Spring Has Sprung.

 

Easter may have been early this year but I don't think that Spring has been. It is only in the last couple of weeks that the daffodils and other spring flowers around the garden have been providing what might pass for a floral display. The winter months have been very mild albeit extremely wet. That leads me to the conclusion that length of daylight must be the most important determinative in the flowering of bulbs.

Most of my daffodils, even the minatures in the rockery, are traditional yellow ones. Mr Wordsworth would approve. Come Autumn time I think that I will invest in some white flowered varieties so as to provide some colour contrasts in the early months of 2017.

 

Seeing Red in the Garden

It is strange, well maybe not, how the predominant colour in the garden changes throughout the year. I suppose it might be to do with the insects available for pollination duties and their particular penchant. We start off with white coloured flowers then yellow, then blue and then we have the more strident colours, reds, purples and pinks.

The colour red is coming to the fore at the moment. At the head of the queue is the poppy. It is a pity that the petals start falling so quickly. Elsewhere in the garden the red hot pokers are coming to the fore. The flowers of the quince add to the red hues. Even in the fruit and veg end of the garden the colour red is becoming apparent. The runner beans are just coming into flower and of course the indoor strawberries have their own luscious tincture of red.

 

 

 

 

Glenarm Tulip Festival 2015

This weekend saw Glenarm Castle host its ninth annual Tulip festival. I haven't attended this event every year since its inception, but if athletics don't take me out of the jurisdiction over the May bank holiday weekend I do tend to paddle along to see what new varieties and colours are on display.

Each year the borders in the walled garden are planted with in excess of eight thousand five hundred bulbs, all supplied by, "Bloms." Last week's frosts didn't seem to have had any detrimental affect on the displays. The tulips stood rigidly to attention. Each variety had at least one hundred specimens grouped together so that one could truly appreciate their colour and form. I do think that the tulip is one of those flowers which needs numbers and it looks much better in formal borders and beds with straight lines. The amateur gardener, self included, tends not to plant tulips in large enough blocks. The impact of this bulb comes with numbers and subtle or even not so subtle juxtaposition of colour and form.

As usual there were representatives of, "Bloms," in attendance hoping to persuade viewers to place orders for their own 2016 display.

 

 

 

 

 

Springtime for Daffodils, (and other bulbs).

Springtime is definitely here. The perennials in the herbaceous borders are budding up or beginning to poke above ground level. There is even a little warmth in the noonday sun and the daffodils are eager to get into the act.

Daffodils can I think be just a bit brash, particularly the tall yellow only varieties. I much prefer miniature daffodils. They provide a welcome burst of colour to a rockery and their height means that they are not prone to being broken or blown over by strong winds. Methinks that I will consult Mr Blom's autumn catalogue in due course and select a small white flowering specimen for planting in the rockery which surrounds the well.

 

 

 

Pink Primroses.

I have several pink flowering primroses around the garden. Folklore has it that the traditional yellow flowering primula vulgaris can be stimulated into producing pink flowers by planting in ground which is rich in cow manure. There does not appear to be any substantive scientific support for this. The likely explanation for the appearance of pink flowering plants is much more prosaic. What we are seeing are in all probability hybrid plants, a genetic amalgam of wild primroses and garden planted polyanthuses.

 

Snowdrop Garden Walk

Wordsworth's, 'host," may have been an appropriate descriptive word for swathes of daffodils on a Cumbrian hillside but what alliterative term would he have applied to the cool and delicate snowdrop if that had been the flower that drew his attention? To talk of a carpet of snowdrops may give some indication of the close proximity of the flourescences in established plantings but it ignores the delicate whiteness of each individual flower.

 

The first bulb of the year. A flower which reflects the snows and frosts which oft try to highlight the plant's naievity in daring to bring a little hope to the cold dark months. A subtle harbinger of spring.

 

Flowering Miss Daisy

Oxeye Daisy

 

Many gardeners regard the oxeye daisy as little more than a weed. Well maybe they are right, but if it is a weed it is quite a pretty weed and I don't mind the couple of clumps which have established themselves in the yard under the garden wall. The local bees and hover flies seem to like them as well.

