If March was all about the daffodils, then April is all about the tulips from the modest survivor saxatilis to some of the more showy ones planted just last October.
Even deep in the dark under the wisteria pergola, the tulip planted last Autumn have come through and are looking beautiful.
Up at the top they hide the daffodil leaves as they go over and fill a gap waiting for the roses to come into flower. Next year maybe I should add some “blacks” to the mix. Maybe not.
Unfortunately I can’t remember what varieties I bought and dug into the soil so will have to look them up on my account. Always assuming I can remember who I bought them with. One day I will organise my gardening, but probably not this year.
There’s always a few “Shirleys” in there and some “Queen of the Night” but thanks to the mildest of Winters, tulips bought to be staggered and arrive in sequence have all arrived together.
I seem to have bought some fancy shapes in as well, some lily tulips and doubles that look more like roses than anything else.
As for the yellow striped number, I’m pretty sure that’s courtesy of the squirrels digging and replanting. Would I have bought a striped tulip deliberately?
Yet again I prove a total inability to produce elegance and must settle for pretty – not a bad place to settle.
The perennial wallflower erysimum bowles, having flowered even through the Winter is now come into it’s own and is brightening up the borders.
The blossom on the pear has gone over but suddenly the red leaves of the maple open up. They will add colour all through the year to one final burst in Autumn. Sometimes it seems too easy to forget foliage as a useful colour to the garden.
In the shade at the back, the dry has been almost too much for some of the plants, The large ferns are at their most bedraggled and only the euphorbia is really happy.
Still the wild garlic is at least up and about and useful for recipes. I have no idea what a chimichurra is but I’m all for having a go. 
In the forgotten bits, the campion and forget me nots are finally flowering away.
Up on the gravel roof, almost every day something new pops up it’s head. It’s shocking really how the combination of dry with sun is so very much easier to deal with than dry shade.
The phlox is in it’s element with flowers everywhere in a glorious mound of lilac
And with the occasional shower (though much fewer than a normal April) the auricula is out and flowering.
The dodecatheon have poked through though not in good numbers – too dry a Winter probably
And the rhodenthemum is bristling with daisy flowers
The alpine erysimum is in full flower too though it won’t last as long as the one below in the borders.
The sedum will grow forever though, turning redder than red in the Autumn along with the maple leaves.
Towards the end of the month, the bluebells (apparently inferior Spanish ones but beautiful nonetheless) have finally popped up their heads.
It means the slugs and snails cannot be far behind so the nemaslug has to go down even if a cold snap might make it pointless.
And although the blossom of my pear tree has gone over all too quickly, my neighbour’s decision to allow one trunk of the hawthorn hedge to grow into a tree is paying dividends.
There are small pleasures in all the corners of the April garden.
From the raindrops on alchemilla to the dancing blue bells.
And where there are surprising bare patches, it turns out less surprising when you find the favourite hideaways for the beasties of the household.
Down in the bed closest to the house, the solomon’s seal is sprouting up not yet eaten away by slugs nor grubs.
And at the midpoint of the garden, the wisteria is just about flowering after a very hard pruning at the end of last year.
A bit barer than usual but so incredibly beautiful it makes me happy.
