COLD FRAMES AND COLD DAYS

It's been a cold miserable cloudy day today, so as I sit here on Friday evening waiting for Gardener's World to start, I find it hard to remember that the skies were so blue and sunny earlier this week.  The garden is, of course, relishing this combination of rain and sunshine and is growing before my very eyes.

We even had our first rose of the year.  Its Rosa 'Golden Showers' which is on a South facing wall and always the first to show it's face.  The newspapers/meteorologists are no doubt correct in saying we've had a cold late Spring, but the plants seem to think that it's( almost) business as usual.  Has anyone else noticed that the weeds are doing spectacularly well this year?  I have so many hawthorn seedlings coming up that the house would disappear like Sleeping Beauty's castle if I went away for a bit.

                   

For my second selection, I wanted to show you this little combination I put together in the Knot Garden.  There is the Iris 'Early Purple' from last week's post with Erysimum 'Bowles Mauve' and Geum 'Banana Daiquiri'. (I feel I ought to try a Banana Daiquiri even though it sounds disgusting).

Next up in the super pretty stakes is the blossom on the Cherry tree in the Woodland Garden.  In the past I've written of how I should sit beneath it picnicking dans le style japonais.  But this is England and the grass is too damp.

The Dahlias have been moved from the greenhouse to the cold frames so I can harden them off before planting them out at the end of May.  

It was this time last year as I moved all the plants in and out of the greenhouse each day, that Mr B asked if there was some easier way to harden them off.  Only if we had cold frames I replied.  So here they are.

Here's another combination which I think is as pretty as a picture.  I can't take any credit for this one though as it was already in the garden,  I doubt it was planted as such but arose from plants that had seeded themselves around.  The Bluebells are pushing though the Geranium macrorrhizum, which hides their uninteresting leaves.

I almost forgot the Rhododendrons. Several are starting to bloom, mainly those with white flowers.  These have suffered so much from the last two dry years and there are many dead branches.  Hopefully this years rain will help them recover.

The Luteum is also out.  When the sun shines this can fill half the garden with it's scent.

Squeezing them in at number six is not really doing them justice.  I'll have to allocate more space to them next week.

Thank you for reading, and don't forget all the Six on Saturday posts can be found on Garden Ruminations where Jim collates all our garden ramblings.