"Don't knock the weather: nine-tenths of the people couldn't start a conversation if it didn't change once in a while."
- Kin Hubbard
May is such a fickle month. One day the garden is bathed in glorious warm sunshine reminiscent of halcyon days of our youth...
...the next, out come big coats and gloves, and we're scraping car windscreens!
There is much truth in the old wives' tale ...ne'er cast a clout till May be out.
This week we have had night time frosts; -5c is definitely enough to blacken fresh foliage and kill delicate bedding plants.
Most of the plants in our garden are either trees, shrubs, evergreens, herbaceous perennial or biennial like the foxglove above, which seeds itself around and we just weed out those we don't want.
This beautiful blue ceanothus is c. Italian Skies which is just coming into flower now in the front garden, and is a magnet for bees.
Deliciously scented pink r. Gertrude Jekyll over the arch on the patio.
And growing up over the other side of the arch is the peach coloured r. Shropshire Lad.
There are a couple of jobs that need attention this week. The wisteria is growing at top speed and needs tying in, and the wishy washy aquilegias need removing before they set seed.
These ones however, can remain.
So watch out for those night time temperatures. Anything below 10c, and I pop fleece over anything tender, or bring it inside.
Keep alert, stay safe and enjoy the flowers.
