Garden Diary: April
The month of April is both the best and the worst month to go on holiday. The best because it is off-season and quiet, while nature is at its best. The worst because you miss what happens in your own garden. This year we completely missed the flowering of one of our most beautiful shrubs: the juneberry (Amelanchier). This is how it looked last year.
At the beginning of the month, before we left, many of the February/March species were still in full bloom. Here they are:
The Christmas rose (Helleborus), glory of the snows (Chionodoxa), primrose (Primula) and bird in a bush (Corydalis)
The narcissi and tulips were at their best.
The fruit shrubs had lots of flowers so we hope for a good harvest this summer.
Redcurrant
Gooseberry
One of the most beautiful flowers in our garden is the fritillary (Fritillaria). The flowers opened just before we left so I could still get these pictures.
Coming back from our holiday we were treated to this glorious sight: The Japanese cherry (Prunus serrulata) in full bloom.
All over the garden new species had started to flower:
Forget me not (Myosotis), ramsons (Allium ursinum) and white, blue and pink varieties of bluebells (Hyacynthoides).
Blue and violet bugle (Ajuga) and yellow archangel (Lamium galeobdolon).
Welsh poppy (Meconopsis cambrica), geranium and honesty (Lunaria annua).
Sweetscented bedstraw (Gallium odoratum), springbeauty (Claytonia) and alkanet (Anchusa).
Most wild flowers are welcome in our garden. The lesser celandine (Ranunculus ficaria) and common daisy (Bellis perennis) can stay but the dandelion (Taraxacum) has to go. If you're not careful they'll take over the whole garden.
With this post, I've tried to be a bit more accurate with naming the plants. That proved to be quite difficult. I know most of the names in Dutch but not in English. So, I tried Wikipedia but often I had to go to a real flora to find the Latin name and then on to English. Perhaps, Latin isn't a dead language, after all! But I can't vouch for all the names so don't hesitate to tell me where I got it wrong.
At the beginning of the month, before we left, many of the February/March species were still in full bloom. Here they are:
The Christmas rose (Helleborus), glory of the snows (Chionodoxa), primrose (Primula) and bird in a bush (Corydalis)
The narcissi and tulips were at their best.
The fruit shrubs had lots of flowers so we hope for a good harvest this summer.
Redcurrant
Gooseberry
One of the most beautiful flowers in our garden is the fritillary (Fritillaria). The flowers opened just before we left so I could still get these pictures.
Coming back from our holiday we were treated to this glorious sight: The Japanese cherry (Prunus serrulata) in full bloom.
All over the garden new species had started to flower:
Forget me not (Myosotis), ramsons (Allium ursinum) and white, blue and pink varieties of bluebells (Hyacynthoides).
Blue and violet bugle (Ajuga) and yellow archangel (Lamium galeobdolon).
Welsh poppy (Meconopsis cambrica), geranium and honesty (Lunaria annua).
Sweetscented bedstraw (Gallium odoratum), springbeauty (Claytonia) and alkanet (Anchusa).
Most wild flowers are welcome in our garden. The lesser celandine (Ranunculus ficaria) and common daisy (Bellis perennis) can stay but the dandelion (Taraxacum) has to go. If you're not careful they'll take over the whole garden.
With this post, I've tried to be a bit more accurate with naming the plants. That proved to be quite difficult. I know most of the names in Dutch but not in English. So, I tried Wikipedia but often I had to go to a real flora to find the Latin name and then on to English. Perhaps, Latin isn't a dead language, after all! But I can't vouch for all the names so don't hesitate to tell me where I got it wrong.