Lots of Blue and White

There's a lot of blue and white around at the moment, both in the sky and in the garden.

First of all, the whites:

clematis avalanche

dicentra spectabilis alba

exochorda

variegated white honesty 

white lilac

Next, the blues: lots and lots of forget-me-nots

forget-me-not

camassia

iris bud

It's not all blue and white though, the sky sometimes goes dark dark grey and the garden has splashes of other colours too.

cerinthe

Cerinthe self sows all over my front garden, and in the back there's more dicentra

dicentra spectabilis

 and the late flowering narcissus tresamble.

narcissus tresamble

But before I go, I must just share with you a tulip, now fully opened and all frayed and pretty -

Tulip Huis Ten Bosch

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

The temperature's dropped and the sun has generally stayed away but it did stop raining for a little while today so I rushed out into the garden to see what was flowering.

There are red tulips,

pink dicentra,

and, bizarrely, a peachy rose (Abraham Darby)!

There's white exochorda (The Bride),

white lilac,

and white 'blue' bells.

There's a white and blue iris (Knick Knack),

bluebells (proper blue ones!), 

and tiny blue forget-me-nots.

But my favourite has to be this wacky, black parrot tulip.

It's in a pot by my front door, and they've actually done very, very badly (only about 1/2 have flowered) but the few that have opened make me smile!

Let's hope it warms up again soon!

The White Forsythia is Flowering

When I posted about the buds on my Abeliophyllum Distichum (otherwise know as White Forsythia) several people asked me to post pictures when they opened so here they are:

It only opened properly this week and although it's still quite a scrawny looking shrub I'm so pleased that after 4 years it has actually got a decent number of flowers on it!

As well as looking delicate and beautiful they also have a very pleasant scent.  The very slight pink tinge isn't really visible except through the camera!

It's not an easy plant to locate, I got mine from the Place For Plants, but if you can track one down I would recommend it as a slow growing lovely early spring shrub.  I need to prune mine when it's finished flowering to try and persuade it not to be quite so scrawny.

I'll leave you with Mr/Mrs Robin who was watching me take photos of the White Forsythia!

 

My Favourite Combination

I think that this must be my favourite combination in the garden at the moment.

I'm not sure what variety the tulips are, but they look lovely underneath the Exochorda. When I moved here I didn't know what it was as it had been badly pruned and was just a single stem, I'm very glad I left it in though as the white flowers look so beautiful with the tulips.

Maybe tomorrow there'll be a break in the showers so I can sit and have a cup of tea and gaze at them, rather than rushing past in an attempt to not get wet!

A Whiter Shade of Pale

It's been a glorious day in Suffolk today, blue skies and sunshine - lovely!  Here are some of the white/almost white flowers that are blooming in my garden today, I think they provide a rather calm and cooling atmosphere:

Top row:  Cosmos Purity, Penstemon, Passion Flower (can't remember which variety!)

Middle row:  Rose 'Madame Alfred Carrier', Leucanthemum, Dahlia 'Cafe Au Lait'

Bottom row:  Mint flower, Anenome, Rose (unknown variety)

The penstemon was supposed to be red when I bought it, but I couldn't be bothered to take it back, and the passion flower was only planted this year and is already over 6ft high!  It's supposed to be a fully hardy one so should be ok in the winter as the garden is quite sheltered.

Wherever you are I hope the weather is kind to you this weekend - I plan to be in the garden as much as I can.