  I'm joining all the others under Garden Ruminations which is Jim's Blog and where you can find so much about his garden where he shares his knowledge and views of plants and his garden.

Now for six from a small suburban garden, which is far too small and therefore is crammed with plants, where unwanteds are quickly expelled, malingers not tolerated,  and chance visitors welcomed with open arms.

1. In the front garden the Amelanchier Trees are in full flower looking particularly good against the blue sky, and despite having been cut back so severely that expanses of twigs were left in several parts, the golden Lonicera blobs are leafing and shooting nicely. I removed some lonicera from further along and moved one to the other side of the drive by the Amelanchier tree there.

2.  Also by the corner of the house the clump of Tulipa clusiana Lady Jane is so far open you can hardly see her pink lipstick up the outside of each petal.

Just behind is a Perovskia shrub which has been cut right down, and looking along further where the blue grape hyacinth are in full flower, I have the idea that some transplanted and placed amongst the Perovskia, may work, so that the tulips are surrounded by blue.

3.  Last year at one of the plant sales I bought a couple of small pots of grasses, and I had expected to plant them up this spring.  Partly I wanted to wait to see whether the suspected celandine was a 'wild' one, or maybe it could just be a little beauty, as I could tell that the grass had just been dug up from a fellow HPS member's garden.  Yes it is a little double one, which I shall keep. After drafting this yesterday, the interloper was separated out, and each are planted into their 'first positions', which can be interpreted as they are likely to be moved if the position does not suit either the overall look of the garden or the plants themselves. 

Last spring at the Yeo Valley HPS plant fair I also fell for the first time for a 'garden celandine'. The one I brought home was Ficaria verna 'Collarette'.  I must have tipped the soil out into my Golden Yew and just spied this one. I shall move it back to join the rest of the gang.

In Somerset with its wet soils, fields and roadsides are golden with early spring flowers with celandines opening out in the sunshine.

The Lesser Celandine

There is a Flower, the Lesser Celandine,

That shrinks, like many more, from cold and rain;

And, the first moment that the sun may shine,

Bright as the sun himself, 'tis out again!

A paragraph from Shakespeare's sonnet.

4. No longer requiring 'the stones', The Mirabelle is in full flower, with buds waiting just in case the current flush are damaged by the frost.

5.  I was given a couple of 'handfuls' of Ipheion by a neighbour a few years back, but this clump is going to be lifted and probably placed around other parts of the garden or else offered to local gardening friends. It occupies a 'prime location' and other plants need to have this space.  As the beds 'grew' from the very first plantings, I find myself repositioning plants quite frequently.

6.  Another spring flower introduced to the garden last week is proving to be rather larger and more splendid than the ones I grew from corms planted last year, but as it is placed far enough from the others it does not necessarily outshine the others.

Anemone Blanda White Splendour

Any other business brought forward from last week:

Last week we had a peep at a super specimen  of Loropetalum chinense ‘Black Pearl.’ I said I would show mine on the comments, and here it is looking very sorry.  It is showing signs of shoots so I have cut back all the damaged foliage...we shall see if the plant recovers! The variety it is Loropetalum Fire Dance so this may be less frost tolerant, though it has survived previous ones. Into sickbag in a pot?

Enjoy the rest of the weekend, a long one in the UK. I am helping dish out teas and cakes at a Daffodil Society Exhibition tomorrow afternoon, and will be baking for this today. Someone has to make teas for people who really know loads about Narcissi. All I know is that the Narcissus fly has played havoc with mine.  The exhibition just happens to take place in Henton Hall where our gardening group meets, and each year our gardening group rally round to help exhibitors that come from far and wide.