Friday 8 April 2011

Flaunt your flowers!


It’s fertilizer Friday, and it's time to flaunt your flowers. The sun shone bright and almost a little too warm today. I struggled to spend much more than 10 minutes outside at a time from around 12pm until 4. Tomorrow is supposed to be another warm day, it’s all making it very difficult for me to get any work done. I planned to have an essay done per week… We’ll see how that goes! I need to write up what I’ve done, see what the word count is and then somehow create an argument… Eeek.

Anyway, the blooms and sun enticed me out, I managed to plant a few things early morning: Aruncus, Primrose and Hellebore. I need to move the Clematis in the Cherry border and then add the last plants to the space.

I learned today that it’s the start of the school Easter Holidays, where did time go?

Anyway, we’ll begin with Clematis ‘Willy’.

Forget-me-not

Aquilegia is almost in bloom…

Aubrieta is a gem in an otherwise ugly area of the garden…


The white bleeding heart isn’t far off blooming, and will brighten the Cherry border nicely

Meanwhile, this Narcissus ‘silver chimes’ glows amongst the Anemones in the Cherry border

Anemone Blanda is still producing many blooms, I’m very pleased with how much they’ve added to the border.

Anemone ? can’t remember the type is an unusual colour, a cerise neighbour has sadly been chomped by something so only has a couple of petals.

Dianthus’s wonderful perfume wafts around the decking area and mixes with the Osmanthus and Muscari.

I refilled the oasis originally created by my mum on Sunday, this time adding some Dianthus into the mix.

Russian Dwarf Almond is stunning, by far its best year!



Copyright 2011 Liz.
All rights reserved. Content created by Liz for Gwirrel’s Garden.

18 comments:

Lona said...

Liz I just love your Anemone Blanda. What a pretty blue flower and the Narcissus is so delicate and lovely.Your garden is blooming so wonderfully. Doesn't it feel good to be outdoors planting.Have a wonderful weekend.

Tootsie said...

oh your flaunt today is wonderful!! I am honored to have you linked up to me with this post! what great photos...bright colors!!! have a great weekend! I am a follower...and so happy to be!

Pauline said...

I know the feeling, its far too hot for this time of year isn't it ! The flowers are gorgeous at the moment but they are over so quickly. We need some typical English weather !! Your flowers are all looking lovely and your garden must be looking beautiful at the moment.

Su said...

Lovely flowers - my clematis are just opening too. Isn't the garden just wonderful at this time of year, after all the dreary months of winter.

Laura Bloomsbury said...

What a fabulous flaunt, Liz. Nice take on Aubretia which tends to get taken for granted. Spring here is rushing on ahead of itself

Laura

ShySongbird said...

The weather really is glorious Liz :)

Lovely photos of your beautiful blooms again, so much happening in your garden!

I too was amazed to find out the schools broke up for Easter yesterday, it completely crept up on me!!

Love the arrangement that you and your Mum created :)

Anonymous said...

Your photos are just amazing, Liz. I am having trouble with my macro setting. Do you use that or do you just take a pic and then crop and enlarge until you have the perfect close up? I am putting photography course on my birthday list.

R

Janet/Plantaliscious said...

What a lovely collection, that clematis is beautiful. I'm supposed to be moving a clematis too but I seem to have done something to my back - very bad timing... I've found Anenome blanda a real revelation this year, such a profusion of flowers, and they seem to just go on and on, perfect! I must have more...

Good luck with the essays - you never know, the weather might change for the worse and make staying in and working easier...

Liz said...

Hi Lona,

I've spent far too much time outside recently and not enough time writing the essays I'm due... Eeeekkk, but as you say... it's just so nice to be outside, I love sitting on the grass and attempted to do some writing whilst laying on the grass yesterday :)

Liz said...

Hi Tootsie,

I hope you have a great weekend too, thank you for following me - it's much appreciated :)

Liz said...

