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!

Spring! Spring! Spring! After months of gloomy winter weather, I think we are all ready for spring. I was going to wait for a sunny day before taking a photo of the purple crocus, but then decided to take it in the rain and was pleasantly surprised at how it turned out. The yellow violas in the next photo have been blooming all winter long in a container on my patio :)  The little blue/purple Iris surprised me with their blooms because I had totally forgotten I had planted them. Sometimes it's nice to be forgetful, ha ha. The next photo is one of my indoor plants moved outdoors. It survived the winter leading me to believe it is probably the common plant called Hens and Chicks.  Last of all are a couple of photos of one of my favourite shrubs, the Pink Dawn Viburnum. It starts blooming in November but puts on it's prettiest display in the early Spring. I fear for the life of this shrub because I have recently been notified that there is a manhole at the base of this shrub, a manhole that needs  to be raised. The manhole is covered in several inches of soil, completely hidden from view. So now I am dreading the arrival of the work crew that will invade my backyard. I can just see them stomping on my spring bulbs and ripping out my shrub, but there isn't much one can do but hope for the best. Anyways, happy Spring and may all your seeds sprout!

Crocus on a rainy day

Crocus and Pansy

Iris

One of my houseplants moved outdoors

Hazelnut Catkins

Viburnum and a pretty blue sky

A closer look at the sweet smelling blooms