Blooming April
Erythronium revolutum ‘Knightshayes’
Fleeting, but enchanting. And regrettably just the one. I hope this Erythronium will spread itself around. Seeds sown from it last August have not germinated yet but then they didn’t really get the prerequisite winter chill.
![Hacquetia epipactis 001 Wm[1]](https://i1.wp.com/www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Hacquetia-epipactis-001-Wm1.jpg?resize=1024%2C685&ssl=1)
Hacquetia epipactis
When it comes to subtlety, not many blooms can beat this. At first I thought I had lost it among the mass of vegetation on the woodland floor. You can understand why. Another one that needs to rapidly form a larger clump.
![Primula 004 Wm[1]](https://i0.wp.com/www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Primula-004-Wm1.jpg?resize=1024%2C685&ssl=1)
Primula vulgaris
From the unusual to the commonplace. The wild primrose is everywhere right now, in drifts all around the garden..
![Primula 005 Wm[1]](https://i0.wp.com/www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Primula-005-Wm1.jpg?resize=1024%2C780&ssl=1)
.. and on the Devon banks which line the country lanes. Alongside the drive it rubs shoulders with other wildflowers, like these violets.
Camellia (inherited, variety unknown)
Last month I included a shot of a single bloom. Here is the whole shrub, still going strong. It is a ‘rescue’ Camellia. When we arrived here we found it languishing in a tiny pot, a spindly little thing with chlorotic leaves. It has thrived planted out in our slightly acidic soil.
![Chaenomeles 002 Wm[1]](https://i1.wp.com/www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Chaenomeles-002-Wm1.jpg?resize=548%2C819&ssl=1)
Chaenomeles (inherited, variety unknown)
…coming to an end
![Azalea 003 Wm[1]](https://i0.wp.com/www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Azalea-003-Wm1.jpg?resize=1024%2C685&ssl=1)
Azalea (inherited, variety unknown)
… coming next.
![Geum Flames of Passion 002 Wm[1]](https://i0.wp.com/www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Geum-Flames-of-Passion-002-Wm1.jpg?resize=1024%2C685&ssl=1)
Geum ‘Flames of Passion’
The Geums are just starting out too. I do love these plants. Mounds of foliage provide excellent ground cover and they bloom on and off for months.
![Geum Lemon Drops 003 Wm[1]](https://i2.wp.com/www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Geum-Lemon-Drops-003-Wm1.jpg?resize=1024%2C692&ssl=1)
Geum ‘Lemon Drops’
![Tulip 001 Wm[1]](https://i1.wp.com/www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Tulip-001-Wm1.jpg?resize=1024%2C685&ssl=1)
Tulip (inherited, variety unknown)
I have been bemoaning, to the point of boredom I know, my lack of Spring bulbs. Well look what I found. The photo shows off their good side.. there are beak marks on the back of one. I caught Mr P in the act.
![Tulip 002 Wm[1]](https://i0.wp.com/www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Tulip-002-Wm1.jpg?resize=625%2C819&ssl=1)
Tulip (inherited, variety unknown)
And it gets even better.. this looks like a species to me but I have no idea which one. Delicate white tips and a flash of blue at the base. It has appeared in a clump of transplanted grape hyacinths.
![Erysimum Bowles Mauve 001 Wm[1]](https://i2.wp.com/www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Erysimum-Bowles-Mauve-001-Wm1.jpg?resize=548%2C819&ssl=1)
Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’
Three purchases this month. They’ve gone into gaps in the newly renovated terraces for, I hope, a more cottage garden feel.
![Armeria maritima Armada Rose 001 Wm[2]](https://i1.wp.com/www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Armeria-maritima-Armada-Rose-001-Wm2.jpg?resize=1024%2C685&ssl=1)
Armeria maritima ‘Armada Rose’
Thrift
![Lithodora diffusa Heavenly Blue 001 Wm[1]](https://i1.wp.com/www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Lithodora-diffusa-Heavenly-Blue-001-Wm1.jpg?resize=1024%2C685&ssl=1)
Lithodora diffusa Heavenly Blue
Spring has sprung!
Linking to Carol and Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day at May Dreams Gardens, where you will find other April bloomers from around the world.
