This week the first rose bloomed.
It’s a wonderfully perfumed pink rose. When we arrived it was planted by the doors of a summerhouse, the summerhouse didn’t last the winter, but the rose is well established.
The variety is possibly ‘Queen Elizabeth,’ which seems apt, as HRH would have been 100 this week. I don’t think she’d be a very happy queen if she were around at the moment. She often seemed to look quite grumpy, especially at garden parties or public events, which as a child (and still as an adult) I found very surprising given that she had all those castles and fancy hats. I guess castles, fancy hats, garden parties and public events aren’t that special when they’re an everyday thing for a monarch.
Anyway, the Queen Elizabeth rose seems happy and is beginning to bloom. It’s in a sunny spot, and in bloom since 23 April.
It feels like an early spring. There’s chiff chaff and song thrush amongst the dawn chorus with robins, wrens, blackbirds, blue tits and pigeons and crows. There’s a big magpie that likes to land on the metal handrail of the back steps, making a satisfying clunk, and then comically sliding down the handrail, attempting to keep it’s footing before hopping to the back step to steal the cat’s leftover food. We saw a woodpecker in the trees on a walk after work yesterday – but I digress again as that is not a thing in the garden…
Progress with the new rose patch seems ok so far… The plants seem to be settling in ok. I’ll probably plant a few geum at the front of the bed, and I feel like we may be doing a lot of watering this week, as no rain is forecast.
Mares tail is a marginal pond plant, that helps to clarify the water in the pond by taking up nutrients, and releasing oxygen. It has taken hold of the entire ‘lower level’ of the raised wildlife pond. The mares tail (hippuris vulgaris) and the solar powered pump moving water around, and healthy colony of snails and critters, and my lovely husband’s ongoing work to remove excess ‘gloop’ has resulted in crystal clear water.
The green man in front of the pond is now pretty much covered in forget me nots. I’m going to take a few forget-me-not plants from the garden to give to a friend, and hope they’ll set seed for her to have more of them next year.
There were speckled wood, small blue, peacock and orange tip butterflies flittering around the pond and wildflower patch this week. Many did that adorable fluttering twirly dance around one another that they do on sunny days.
In the wildflower patch, red campion is the first to bloom.
The fresh leaves on the twisted hazel tree are a perfect spring green colour. This vibrant shade of fresh growth is so just spectacular in spring sunshine and it’s all over everywhere right now.
One more quick snap – takes us past six but this is a special mention for Tony Tomeo about the pansies that grew over winter in the greenhouse from last year’s gathered seeds. The first bloom is a deep purple colour. I don’t know if they’ll all be the same or if we’ll get genetic diversity from these seedlings, but I’ll try to keep an eye on them and share the progress. I just adore this teeny tiny pansy, the first to flower of it’s generation. I think a better horticulturalist than I would remove the flower to encourage bushy growth and a longer lived plant, but I don’t think we always must be so interventionist. This one’s gonna live fast, flower first and set seed soon.
So that’s my ‘Six on Saturday’ selection to share with garden bloggers all over the internet. You can see more at Garden Ruminations.
This weekend I really, really, really must get the sweetpeas planted out. The seedlings are touching the greenhouse roof and they need to get into the ground. There are geum to plant and cosmos seeds to sow, and plenty of watering to be done.
I hope you have a happy week!
Jen xx