Rivers of blue

Of the spring bulbs or corms the anemone and ranunculus seem to be least lauded. I love them for their laissez-faire manner -just toss them in and you should be rewarded with many years of stunning colour and when they die down you don't have lots of messy foliage and in my forgetful manner I always have a happy surprise when they show the following year. They are generally inexpensive and are a great way to enhance colour themes. This year my blues ones seemed like the most precious exotic flowers one could grow -truly you could imagine them as the tears of Venus as she wept over Adonis.  

For me they are my flower of love as they were the first bouquet (the exception rather than the rule!) my husband gave me on our first date 21 years ago. I see them as fresh as yesterday in my mind's eye, a happy meld of pinks to blues and purples embraced by frills of green -oh love!

October bouquet

First blooms of the David Austin roses planted very late last year but they look to be show stoppers now and in a few days time with 30 degrees upon us. These two are not Austins but have been flowering since the beginning of October.

 

The red flower is climbing Dublin Bay and the pink climbing Cinderella. All my roses come from Treloar Roses as they are consistently the best bare rooted stock I have found.

A rebellion in the Parliament of Plants

In 1920 Sir Francis Darwin wrote “It looks, to put the thing fancifully, as if a parliament of plants had met and decided that some arrangement must be made since the world would be inconveniently full if they all flowered at once; or they may have believed that there were not enough insects to fertilise the whole Flora, if all their services were needed in one glorious month of crowded life. Springtime and Other Essays by Francis Darwin. Well, they must be in disarray this year (perhaps they are heading into an election!) as I can hardly keep up with so many lovelies flowering at once.

A little part of England is showing itself, peaking shyly from the shady nooks; you must take the time, slow down and feel the earth beneath your knees to embrace the tiny enchantment of these spring time woodland flowers.

Crocus Pickwick

English Primrose
 

Chinese forget me not?

Primula "Clotted Cream" - what a find!

Primula "Veris"

The scent of the bluebells, primrose and violets will carry you off to the Malvern Hills or some Secret Garden reverie where you will hear Robin sing. Long before Jo Malone burst on the scene, these elusive scents have been captured by Penhaligon’s, wonderfully well in their Bluebell range.

 

 

Daffodils you haste away so soon.

This year has been great for the daffs as we had a lot of rain through last summer but not enough to drown them and also this winter was quite cold –does this help them? But as Herrick says “Fair daffodils, we weep to see you haste away so soon”. I do think that he choose daffodils to illustrate that “life is short and the world is beautiful, love is splendid, and we must use the short time we have to make the most of it.-Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Herrick_(poet)” Who knew wiki was so poetic !

 

My daffs or really the narcissus, start appearing in late July and it the magnificent “Winston Churchill” that keeps the symphony flowing through October.