Dear Jessica – now I am full of regret that I did not purchase an Erythronium revolutum ‘Knightshayes’ whilst I was there – big mistake. I do love blue flowers and the Lithodora diffusa Heavenly Blue fits the bill perfectly. A lovely April collection from your beautiful garden.
Thanks Rosemary. I still don’t have enough blue, or white, in the terraces so I’m on the lookout for more this year. The Lithodora blue is so intense. It’s quite a good likeness on my screen but it took a lot to get it so. In the sun the photo came out vivid turquoise!
Yo have some of my favourites there.
Thanks Sue. With all the shifting about I’ve been doing I thought I’d be thin on the ground for flowers this month. The purchases were crucial!
It all looks so pretty and colourful. My garden is still just varying shades of green and brown and littered with broken fencing. I need to get out there and do something drastic … and buy lots of plants, hey ho!
Well that sounds like an excellent excuse to go plant shopping!
wow blooming indeed Jessica, your daffodils and narcissus might not last long but there are plenty of other blooms to enjoy, how nice to have some inherited blooms too, Frances
Only a few inherited ones left although I have moved stuff around where I can. I took the last of the alchemilla mollis out of the terraces yesterday. Mike has declared it “scruffy”. It was jolly hard work, the roots had worked their way into the walls in a number of places.. I thought of you!
hmm it sounds a bit like Mike has his blackboard of list for you too 😉
A. mollis does dig it’s toes down a bit, I am frequently pulling seedlings where I do not want it, at the moment I am enjoying the white aubretia that hangs over a wall, Frances
He has a different tactic, he just drops items from his agenda in one by one, mostly after he’s done something for me and I owe him a favour! He hates A. mollis with a passion. Last year I left it until the flowers were just at the point of going brown, thinking I would take it out then but couldn’t bring myself to do it.
That first picture is simply stunning!!
Do those gorgeous flowers on the Hacquetia epipactis stay green? If so it’s my favourite flower of all time. The primroses are wonderful something I will have to help along here I think, I love them, our last place had them creeping out of the woodland and all over the garden, and I’m really missing them this year.
I planted the Primulas to help fill the gap but as you saw on the blog, the pesky birds ate all the yellow ones….. mind you that’s maybe why we have no Wild Primroses 🙁
Tell Mr P to leave the tulips alone, the bl**dy vandal 🙂
Thanks Sue.
The flowers are actually just the patch of yellow in the centre. The ‘petals’ are bracts and yes, they do stay green. I wasn’t going to include the photo originally because they are just getting past their best, but it got a reprieve because I love it too.
I read Mr P the riot act when I saw him doing it but the bird has a mind of his own. I could see him thinking… just wait till she goes in for dinner..
Lot’s of beautiful plants to kick off your flowering season properly. I was going to mention some favourites from the set – but realised that I’d be listing most of them!
We’ve just inherited a “rescue camellia” from Joe’s parents. They’d had it in a pot for years as it wouldn’t like their soil (solid chalk). It had started to look very sorry for itself and so came to us to be planted out properly, we’re enjoying a few flowers from it this year and hopefully it’ll look as healthy as yours in years to come.
I was amazed at the difference in the camellia. It did take a couple of years though, so don’t give up on it!
I do love these flower posts, I’m learning a few more names as I follow along. The little green flowers are astonishing. And the camellia is wonderful, I love them in every season.
It’s a good backbone plant the camellia and fills a lot of space. And those lovely shiny leaves! Thanks CJ.
Fabulous photos of your plants. xx
Thanks Joanne.
You have so many beautiful blooms!!! It is lovely to see everything growing! I have been eyeing up a lithodora, do you think that it would do well on very stony clay dirt (you cannot call it soil!)?
Stony clay dirt is exactly what I have, so we’ll see!
Beautiful. Are you going to join the Open Garden scheme?!
Thanks. What you see is only a fraction of the garden, the rest is a tip! Maybe in about ten years…
Spring has definitely sprung in your garden Jessica, with all those lovely blooms! Erythroniums are fab and hope you get more and more as years pass by.
Erythroniums are beautiful, but they are over so quickly. This morning when I went out this one had shrivelled completely. Glad we managed to capture it in its prime.
