Sunday 22 April 2012

A Movable Feast - the arrival of spring

'Freckle Face' violets
So much talk this year of how early spring has arrived. Is climate change responsible for the emergence of some spring flowers earlier and earlier each year? I decided it might be a good idea to keep my own record, to set aside a particular day of the year on which take photographs of various plants in the garden to keep track of where they were in their journey from bursting into leaf and bud to 'going over'. After being annoyed with myself for having this interesting idea well after the spring equinox, I decided that I would settle for April 22nd, the anniversary of my grandmother's birth (130 years. this year). A great way to celebrate the memory of a remarkable gardener who most certainly contributed to my fascination with growing plants.On opening Google I was amused to see that it is also the day designated by the United Nations as International Mother Earth Day. Entirely fitting.

It proved to be an interesting challenge. I usually take a camera stroll round the garden looking for what would make interesting/attractive shots. This time, as well as capturing plants at the height of their petal power, I wanted to also record those which had gone past that point or were yet to get there even though these may be far from eye-catching. My hope is that they may prove more interesting when compared year by year with their future selves. Never-the less there were some wonderful flowers and emerging plants.
Lots of buds on this vibrantly mauve auricula. The chewed leaf is testimony that with lots of new tender foliage about, the creatures that like to feast on it are emerging also.
The plum blossom is past its frothy white best,
but the apple blossom is just beginning to hit its glorious, delicately scented peak.
It's not all about flowers. Planted in 2010, this rhubarb will yield a few stems for the kitchen this year.
Silky tassels of seed heads have replaced the creamy green flowers of the clematis 'Wisley Cream'.
Only one rosebud about to break into colour.
But surely April is about violets, both the cultivated ones (see above) and the wild ones. I can't decide which I am happiest to see.
Now for those of you who may like their internet browsing to be a little more interactive, you could try to see how many of the weeds that flourish on Hampshire clay soil you can spot in the background. (Had I posted my unedited shots, I would say that unless you had spotted 80% of them you weren't even trying!) I am trying to be particularly vigilant about bindweed this year - as I have been for each of the thirty or so years we have lived here.

So to you Grandma, a toast. May your resilience, resourcefulness and quiet determination to make the best of things be part of what you have passed on to me.


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