In The May Garden
Stuck as we are, wandering around the garden in the most pleasant and sunny May in my memory, I keep using the iPhone.
It’s a spectacular month for rhododendron and azaleas.
Rhododendron
The biggest one – almost the height of the house.
All were well-established when we moved here 27 years ago. I suspect many date back to the house being built … it was completed in 1912. We spent some time with an arboricultural consultant who told us that the pines in the area were all planted in the 1880s and 1890s on barren heathland. They then waited twenty or thirty years and started selling off the plots for housing. It was barren heathland because it had been cleared of oak between the 12th and 16th centuries for shipbuilding in Poole. He pointed out the tiny oak saplings under the pines and said that the pines would eventually fall and oak would beat the pines to survive … then he paused, or it might just be one great thick rhododendron forest. They were a 19th century imported species from the Himalayas.
Colour variation is good, though the pale apricot and yellow ones we’ve tried only seem to survive a few years.
Close ups …
Azaleas
April is the best month, but the white / yellow / orange / bright red range wait till May and some of the main pink / mauve range survive well into May.
Foxgloves
All self-seeded. Our foxglove patch grows and grows and they begin to pop up all over the garden.
Two to three weeks after the pictures above as other things appear around them
top- Foxglove (mutant Triffid variety)
Bees love foxgloves
Poppies
Irises
We had lots of Irises ten years ago, but the only survivors seems to be the pale grey which go on and on.
Daisies
Stop and smell the roses
We inherited a lot of roses when we moved in. Most have survived and we’ve added more over the years. Our favourite place for finding them is Cranborne Manor Garden Centre which has hundreds, and also puts dates on them, so you can find types which were around hundreds of years ago as well as modern creations. It’s especially good as my grandfather was born in a tied cottage at Cranborne, and his father had been Head Gardener there.
An old variety
An exuberant climber from Cranborne
Another angle ten days later
Another tough as old boots climber
From memory, this is another older variety of climber
Basic roses. Grown up drainpipes they are good for security
Planted for my granddaughter when she was born, 16 years ago
Same rose close up
Definitely here 27 years ago
Borders
That’s the odd thing this year. No garden centres means just trusting to see what came up. None of my usual purchases of delphiniums or verbascum. All the pots for petunias and verbena are given over to fresh herbs this year.
So we’re relying on things like this, which just self-seeded from nearby pots and came up.
August 2019 – pots. This year it’ll be parsley, coriander, thyme and basil instead.