I may not be very good at gardening, but I love sitting and admiring the flowers. Today it’s raining so I can’t get out there so here are some photos I took on better days.
This is the Star of Bethlehem, a bulb. Where has it come from? We’ve lived here for some years now and I’ve never seen it in the garden before. Could it have grown from seed? According to The National Trust Book of Wild Flower Gardening it can be grown from seed and it would take several years to flower. It’s called the Star of Bethlehem because of its star-shaped flowers, which are sensitive to light. They’re closed up today and you can see the green stripe on the back of each petal. They’re lovely.
There are lots of these alliums in flower just now in our garden. This is Allium Gladiator, an ornamental onion bulb. They grow to about four feet high and over the years have spread themselves around the borders. I particularly like them as they don’t seem to need any attention from me and their large purple heads are made up of little star-like flowers.
I’m really pleased that this camellia is growing in the garden. I bought it as a small plant and was told it’s difficult to grow and knowing my record with plants I am amazed that it has not only survived but is flourishing. Last year it was covered in flowers, but this year there are only a few. I don’t know what type of camellia it is, but I think its deep rose pink anemone like flowers are so beautiful. This grows in our back garden, near to the house.
These tulips have shed their petals now. There are only a few of these growing in the back garden and I just leave them to grow back each year. Maybe I should dig up the bulbs after they have flowered and store them to re-plant the following year?
These are dwarf tulips which flower a bit later. I love their bright red petals.
Another plant that does well in the garden without any assistance from me is this aquilegia. Again this grows all over the garden, the seeds are spread by the wind and there are varying shades of pink and purple in both the back and the front gardens. These are growing at the front of the house.
Whilst in the back garden there is a wild patch where yellow poppies have self-seeded.
This book, The Cottage Gardener’™s Companion, paints an idyllic picture of the typical English Cottage Garden:
‘œ’¦ where there is a feeling of freedom and exuberance, leisure and opportunity to potter, to water, to contemplate. ‘¦ Flowers, vegetables and fruit are mingled together in the epitome of the cottage garden, where bounty may be gathered at every season. The cottage gardener makes salads, apple jelly, herbal medicine, plum and damson jam from her garden; there is even something in midwinter when parsnips and turnips, brussels sprouts and leeks come into their own.’
Oh, if only that were so. This cottage garden has some of those things. There are fruit trees – a cherry tree, with bitter morello cherries that the birds love. I make pies and cherry sauce, if I can pick them before the birds eat them. There are two little espalier apple trees, which last summer produced a lot of fruit (more pies and crumble) and there is a plum tree that produced so much that it was rotting on the tree before I could pick them all.
There are some flowers ‘“ the primroses are doing really well, so well that I’ve put a photo of some of them on the blog header. There is a climbing rose that seems to be dying, maybe because of my efforts at pruning, despite reading ‘œPruning‘ in the Garden Guides series and any other books on pruning that I can find. I’™m doing something wrong, but what I don’™t know. I’™ve managed to plant and grow a lovely camellia – that had an abundance of flowers last year and a fuchsia that was quite tall and spindly, but it did have some flowers. The other plant that does well, however I mangle it with my pruning is a potentilla, covered in yellow flowers for most of last summer. 
And the aubretia spreads itself all over the wall in the front garden whatever I do to it ‘“ it’™s just starting to flower now.
We have a rambling honeysuckle growing up the fence, mingling in with a berberis, which has shiny red berries later in the year, privet and a rampant Russian vine, which threatens to swamp everything. There are violets and aquilegia which self-seed and appear in different places in the garden. There are other plants as well, shrubs and bushes that I occasionally prune back and trees ‘“ a flowering cherry tree, a pussy willow and a couple of conifers.
But the plant that grows really well in our garden is the bindweed ‘“ it gets everywhere. We have a good amount of ivy as well, growing up the fences and throttling whatever it can find. Just now it is beginning to pop up through the soil. I wish we could eradicate it completely!
I went out this morning to try to take control and did some pruning, whether I’™ve killed more plants remains to be seen. I noticed that the daffodils and tulips are coming on nicely, the bluebells in the front garden are coming up well, and there is a new little holly that has planted itself in one of the borders. The rosemary bush looks strong and healthy; it grows vigorously and I always have to chop it back.
We like herbs and in the past have failed to grow basil ‘“ not 
enough sun here I suppose, even the basil I buy in a pot and keep on the kitchen windowsill doesn’™t do very well! We had sage and mint in pots on the patio, but as they’™ve got very straggly and thin we decided to start again and yesterday went to a garden centre where we bought some pots of thyme, sage, flat leaf parsley and mint. We also bought a rhubarb plant, as I do like it. I hope these will survive.
Lucy likes to keep her eye on everything.
The bees love campanulas.
BooksPlease 