Lovely treasures in your garden. The Erythronium is gorgeous. I just bought two of the same plants as you, Armeria maritima for the crimson zone and I have to admit I’m not sure where I’m going to put Erysimum Bowles Mauve.
I found it quite tricky to find a place for Bowles Mauve when it came to it, it’s too near both pink and purple and I already have too many silvery leaved plants. That’s the trouble with buying on impulse! But as long as it doesn’t grow higher than the 50cms printed on the label all will be well in its new home.
Absolutely beautiful :} Thinking how cold it was this time last year we’re certainly being treated to a lovely Spring.
The weather has been glorious. It’s made all the hard graft almost a pleasure!
Lovely, especially the primroses, I just love to see them in spring. Glad to see you’re continuing with the plant purchases, that Lithodora diffusa is a gorgeous colour.
Plants in bloom are getting a bit easier to find again! Two plant fairs coming up. I need to be disciplined though, if I’m going to spread them across the year. I also need to be disciplined about getting them planted promptly. Put one in today from last summer, almost had to surgically remove the pot. Not good.
You have as many delightful plants as I expected. The Erythronium in particular is lovely. I am hoping to add more to my garden; they are definitely slow growers. And the tulip with the blue and white at the base is a charmer. Maybe you will be able to figure out its name.
I shall have to go on a search for that tulip, if only so that I can source more. It’s beautiful, about six inches high and so delicate.
So lovely. Wonderful photos. Isn’t it funny the blooms we love the best are the most delicate and slow to establish themselves! I love all the woodland wildflowers.
Your new additions are very sweet and will fill in in the terraces so nicely.
When I arrived home yesterday I scan the beds seeing what is popping up. It’s late this year and there’s very little happening, but I discovered the tulip foliage has been eaten already. There was only a few inches up bad the deer have chewed then right down to the soil level.
Ugh! I guess I better find a deterrent before the hostas decide they are waking up.
Nooooo!!!! I guess the deer are hungry after the cold winter but that’s taking it too far..
Beautiful blooms. I really must try harder – thank goodness for inspirational gardens like yours.
Thanks Anne. The beauty of taking close up photos is that you can ignore the large majority of the garden, which is a mess..
I bought the Lithodora this year too…gorgeous 🙂
I hope it survives the cold tonight. I’m sitting here worried that I should have given it a cloche.
Beautiful first photo! I love Geums and they seem to like our very heavy clay soil and grow in great clumps – the only one we have lost over the last year or two is the Dolly North:)
Our soil is the same Rosie and they do seem to thrive. There are at least three which I will need to divide before next Spring. I must find out when the best time is.
Snap, we both have Erythronium Knightshayes, bought from one trip there a few years ago. They do multiply, the first year we had just one flower, now we have six, so be patient! You have so many lovely flowers, no mistake that spring has arrived in your garden, pity though that Mr P is still being naughty where your bulbs are concerned!
It’s this lovely weather that we’ve had that’s brought everything on. Glad to know the Erythronium will multiply eventually. I bought three, only one has made it this far so I suppose I should be grateful for that.
Your April garden is just lovely. I did enjoy my visit. I especially love that pretty little primula. Happy Bloom Day!
Thanks Dorothy. The primula grows like a weed here, it’s even taking over the lawn!
Forgive me if I’ve mentioned it before? But smelly toilet soap (cheapest) cut into cubes really does keep the deer off tulips, and other favourites….Beautiful post Jessica – a treat!
I really must try it Freda, I’m hopeful it will work against pheasants and mice too. Thanks.
So are this month – your blog is the one that’s going to cost me most money Jessica…lol!! So many there added to my wish list. If I am going to prioritise then the Hacquetia epipactis will go directly to top of the list. Having just checked my local nurseries website and find they have it in stock – guess where I’m going this week.
You have some really special blooms and the Camellia is a stunner, name or not! I do agree the tulip is a species but I can’t remember which. If I remember I will come back and let you know. Happy Bloom Day
The Hacquetia is lovely. If I come across it again I shall get a couple more. There’s another variety, H. epipactis ‘Thor’, which has white and green bracts and some white splashes on the leaves. I’m not really a great fan of variegated plants, but this one looks as though it has been hand painted. I’m after it too.
