We are into the fourth month of the year, evenings are longer and the warm week we had after Easter has seen blossom trees coming into flower and potted plants in need of regular watering.
In our garden, the holiday task was to fix several panels of trellising to a wall to give the increasing collection of climbers and wall shrubs more space. The end of March is not the best month to do this job and I nervously watched as the many helpers trod on emerging plants and I just managed to stop a 'dead' stem from being trimmed.
The apparently lifeless stick happened to be an early clematis, heavy with bud further down its length and now safely attached to the new support. It took us the best part of a day to get the trellis up, makeover programmes make these thing look so easy, and then another day to untangle the plants and get them fixed into position. A few days later and the squashed plants have recovered, the trellis doesn't look quite so glaringly new and the clematis is about to flower.
Rosemary is in full flower in April, the long stems covered in spiky green, fragrant leaves and beautiful blue flowers. Although this shrub grows large even when clipped regularly it is best planted at the edge of a bed where its pungent aroma is released when someone brushes past. We have had ours for years and it is nicely woody with long, gnarled branches.
A lot of our spring flowers are blue and include grape hyacinth, anemone blanda and forget-me-not which, once planted, is with you forever. In our garden it is everywhere, in the lawn, in paving, in pots and all over the flower beds, sun or shade. Most growing conditions seem to suit, but the plants are at their best in light shade and damp soil. If the plants are in the wrong place, they are easily moved because the root system is small and with a good soaking they quickly recover. The only problem is later in June when flowering is over and mildew sets in but that is another time and for the moment we can enjoy the soft downy leaves and clusters of lovely blue flowers.
Updated: 09:39 Saturday, April 06, 2002
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