Full steam ahead

It's that time of year when everything in the garden suddenly starts to put on a spurt of growth (and gets out of hand as far as I'm concerned).  A couple of quite chilly days, and especially nights, was followed by a warm Bank Holiday weekend and, although it has cooled down to more normal temperatures with a stiff and chilly breeze at times, it is definitely feeling more springlike, with plants responding accordingly.  The first rose opened yesterday (Rosa pimpinellifolia 'Mary Queen of Scots' as usual), with the aquilegias well in bud, the first lily-of-the-valley flowers showing, and the other spring flowers all out.  The pink camellia has put on quite a good display, and the red one has finally produced one small flower after at least four years of doing nothing; in fairness I must say that the plant has been rather neglected and could really benefit from repotting and feeding, as the leaves are looking decidedly yellow.  I've bought it some sulphate of iron in the hope of perking it up a bit.

Narcissus 'Baby Moon'

Tulip 'World Friendship'

I was going to say that all the daffodils are over, but just yesterday I noticed that Narcissus 'Baby Moon', which I said last time had done nothing, has finally put out a couple of blooms.  It's quite pretty, though it needs more flowers to produce any impact.  All the small blue bulbs (muscari, scilla, puschkinia) are also past and deadheaded, as are the early tulips (the Emperors), but some of the later tulips are doing fine.  This year I have a pot of 'World Friendship', which I think I bought because it's reputed to do well in shade, and certainly it came into flower in a less than sunny spot, though it's now in a more prominent position; it's a nice clear soft yellow, a similar colour to 'Sweetheart' which I have in the front garden, but whereas 'Sweetheart' is a squarish flower with a broad base, 'World Friendship' is a more classic tapered tulip shape.  I would grow it again.  The pot of 'Creme Upstar' is also doing well, though I'm in two minds about this tulip.  I grew it a couple of years ago and wasn't completely convinced, but I was seduced again by the photo in the catalogue and gave it another chance.  It's a smallish, bowl-shaped tulip with a slightly loose structure; it opens cream and pale yellow, morphs into a pale-ish 'rhubarb and custard' colour pairing and finally turns pink and white, so it's not the easiest flower to integrate into a colour scheme.  Although at times I think it's pretty, I don't much care for the rhubarb and custard stage, and the final colouring is not unlike 'Angelique' which I prefer, so I think I'll drop it from my list of 'likes' (at least until the next time I'm seduced by the photo).

Creme Upstar - just opening

Creme Upstar - pale rhubarb and custard

Creme Upstar - definitely pink!

Pink epimedium

It's all too easy to overlook some of the plants that are out of sight most of the time, so I've taken the opportunity to remind myself of the 'other' epimedium (afraid I can't remember the name - it has dark pink flowers) and the smilacina nearby, which has lovely foliage (here with the flower buds just showing).

Smilacina

The first young birds in the garden are usually either sparrows or blackbirds, but this year it's two young mistle thrushes and one little bluetit - both still with their parents but quite confidently feeding themselves.  I wonder what has happened to the other bluetits?  They usually have quite a large brood.  The ones in the nestbox don't seem to have been around much; I hope our using the summerhouse over the warm weekend hasn't put them off.  There has been at least one male orange-tip butterfly about, and a very small blue butterfly that I couldn't get close enough to to identify; it was very active around the holly tree one day, so I'm thinking it was probably a holly blue, which is common round here.  Sounds logical, doesn't it?!