What’s Going On

May 2016

I am walking our dogs and I am greeted by the dazzling yellow rapeseed flowers (Brassica napus) in the fields nearby. The air I am inhaling is loaded with its perfume. A lonely cloud hangs in the blue sky. I take a deep breath, and I am on my way again.

highly poisonois

Back in our garden there is also an enticing perfume to enjoy. On leaving the Tank Garden I discover the small white flowers of the lily-of-the-valley. This highly poisonous  forms extensive colonies by spreading underground stems.

Another groundcover plant which can be pretty invasive is the ground ivy (Glechoma hederacea). At this moment it shows its small lovely blue flowers under the Korean lilac (Syribga meyeri ‘Pallibin’). This shrub attracts both insects as human beings with its dazzling perfume.

Yet the overwhelming smell of Hawthorn is all around and its white flowers are reflected by the already declining flowers of Rhododendron ‘Cunningham’s White’.

Covered with creamy white flowers

On entering our Long Border there is another shrub with white flowers which catch my eyes. A 3 meter (10 feet) high double file viburnum is covered with creamy white flowers as if someone sprinkled it with icing sugar. The late Marcel Teubner of Darthuizen nurseries in the Netherlands classified it as ‘Viburnum plicatum f. tomentosum ‘Watanabe’.

On approaching our house I see already the first white roses coming into flower. In just a few weeks time they will enjoy us with their dazzling beautiful display of flowers.