Garden Centre

Friday, May 8, 2009

Garden flowers in May

It can be difficult to know what spring flowers you’re going to get in which month – last year the bluebells were earlier, being just about in bloom before the hellebores went over, but this year they are later, and have come into their own with the lilies of the valley and the early lilac, which is a lovely combination.

I don’t understand how bluebells are sometimes pink and white, but in my garden at least I believe there must be a pH related element, as there is for hydrangeas, because when I got my fifty bluebells, some four years ago, I planted ten in one place and forty in another – simply taking ten bulbs at random from the pack. Those ten, on the south side of the garden, have come up pink and white while the other forty, on the eastern side, are all blue. Now I suppose the blue ones might have had a couple of pink or white in with them originally and they might have smothered them, because the blue are bigger and more vigorous, but I don’t remember ever seeing white or pink among the blue and there’s definitely never been any blue bluebells in the south border. Isn’t that strange?

In the background of my bluebells, lilac and lilies of the valley are a couple of sprigs of photinia Red Robin, because its bright scarlet leaves provide a lovely foil to the subtle colours of the spring blossoms.

What you can’t get from a photo is the heavenly combination of fragrances: the top note of the lilies of the valley, followed by the sugar sweet lilac and finally, when you’ve been sitting in the room for a while, the clear cool perfume of the bluebells. Glorious.

Labels: bluebells, garden flowers, lilac, lily of the valley, photinia, spring bulbs, spring flowers

The All Seasons Gardener at 10:17 AM

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