I do love a Geum too Jess but they don’t do well here sadly….not a lot does! Gorgeous pics of course.
You have set me a challenge Em..
How lovely – I do miss spring flowers! xx
Next year!
Happy GBBD! What an enjoyable walk through your spring gardens 🙂 You must have had a mild winter if your geum is already blooming, such beautiful colors.
Hi Jenni, thanks and welcome to rusty duck.
It’s been the mildest winter for 100 years or something like that. What we have had is an awful lot of rain and some damaging storms so it hasn’t been all good news. But yes, Spring is well ahead of last year. Just some chilly nights still threatening to catch us out!
You have a lot of my favourites there – I love Erysimums they just flower and flower and flower.
That’s what I’d hoped, it will be a challenge to keep the terraces looking colourful all season.
Every single time I come here…
I am gobsmacked at the clarity and beauty of your photographs….
Not to mention your knowledge of plants I have never seen…..let alone know the names of!
Truly an adventure every time…
Thanks Jessica!
Cheers!
Linda :o)
The trick is to keep the plant labels! I impulse buy plants that I see at fairs, usually the ones that sell things that are a bit more unusual. Then I have to work out where they are going to go in the garden. It’s the wrong way round really, hardly designed, but it’s the plants that I love first and foremost.
Just gorgeous. I wish I were there to see all this beauty for myself. Your photos are gorgeous though and so it is almost like being there in the flesh. Enjoy your beautiful spring, Jessica! Hugs, Natalie 🙂
So far we’ve had some really nice warm and sunny days, a real change from last year. Thanks Natalie.
Hi, you also rescue plants – I can not see a plant die.
The Bowles mauve is not hardy , I baught some in Britain and they do not overwinter in this part of Germany.
Sigrun
I’ve previously had one and although it survived it went very leggy. I’m hoping that if I regularly prune out the old flowered shoots I can stop this happening. We shall see!
I notice your camellia is inherited. On a walk this weekend, we passed a row of cottages, and every other one had the same camellia in their gardens, slightly different sizes; it made me wonder whether they had all been cuttings from a single some proper community gardening.
Indeed. I wish I could get the hang of camellia cuttings, I would have more too. I’ve tried twice, more research required I think.
I love Geum Lemon Drops, that’s now gone on my wish list! I have very alkaline soil in the garden and I don’t want any more things in pots after last years heatwave. What a beautiful plant Hacquetia epipactis is, I have never seen it before.
Watering can get very onerous. Apart from things awaiting planting (ahem..) I have very few pots for just that reason.
Lovely pictures, Jessica! Those geums are gorgeous – not ones that I have and I might look out for them – and that Hacquetia is amazing! Your tulip looks as if it might be ‘Little Beauty’.
Spot on Cathy. I’ve just googled the tulip and that looks to be exactly what I have. Thanks, now I can order more to keep it company.
Some lovely plants there, I loved the Lemon drops! It’s always great when something unexpected pops up isn’t it!xxx
This one was very unexpected as it happens.. it is a seedling from a more mature clump. I almost dug it up!
Your April garden is looking wonderful with many of my favourite plants, It so nice to see the geum’s again. Sarah x
They should carry on for weeks now, Geums are among my favourite plants. Thanks Sarah.
Beautiful April blooms Jessica. I hope that erythronium revolutum ‘Knightshayes’ soon goes forth and multiplies. The Devon lanes must be a sight for sore eyes at this time of year.
When the campion and bluebells get going too they are beautiful. Something to admire during the inevitable passing place stops!
So many beautiful spring flowers. I especially like the Erythronium. It’s not a plant that I know, probably because it would not like my hot arid climate. But I enjoyed seeing it in your garden! And the primula look very happy. Oh, I love a woodland garden!
I am coming to see the virtues of a woodland garden, there are a lot more plants that I can grow than I originally thought. But the season is short, most woodland plants bloom in Spring as once the tree canopy grows over much of the light is excluded.
