I can’t write a blog post without good photos. And I can’t take a decent photo when a persistent cold wind whistles through the garden, keeping buds closed and making sharp focus impossible. But after weeks of chilly, blustery weather, today the wind finally dropped and the sky cleared into a perfect spring day. In the cool sunshine the garden threw off its winter coat and flashed its finery for our Easter visitors. 

Warm-hued tulips lead the way in the ‘Exotic’ garden. It’s less exotic than it used to be before those two very hard winters, but Geranium palmatum, Euphorbia mellifera and the newly unwrapped Musa basjoo help keep the feel.
Tulip ‘Brown Sugar’, backlit in the early evening sun and looking deliciously caramelised.
A bit of a feel of how the middle part of the garden looks in spring – curvy borders linked with grass paths and places to stop and sit down. In summer these borders will be voluptuously full.
Erythronium ‘Pagoda’ in the spring borders near the entrance. Just behind it, Chaerophyllum hirsuitum ‘Roseum’ which will soon take over the show. 
Close up of pear blossom on the new espalier arch which leads into the orchard. The frames with their newly trained trees have only been in a month but are already a hit with visitors. 
And my current pride and joy – Paeonia mlokosewitschii. I bought a packet of five seeds from Chilterns five years ago. Or was it six? Anyway, this is the first flower from the four plants that made it to adulthood. A real beauty – and gently scented too… It will be the parent of many more, I hope.
But the cost of a gorgeous April day is a cold April night. The temperature is dropping fast, 4C as I write. All the plants in the garden are hardy, but a newly unfurled leaf, egged on by warm sunshine, is as vulnerable as a newborn lamb alone in an open field.  A hard frost tonight would be a cruel blow. So we’ve tucked some of the nursery plants under the benches, thrown fleece over the new shoots of Tetranax and Persicaria ‘Red Dragon’ in the exotic garden and placed upturned pots over the Hostas.

Covering hostas? Yes, as I know from harsh experience the tips of the new leaves scorch easily in a sharp frost and if that happens they will look ragged for the rest of the year. It’s worth preventing it for five minutes effort.

And the last job of the day – draping fleece over the newly opened pear blossom on the espaliers, which lent the garden a ghostly glow in the setting sun. Fingers crossed it’s a precaution they don’t need… 
April 18, 2014