And the curtain goes up…
- The Gardener
- Mar 24
- 3 min read
This past weekend, tuned perhaps to the Spring Equinox, the garden felt different. There was no hard frost. Indeed. It was much milder, although the watery sun did struggle to peer through the light cloud. This filtered light seemed to draw out the fresh colours of the early Spring borders and the dark green of the newly mown lawns. We seem to have arrived at the ‘early Spring milestone’. I suspect that most gardens have a milestone, perhaps two or three, times of the year when it looks its best. Sometimes gardeners engineer it that way. Balmoral and Birkhall, for example, used to be planted to look their best in August when the royal family visited. Sometimes, it just happens that way. I’m not sure I can claim much credit. And it’s not necessarily all tied in with colour, or rather floral colour. There’s something very exciting about borders coming to life, their shades of green (and other colours), the manner in which they emerge, all beautifully choreographed by the unseen hand of Nature.
But there’s colour for sure. The early yellow daffodils are now being joined by more tasteful bicolour ones like Ice Follies under the apples in the Old Orchard. We have daffodils appearing all over the place, many of which were planted by previous owners at least 25 years ago; up they come each year, little ghosts of past gardeners’ activity. Hyacinths of various hues announce their arrrival with their lovely strong sweet scent, attracting the bumbles on a sunny day. We have quite a few of these blooms, seemingly too exotic to be growing in a Scottish garden in March, including round the front of the house. While in a sunny spot, they grow in very poor soil with no shelter from the wind and no protection from deer , hare or rabbit, all of whom visit regularly, but like their neighbouring daffodils, hyacinths remain untouched.
The borders at this time of year remind me of a painting by numbers canvass, each week Mother Nature wielding her paintbrush to shade in new areas! This week, the Crown Imperials have announced their majestic arrival in the Summerhouse garden. Sadly they never have much of an entourage, standing proudly but alone in their section of the border seeking adoration for their chinoiserie headgear ! This has been a good year for the crown imps; sometimes they are just a fountain of foxy-smelling greenery!
Over in the Old Orchard, the pulmonarias are coming in to bloom in the shade border. We have a few varieties but my favourite has got to be the electric dark blue of Blue Ensign. The dark wine-red hellebore hybrids have also been excellent this year, the Odiles of the Lenten rose family, contrasting with the Odettes of the Corsican and (uncharitably-named) stinking hellebores with their golden-green blooms, which enjoy sunnier climes behind the greenhouse. And more generally, wherever one looks, there are drumstick primulas in shades of white, lavender, rose and purple, providing a rhythmic undercurrent to Spring’s arrival.
And the trees and shrubs are in on the act too. In the Drying Green garden, the flowering currant, with its pendulous dark pink clusters, like little bunches of mini grapes, calls to Tom’s bees across the meadow. And in the Teacup Garden, the forsythia and magnolia stand together in unlikely solidarity like two old men at a football match in their garish team colours, there just fleetingly before they merge into the background at the end of the game. The Magnolia soulangeana is quite beautiful, visible through the mists of an early morning proudly holding up her red wine flutes, recently emerged from their downy winter jackets. ‘Susan’ is an earlier riser than our other magnolias, running the gauntlet of sharp frosts.
And finally the blossom season has started with the very early and very dainty dark-rose blooms of the Prunus cerisifera, emerging on bare branches, a subtle cloud of pink. Backlit in the sun, this is surely the nearest you can get to perfection at this time of year.
P.s. this week’s nature note: the lily pond is full of toads. Perhaps they were waiting for the duck trio to finish their Spring holiday. Hopefully the heron will stay away…
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