We put in Primula vulgaris after a trip to England in 2008. We could get over how abundant and beautiful they were. For us they grow well and clump up nicely. I have no problem dividing them to expand them around the property. But I have never seen a seedling. Yet I know they must spread by seed in England because I saw them in places where nobody would have planted them. Most peculiar. Is that Erythronium the same as ‘Knightshayes Pink’? That’s the only reference I see on the web and it says that it originated in Devon so you should have it deservedly grow well for you…:)
The Erythronium is the same one John. Knightshayes is a country estate in Devon where presumably it originated. Yes, the primula is prolific here, we are mowing over them where they are growing up through the lawn!
I so enjoyed a wander through your garden today. You’ve got lots of beautiful blooms on show. Loved the Lithodora and that gorgeous Camellia.
Thanks Bernie. I hope all is well with you and that you missed the latest cyclone! Or rather it missed you..
I may have the yellow Erythronium blooming for next Bloom Day but I do love your pink! You had a mild winter it seems and we had a very cold one. I love your naturalized primroses. They sometimes survive the winter here but not often. Beautiful blooms! Enjoy this day.
The mildest winter I can remember. All the more remarkable considering some forecasters were predicting the coldest winter in 100 years. I think they must have been looking at the wrong side of the Atlantic. The same guys are now saying this summer will be the warmest in 100 years. Am I holding my breath?
Thanks for the stroll around your beautiful April garden, I just loved your camellia, such lovely flowers! And your geums are great too, I haven’t got any and every time I see them on blogs I think I MUST get some. And now that I have seen your amazing photos I think I just need to have some Lithodora diffusa Heavenly Blue too!
The Lithodora is a stunning colour, and the bees love it! Yes, get a geum or two. They are so little trouble, form neat clumps and flower their socks off. I am now finding flowering slows down though after a couple of years, I think mine need dividing.
It is looking very colourful. The weather has been so nice I even ventured out into mine today.
It felt more like June.. beautiful day!
You have so many lovely flowers in bloom this April. You’ve reminded me I must look for geums to plant here – they are such pretty flowers. And I always love the sight of primroses – your photos of them are beautiful.
The primroses are struggling a bit with the heat today.. dare I say it, I need some rain! Thanks Wendy.
Your photos of these flowers are absolutely gorgeous~ almost as good as being right there with them !!
Thanks Willow. Hope Spring is on its way to you, at last, too.
your spring is so much further along than ours. at the moment we are reveling in our flowering redbuds and dogwoods…that’s the royal community ‘we’–i lost my redbud to an ice storm several years ago, and only own 3 somewhat baby dogwoods. but we’re creeping closer to a pretty blooming month….our local nurseries just don’t carry such beautiful specimens. i feel a plant-road-trip coming on!!!!
And yet my Cornus trees won’t be in flower until next month, strange. A plant buying trip sounds like an excellent idea! Or can you order online?
Great rescue job on the camellia! I was delighted to see my primroses starting to self seed, they are a big favourite with me – and the bees. Thank you for the photo of Geum ‘Lemon Drop’, it has been on my “strong contender” list for a while now, but it looks perfect. I can’t believe I only discovered geums four years ago, they fill the gap between spring and summer so perfectly, and so beautifully.
The only downside to that Geum is hinted at in the name. The flowers look downwards. Last year I moved it to the top of a wall, so the photo is taken looking up its skirts so to speak. If you can find an elevated position for it, it will work better. It’s a lovely colour, worth the purchase.
The rivale types do tend to do that, but still so pretty, I am looking for marmalade, apparently it is properly evergreen. Perfect for your wall though.
I bought marmalade last year (geums are my thing at the moment). I think it did stay green, but it’s still tiny so I have to confess I haven’t paid it much attention over the winter… until now. It’s one of the earliest to flower and it is lovely. Also droopy.. but I did put it on the wall!
I enjoyed your blog as always, especially the wonderful photographs. The Erythronium looks so beautiful and dainty. The erysimum Bowles Mauve is one plant I always recommend to people as it just flowers and flowers. It does get leggy even with regular chopping back of old stems, but even if it only lasts a couple of years it is well worth the money for the really long flowering season. The butterflies and bees love it too. The lithospermum is another really good buy. I have had one in the rockery for ever, well not the same plant, but my rockery wouldn’t be the same without one. I pruned one really hard last year to try and rejuvenate it. I was worried I had finished it off, but it is looking good and just about to flower.
The bees are loving both of these plants, I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many bees about. The mild winter must have really boosted their numbers.