April in the Garden

      April is one of my favourite months of the year. I love all the flowering trees and bulbs, and even the erratic weather. I think I've mentioned before that I turned a relentless sucker from our neighbour's plum tree into a espalier- styled tree along our fence. Last year our neighbours cut down their plum tree, and I wondered what affect that would have on my sucker. So far, it's meant that I had a lot of blooms! Maybe, just maybe, I will even get a plum! I went outside with a paintbrush to help the bees out but I think I may have been a little late.

Most of the edges of the flowers on my camellia were touched with a bit of brown this year, due to the cold spring, but I added one of the better looking photos here. There's also a few pics of my other bulbs and our one and only tree that we had cut down. It was a hazelnut tree that had the dreaded Eastern blight that has affected so many hazelnut trees in our area. I'm hoping that by some miracle the new growth will come back healthy. If not, I'd love to hear your suggestions on how to hide or incorporate the trunk so that it looks better. Happy Gardening!

Plum flowers

Plum tree

Muscari

chinodoxa

Anemone blanda

Camellia

Hazelnut when it was healthy

Our hazelnut now

Chester our garden inspector  

Oliver the assistant

Chester intently watching the neighbour's cats 

Spring Blooms

    I'm a little late with posting some of my April photos so I'm adding them now, better late than never. I'm also sharing a few pictures of my poor, poor black-lace elderberry. I first noticed some dying branches on it late last summer, but I thought it was related to the drought and my poor watering skills. Then this Spring after the leaves started to grow, I noticed that almost all of them started to wilt. So I started to investigate only to discover holes in the trunk, and holes in the stems probably made by elderberry borers. I was told that if I cut it way back, it would likely re-grow from the roots, so I am really hoping that will happen. On the brighter side, I found a cute little spirea for one of my containers, and I have been working on a brand new border by my back fence. Happy gardening!

Angelique Tulips

Tulips Angelique

Foxtrot Tulip

Tulip Copex

Chinodoxa

Anemone Blanda

Dicentra Luxurient (bleeding heart)

Iris

More Anemones with Ivy and allium greens

Phlox

Iris and hardy gladiolas

Leucojum 

Spiraea japonica 'Walbuma'

Elderberry

Most of the branches looked like this

Poor Elderberry

What it looked like a couple of years ago

Ladybugs on driftwood

A rugosa rose called Hansa

Many rose petals just from one day of deadheading two rugosa rose bushes

An Early Spring

Our winter was basically nonexistent this year, so we are experiencing an early Spring. Some plants are a few weeks early, while the geraniums started blooming a whole month earlier than normal. I don't think anyone is complaining though. I don't know if this happens to you, but I found some bulbs blooming in my yard that I have no recollection of buying or planting, ha ha. They are called Spring Snowflake or Galanthus. I had one growing beside my house and another underneath our hazelnut tree. The house makes a poor backdrop for flowers, so I experimented with holding coloured page dividers behind the blooms. You can't have spring without tulips, so I added some photos of those along with some others. The Scillas were here when we moved in and they just keep multiplying and spreading. I'm not sure which variety they are but once you have them you HAVE them.  

Geranium Sanguineum 

Spring Snowflake

Spring Snowflake

Spring Snowflake

Glory of the Snow or Chinodoxa

Choisya ternata

Elderberry

Tulip Blue Diamond

Tulips Purple Flag

Scilla

Bleeding Heart Luxuriant

April Blues and Greens

       As you may have figured out already,  blue is one of my favorite colors, even if the "blue" of flowers is more or less purple.  I finally found a decent bloom on my camellia this year!  Most are tinged with brown spots or brown edges. The sweet woodruff is one of those plants that can get a little aggressive in the growth department, but it makes a lovely ground cover for shady areas. I love the interesting spring growth on columbine and balloon flower. Thanks for stopping by!

Anemone Blanda 'blue star'

Glory of the Snow Chinodoxa

Hyacinth

Grape Hyacinth (Muscari)

Camellia Pink Perfection

Bright red growth on  Pieris 'Forest Flame'

Chive buds

Sweet Woodruff

Columbine (Aquilegia)

Balloon Flower (platycodon 'Fuji Blue')