 

Apparently the unopened flower buds can be marinated and used much like capers. Definitely a flower of the meadow. Do I really remember them among the stooks on my maternal grandfather's farm fifty years ago? That is the memory and I want it to be true. A flower of early summer. A flower of reminiscence and hazy and comforting memories of childhood.

 

Open Garden

 

Two consecutive days when the temperature has been above 68 degrees fahrenheit. That positively constitutes summer in Northern Ireland!

 

With training concluded and a few hours weeding in the vegetable garden clocked up I directed the trusty horseless carriage towards the vicinity of Magherafelt to inspect a garden which was opening to the public under the National Trust's Ulster Garden Scheme. The owners, were in attendance, responding to what were at times rather inane questions.

 

 

Their garden extends to just over an acre and is packed full of herbaceous plants. They must spend most of their days pruning, weeding, cutting grass and attending to their three hives of bees. Hopefully their health will enable them to enjoy their garden for many years hence, but they aren't young, not even middle aged. The male of the matrimonial duo reminded me of Fyfe Robertson in looks, although he lacked a bow tie (probably not a comparison which is understood by anyone who was born less than fifty five years ago). I don't imagine that the garden will be so expertly cultivated and maintained once they have passed on to the celestial garden. That must be somewhat sad for them.

 

 

Tulips in Glenarm

The walled garden at Glenarm Castle no longer fulfills its original task of providing all of the fruit and vegetables for the, "big house." There is now only a very modest kitchen garden as you enter the sheltering walls. The balance of the acreage has for the most part been laid out in lawns with large herbaceous borders. There is also a herb garden surrounded by yew hedging and an orchard area was planted out about four years ago.

 

For the last eight years the garden has hosted a tulip festival over the May Day bank holiday weekend. Last year I was absent in foreign climes at the time of the festival but as I was present in the old sod this year I decided to mosey along to Viscount Dunluce's pad and savour its horticultural delights anew.

 

Approximately eight thousand bulbs are planted each autumn. The bulbs are supplied by, "Bloms Bulbs," and a representative from that firm is always present to answer questions and of course take orders. It is I think the scale of the planting that creates the impact. With perhaps a hundred or more of each variety daring you not to be impressed with their vibrant colour. Maybe I will invest in a gross or a small gross of new bulbs this year.

 

I had thought the mild spring might have resulted in the show being past its best but there were only one or two varieties that had blown.

 

 

Apple Blossom and Bluebells

 

Last year's planting of apple trees are displaying their first flush of flowers. I might allow a few fruit to set but really I want them to put all of their energies into growing. With a year of settling in behind them I am hopeful that there will be a marked growth spurt this year but it might well be 2016 before I have anything approaching a supply of apples. Certainly the storage drawers which I bought some years ago will not be needed in the very near future.

 

Apple blossom is one of those events in the garden that presages summer. Another such event is when the bluebells lend their scent to the air and light up the dappled shade with their vibrant flowers. Unfortunately all of my bluebells are of the American variety but they still provide an impressive show in the spring garden. A reminder that summer is fast approaching.

 

Springtime

 

Clouds scudded across the sky chased by the March winds. A buzzard circled overhead playing with the air currents, its plaintiff cries silencing the songbirds below. Dried beech leaves chased each other across the lawns.

 

In the borders the daffodils danced in homage to their favourite poet. The pale yellow petals of a primrose caught the spring light. A day to savour, a day to work in contented solitude in the vegetable patch. A day to forget worries and concerns. A day to turn the soil and feel it friable, unclogged by winter.

 

 

 

Snowdrops Poking Through

 

It is strange how even a few days bring changes in the garden. A week ago the leaves of the snowdrops were clearly above ground, but there were no flowers in evidence. Today there is almost a drift of white. The flowers aren't fully out, but a week of mild weather should result in a veritable carpet. I don't know what particular varieties have been planted around the garden but even my limited knowledge of the world of the galanthophile can identify the presence of differing forms.

