Transformation scene
The Gardener- Apr 17
- 3 min read
Finally the rains have arrived, and there is a Spring freshness in the air. We’ve had seemingly weeks of warm, sunny weather more akin to late May than early April, but hopefully this new cooler, damper spell is just a temporary blip.
The warmth has hastened the departure of the early daffodils but we do have varieties just coming into bloom now, including N. Pheasant’s Eye and some wonderful scented jonquils. The daffs have been very good this year with no high winds, heavy rain or sleet/snow to batter them down
We’ve now started a process of lifting and dividing some of the earlier varieties ‘ in the Green’. We did this last year with two of our miniature species, Tete à tete and Jetfire, with the aim of planting a large swathe of these down the east side of the somewhat exposed south lawn. They grow well naturalised in grass and are resistant to high winds, and it’s been rewarding to see last year’s ‘babies’ flowering this year. We’ve just done another transplanting of Tete à Tete and will do the same with the white-flowering Tresemble once it’s flowered. I’d like to transplant some of our pheasants eyes from under the sycamores in The Slope garden to create a swathe east of the lily pond but I shall leave this until the clumps have developed a little more.
Our raised beds in the Secret Garden have been enjoying the recent April showers. Before the rain arrived I took the opportunity to give the now-sprouting onion sets some pelleted chicken manure to help them on their way. Last week’s dry soil was ideal too to get the carrot and parsnip seed in, so hopefully that’s some of the Christmas dinner prepared! Meanwhile last year’s spring onions continue to offer a tasty garnish; they’ve not yet started to threaten a flower unlike some of the left-over leeks. We won’t compost the leeks, though, but instead plant them in the borders whereupon they will become ‘alliums’, bearing white pom-poms later in the summer!
The fine Spring rain has transformed the brown buds of the sheltering trees around the walled garden into vivid, verdant green, and even the latecomers, the beech trees on the drive, are starting to announce Spring’s arrival. We have a number of varieties, so their bud-break is staggered over 2-3 weeks, bronze as well as shades of green.
And the blossom continues to emerge. The morello cherry and the damson are now in flower, joining the pears on the south- and west-facing walls. The ancient plums are smothered in simple snowy whiteness. After they fruit each summer, the plum trees tend to deteriorate very quickly; the leaves fall prematurely and you wonder whether this is their swan-song. But the following Spring, even the twigs you thought were dead push out new dainty blooms, and all is well.
And the first of the apples, the ones growing against the south-facing walls, are now coming to life; strong pink buds breaking open to reveal blush-pink blooms and that so-familiar scent of Spring, drawing in Tom’s bees from across the meadow, jockeying for position with the bumbles. We have quite a few varieties of apple, wall-trained and free-standing, in the garden, so we have a staggered flowering period over the course of the next month or so. And it’s this time of year that makes all those finger-numbing days of Winter-pruning in January so worthwhile! This is their time!
Love those Pheasant’s Eye