April Garden Colour

Three shrubs and a flower for this month, hopefully more members will share cos now spring is definitely on its way.



Amalencia - can be grown as a shrub or small tree - fabulous early spring flowers, and beautiful autumn colour as well. Not to fussy about soil, just doesn't like it toooooo dry. As with all shrubs and trees, prepare the soil well before planting.



Then there's the golden variety of philadelphus - the mock orange. A sprawly shrub but can be kept compact - wonderful acid yellow leaves in spring darkening to green as the summer progresses. Then there's the perfume of the flowers. Tolerant of all kinds of soil I've found


Then there's the photinia - you need space for this one, in my experience a bit lax in growth, but that new red foliage of last for ages. You can see it growing the background of the picture of the philadelphus. Again robust, and not too fussy

and finally



The bearded iris - any garden without these is missing a treat. Even their sword shaped leaves are attractive. They grow from rhyzomes - and its important to remember when planting to leave the top of the rhuzome exposed - and open to the sun. They need the sun on the rhyzome to flower. Easy to care for - cut the leaves back in a fan in the winter, and split after a while. Cos they grow outwards and without splitting you end up with a large woody centre, and the flowers on the outside.

Ok lets see some more suggestions for colour in April for all to get some ideas from

[ 10. September 2005, 11:31 PM: Message edited by: Fran ]

 

A spring bulb thats a bit different but not difficult to grow Crown Imperial or Fritillaria Imperialis, soon be on sale at garden centres, come in this yellow or an orange. If you feed them they multiply quite well.

 

What beautiful flowers do they have to be in full sun. Thinking I could put them beside my(once was) holly tree but it is a bit shaded down that side of the garden.

 

Beautiful Pete - they are smashing flowers

 

Lab, mine are not in a particually sunny spot, although they do get some spring sunshine.

 

Lovely plants Pete I've not noticed them before but I will keep an eye out from now on.

 

More lovely pictures Fran - you've inspired me to look back through my garden pictures taken in April. I'd forgotten how lovely my garden looked then.

 

Lovely Petal - now for the newbies to gardening pretty please name the plants and shrubs and any particular preferences they may have.

 

Sorry about the lack of descriptions Fran ââ?¬â?? Iââ?¬â?¢ll try and rectify for the newbies. I garden on heavy clay which has improved over the 21 years Iââ?¬â?¢ve lived here. Itââ?¬â?¢s taken a large amount of organic material but itââ?¬â?¢s getting there. My style of gardening is randon (if itââ?¬â?¢s happy it stays) and I love to see plants growing promiscuously together.

Primula Denticulata -This is one of my favourite primulas and it was an excellent investment flowering for a good two months. The flowers are whiter than white.

Rhododendron -I grow my rhododendrons in half barrels because they�re too precious (to me anyway) to take their chance in the border. This one is 16 years old and I just top dress it each year

Iceland Poppy -Although I�m not keen on yellow or orange I can�t get rid of these poppies which seed themselves around the borders. I love their delicate petals and my garden is destined to have them around.

Clematis Montana Rubens -Iââ?¬â?¢m cheating here because this one is my neighbours which has continued its vigorous growth on my side of the fence. Hence its nickname of ââ?¬Å?the mile a minute clematisââ?¬Â, this is a fast growing, dense climber. It produces a mass of flowers in late April/May with dense attractive foliage until late autumn.

Acer Brilliantissima - This is a small, deciduous tree chosen because it was small and slow growing. My acer is 20 years old and still only 8 feet high. I was inspired to go for this variety after seeing an avenue of them clipped like umbrellas in a park in Folkestone many years ago. The leaves open like a spring flower, in a gorgeous shrimp pink changing to lime green and then dark green.

 

Brilliant Petal and thank you. I'll keep an eye out for that primular its gorgeous.

 

Hi Pete

just come across your picture of your crown imperial do you plant them like tulips?

 

Yes plant them nowish, but pretty deep, also need to be well drained, if not, a bed of sharp sand under the bulb is usually recommended.
As an after thought, also, they do say plant them on their sides, to stop water collecting in the top of the bulb.

[ 19. October 2005, 09:30 PM: Message edited by: pete2255 ]

 

Another three April Flowerers for you.



Veronica Georgia Blue - lovely sprawly plant with attractive bronzy green foliage. First flower appears in January, but really takes off in April. Seems to do better for me in drier shadier areas. Hardy and easy to take cuttings from.



Anemone Blanda - grows from a corm, first leaves appear March and flowers in April. Comes in blue as well as white. Likes partial shade - ideal for planting under deciduous trees



Whilst there are a lot of very good primulars sold, nothing beats the pale lemon and pink of the true wild primrose - primular vulgaris. Tough as old boots. First flowers appear in March, but again takes off in April. Again likes partial shade as a hedgerow plant, but will tolerate full sun. Likes it quite moist like all primulars.

 

Fran&Petal What a lovely page of flower pics. to come home from work to.
Absolutly BEAUTIFUL.....................

 

Lovely photos