 

Winter Colour in the Garden

Iris Foetitissima

 

It really is surprising what colour you can have in the winter garden. Of course there is the vivid red of the holly berry and the purple hues of the ivy and come the end of January there will be the pristine white flowers of the early snowdrops, but other colours can brighten up the winter months.

I had a brief saunter around the garden this pm after my mornings training session. The orange of the iris berries cannot be missed, nor the pale pink of the vibernum flowers. The fragrance of the latter is something which will fill a warm room with its sweet flavours. The winter months should not be written off automatically.

 

Buddleia - The Butterfly Bush

It is rather easy to work out why the buddleia is referred to as the butterfly bush. I have one planted just outside the kitchen window and I have just counted over forty red admirals latched on to the dense panicles, sipping at the sweet nectar in the heat being reflected off the wall of the house.

 

Although there are quite a few cabbage white butterflies fluttering about the garden they don't appear to find the scent of the buddleia bush as seductive as the red admirals do. A pity really. If they did then I might not have the task of checking the underside of the leaves of the various brassicas in the vegetable patch for their rapacious caterpillars.

 

Gardening for Rabbits

 

There is a lot to be said in favour of miximitosis. Well perhaps not if you are a rabbit, but certainly if you are a gardener. Rabbits are a pest and for decades miximitosis kept these four legged locusts at bay. Now however these rapacious herbivores seem to have developed a resistance to what was the friend of the gardener and their numbers are climbing, - exponentially! That is I suppose what rabbits do. That and eat any tender shoots which their eyes, now undimned by miximitosis, fix upon.

 

A fortnight ago, perhaps slightly more, I planted several cosmos plants in the lower garden. They were doing well and the first flush of flowers was appearing. Now all that is left are skeletal stumps. Unfortunately I don't know any micro biologist who could be persuaded to release some deadly disease into the rabbit population. I do however know of two brothers who each have a shotgun. Their services will, I think, be called upon over the next few weeks. Death to all rabbits!

 

Scent of Summer

Graham Thomas - 14th July 2013

Roses grow on you so the stalwart of the British confectionary trade told us before it was subsumed, (or maybe that should read consumed), by its crafty competitor.

 

I can't say that I am a great friend of the rose bush. The rose seems to attract pests and diseases, blackspot, greenfly, whitefly, etcetera, etcetera. You have to prune them, deadhead them and feed them. A lot of work and they have the audacity to scratch you! Accordingly while there are a few rose bushes scattered throughout the garden I can't say that they receive a lot of attention. They survive despite of me rather than because of me.

 

For whatever reason this seems to be a year which has favoured the roses and they have come into flower just as the weather has decided that it should be summer. Their scent lingers in the evening air.

Iceberg - 14th July 2013

We'll gather lilacs in the spring again - or early summer

I purchased my copy of the Daily Telegraph on Saturday morning as usual. Also as usual it was Sunday before I had worked my way through the various sections. The gardening pages contained an article on lilacs, lauding their scent and their value to the flower arranger, though pointing out the need to remove foliage, sear the stem ends in boiling water, and then resting the stems in cold water in a cool and dark spot prior to arranging. All a bit of a palather me thinks.! It might just be easier to enjoy the tightly set flowers on the tree or bush.

I think that the specimen which adorns the flower bed surrounding the yard may need some enthusiastic pruning once flowering has finished, it looks fine from a distance but if I did wish to indulge in this much vaunted searing lark I might need to have recourse to a ladder or long handed loppers.

Summertime and the Livin is Easy

Deciduous Azalea

It was tempting to remain prone on the ancient deckchair, eyes barely open and viewing that wispy floater scud across my left eye as I became increasingly comfortable and increasingly woozy in the early summer sun. Temptation won. Warm windless days aren't so plentiful in the Northern Ireland summer that you can ignore them and expect tomorrow to be a reflection of today.

The discordant cackle of a magpie notched me closer to full consciousness. A sip of cool wine helped reverse me back to a comforting doze. A large bumblebee hovered in and out of view. A brace of swallows dive bombed the sleepy cat, coming out of the sun like two flying aces. The cat slept on. So did I.

Double Flowering Poppy

Deciduous Azalea