Suddenly summer

Apart from a couple of warm days in April, the weather so far these past months has been chilly.  Only a week or so ago I was putting on my winter jacket some days to work in the garden, against the cold northerly and easterly winds.  And suddenly it has turned into summer – sunny and very warm.  Not our usual Bank Holiday weekend weather! 

Right on cue, Rose ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ has put out its first flower (the less highly bred roses, the rugosa and the species ones, have been in flower for a couple of weeks).  The highlight on the patio is the (very old) azalea, ‘Rosebud’, which I had to prune severely a couple of years ago and which is an odd shape as a result, but it has recovered to the extent that it’s almost entirely covered in blooms.  When the flowers go over I’ll cut back some of the longer woody stems, as there’s good growth lower down; a nice feed wouldn’t do it any harm either!

Our neighbours' white clematis montana, on the wall between our gardens, has also burst into flower; it didn't seem to do much last year, but is making up for it this year.

Temperatures in the greenhouse have finally risen to over 10C at night, so the tomatoes have been moved in there; they were becoming rather tall on the house windowsills.  The dahlias have been hardened off and are just waiting to be put in the big pots once the tulips have died back and are lifted.  Other plants are also being hardened off before being planted out; the summer climbing beans, which had germinated in the propagator and had a couple of warm days outdoors, have gone into their bed today, with a frame ready to support them.  The frame looks rather wonky, but it is in fact quite a bit more stable than some that I’ve built in the past!

A wonky-looking frame

The warmth has brought out a lot of insects, which the birds are enjoying catching.  A sparrow was spotted today in pursuit of a hummingbird hawkmoth.  I’ve seen a few white butterflies which might be the ones that lay their eggs on brassicas, so my cabbage and kale seedlings will need to be protected when they leave the cold frame; but at least one, feeding on the sweet rocket, turned out to be a female orange-tip, with its lovely green underwing markings.  A dull brown butterfly seen today was, to my surprise, a painted lady – very faded and battered, an early migrant from southern Europe and north Africa; I’m not sure I’ve seen one so early in the year before as they take a little time to get here from the south.

Female orange-tip butterfly

And on one of the doronicum plants I found a lovely scarlet tiger moth caterpillar, curled up in the shade; it would be nice to see it as a fully grown moth!

Scarlet tiger moth caterpillar