Spring Garden Tour at Pine Tree Cottage

Hasn't mother nature given us here in the UK a lovely gift of a month of glorious weather?  More like June than April?  All I know is that lunch in the garden on a nearly daily basis at this time of year is unheard of, and  so with Mr Mac as an "at risk" prisoner (but a comfortable one!!) the garden is a delight this year.  So here is a selection of what's out currently.  Enjoy my garden, and stay safe all.

PS a few of these are sideways on.  Sometimes my computer  will not do what I want.......

Glorious white daffodil with palest cream trumpet.  No idea why, because the bulbs I put in here last year were def. yellow!

Ceanothus (Commonly called Californian Lilac - which it isn't!).  60+ variants, of which mine is one.  Spring flowering, likes my soil and smells lovely as you walk by.  From a little slip about 16 years ago, mine is now 15 foot high and 15 foot wide.  Gives shade for later flowering things when it's own flowers are over.

Miniature Iris (6 inches tall tops).  Miracle this was allowed to bloom because some birds like the taste of the  petals and eat them before they are fully open.  This year, no attacks at all and it was such a lovely surprise to see them.

Here they are en masse - lots of new babies so should have a really solid patch next year.

Euphorpia (Characias).  Love this lime green early in the year..... of course the green "flowers"  are not flowers at all but bracts, and so that lovely green colour hangs around for ages!  Easy to grow, cut down to about 4 inches at the end of summer and they will come again.  Wear gloves, as the sap sometimes causes a rash

Ah, now! The glory that is a tree peony.  I thought I had lost this for it disappeared for a couple of years only to spring up again this year, and forgave me (whatever I did) with four huge and gorgeous blooms.

Close-up of the biggest Peony flower, it got bigger than this and opened out flatter with yellow stamens within.

And this is huge clump of iris which started as 2 little clumps of leaves and one flower stem when I bought it from a nursery 4 years ago.  I will split it and move half somewhere else at the end of the  flowering period. There are about 50 flower stems on it, each giving several blooms (so probably about 200 all told)  and it's such a picture.

Here is the first bloom so that you can see the colour in full sun.  (Sorry, this is sideways)  Depending on the amount of sunshire, it may appear nearly black or dark brown.  It's gorgeous!

Finally in the tour, the first Clematis.  I only grow the texensis group as they are easy care and can be cut back in February to around 12 inches as they flower on new growth.  This one has a green flash (see the top two petals) .