Hi Pauline,

I just hope we don't have all the good weather now and none later in the year as seems to be typical of August for the past couple of years! I'm thinking I'll have to water the garden soon because we've had no rain for a while, I'm already watering pots close to the house but they always dry out faster than plants in the borders.

Liz said...

Hi Laura,

I actually love the Aubrieta, and especially love seeing carpets of it. I have a few slopes in the garden that need covering because they're otherwise very ugly and plan to use aubrieta to add some colour.

Liz said...

Hi Jan,

I'm glad you enjoyed the photos, there's so much to do at the moment but I have to put everything on hold until I've got the work done. It's getting quite frustrating because it's this time of year when the jobs really ought to be done. I think I'm going to have to take a little bit at a time approach, so only spend 30/60 minutes every coupld of days trying to do odd jobs like getting seeds sown and bark on borders.

It's hard to believe it's almost easter, but at least the kids have nice weather! I'll just avoid going out because everywhere will be packed with familes, screaming kids etc... I'm not a child kinda person ;)

Liz said...

Hi Ronnie,

I have a DSLR and Macro lens that I use, most images are cropped to some degree but it isn't usually heavily cropped to enlarge the subject. If anything I crop in more of the background, leaving the subject smaller.

Liz said...

Hi Janet,

I've booked Pete to move Clematis 'Blue eyes' on Wednesday morning, it's been stuck in the Cherry border for the past 4 seasons now - I planted before I realised how shady the area is - and now I have a large bare area of fence I want to move it into a sunnier spot where it'll have fun covering the fence for me. It isn't a big Clematis, but add it to the various other climbers I have and it should provide some much needed colour and screening.

The Anemones are lovely, aren't they? I can't believe how many flowers they produce, I'm tempted to get more for next year but know how readily they will multiply. I planted 200 I think, around the garden last year, most of them went in the Cherry border so I think the return I've had from them has been good and hope to see even more next Spring.

I think the good weather is due to stick around at least well into next week. Most of the work is happening in the evening and this morning I had an eureka moment where the essay suddenly began to make sense. So hopefully I'll get the first one out of the way today/this evening.
And actually, I'm being held hostage in the house at the moment by the cat in my previous post that seems to think we're its new owners. It's outside, trying to get in so I'm waiting for it to move on so I can go outside and attempt to procrastinate a little longer.

Cheryl said...

Hi Liz, good luck with the essay....

It is rather warm isn't it. I have been working in the garden, as many hours as I can.
The children will be with me on and off during the next two weeks. I will have limited time to garden.

I love yellow and red together.
I have in fact mixed the two colours in one of my borders. It has white intermingled with it (of course). I am looking forward to seeing the results.

I love the white daff and the anemone......beautiful.

Aubretia is wonderful, I love it. I see it spilling over walls as I drive through the village. It is gorgeous.....

Liz said...

Hi Cheryl,

Thanks, I've been outside and actually written a fair amount. Now to type it up, find some more quotes and add a little bit more. See how many words I have and then decide whether to cut some out or leave it as it is.

It's been pleasant today, warm and not too hot like yesterday or Friday. I've actually done a lot in the garden today too (been very busy! with essay and gardening, go me). Managed to plant some more Aubrieta I bought a month or so ago now, they're planted on the slope to the upper tier, planted a geranium too. Also put top soil on the new border, sowed lots of your seeds (thank you once again) and put bark over the top. Then, phew are you getting tired yet? I carried lots of bags of flint and pebbles up to the tier (helped by Pete) and spread them around under the Bird feeders.
Bought a tiny Mock Orange, planted that in the pot the Geranium was in for it to grow nice and big - I'm going to plant it up where the summer house was once it's more mature.
It's been a productive day!

I'm glad you managed to get out into the garden, have fun with the kids, what do you have planned for them?

There's a street not far from here where a few houses all have Aubrieta spilling over their walls... Looks stunning, especially if the Cherry trees lining the road bloom at the same time. It inspired me to sow some Aubrieta a few years ago and now I want more!

On My Soapbox said...

Every time I see a photo on your blog, I think "I must get myself a Russian Dwarf Almond". So pretty!