A WEEK IN MY GARDEN 11 APRIL - BLOSSOM TIME

Pears, Crab apples, Amelanchier and Greengage - all are blossoming this week as the warm sunny weather continues to delight us.

Sadly, I have never had a fruit from this Greengage tree.  It flowers too early for our garden in the Midlands and so every year the blossom is ruined by frost. Dare I hope that this year we might see some fruit? 

Thinking that perhaps a different variety would provide more reliable, I did plant another one, and a Victoria Plum as well to join the apple trees.  We have managed three plums I think.

Also in the orchard and looking (I hope) completely natural, but actually planted by me, are some cowslips.  

Not in the orchard, but nearby against a west facing wall, is a Conference Pear.  It was bought partly trained, but both it and the gardener seem to have forgotten what shape it is supposed to be.  Unlike the Greengage though, it does produce some lovely fruit.

The blossom on the Crab Apples (Malus Everest)  started to open today.  Are its deep pink buds the prettiest buds of all?  I think perhaps they are.

My last blossom this week is the Amelanchier.  White, delicate and star shaped, and best photographed against a cloudless blue sky.

But as we (and Rudyard Kipling) know well, gardens are not made by singing 'oh how beautiful, and sitting in the shade'.  One could perhaps argue that shopping is also important; and so Mr B and I found our way to a sale of stoneware and before we knew it had acquired a Grecian Trough.  Planted for the time being with some pansies, I will have to devise something with more gravitas for Summer.

In other garden news Mr B has offered to take over the vegetable growing, so watch this space.  Here are some lettuce seedlings as a starting point.

To finish with here is a picture of a rose trained around three uprights.  A bit late to do this perhaps, but it had thrown up so many tall straight shoots that I thought it was either let it flower at 5ft or give this a try.  I will report back.

Thank you for stopping by and reading this weeks post, but that's all I have for now.  Enjoy your garden and see you next time.