Tulip

The merry month of May

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Bluebells in sun and shade under a Laburnum tree. Image: Kathryn Hawkins

Hello again. Welcome to my favourite blog post of the year:) Yes, it’s May, and it’s the most colourful time of the year in my garden. I have a few images to share which capture what’s been happening in the garden over the month. The weather has been mostly dry and a bit overcast, but these past few days have seen things turn warm, sunny and bright.

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Centaurea and bluebell raised bed. Images: Kathryn Hawkins

May is all about Bluebells, Azaleas and Rhododendrons in the garden. The Bluebells haven’t lasted as long as usual due to the lack of rain. The bulbs in the shade are still looking vibrant, and now the Centaurea are coming out, there is even more blue around. All the Azaleas and Rhododendrons are out in full flower now, and are thriving. The colours are strong and vibrant and seem to glow in the sunshine.

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The many colours of Azalea and Rhododendron. Image: May 2023

Earlier in the month, the Tulips were in flower, but like the Bluebells, they weren’t around for very long. These are two of my favourites.

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May favourite tulips. Images: Kathryn Hawkins

The Aquilegia and Lupins have flowered a couple of weeks earlier this year. They really do enjoy the sunshine and are in all the sunny beds and borders of the garden, with the exception of this one which is growing out of the old wall at the top of the garden. Not sure where it came from, and it hasn’t seeded in any other part of the garden, but it is very striking and a fabulous colour.

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Wall-growing Violet Aquilegia. Images: Kathryn Hawkins
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First of the Lupins. Image: Kathryn Hawkins

There are plenty of Welsh poppies all around the garden again this year. The birds will be especially pleased when the seed heads are ripening.

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Golden Welsh poppies. Images: Kathryn Hawkins

As well as the joy all these colourful flowers bring, it has been a happy time with the arrival of a new visitor to the garden. I had seen a few glimpses of an adult red squirrel over the lockdown months, but how delightful it was to see this baby the other morning enjoying the spills from the bird feeder and taking a drink from the container of water we leave out for the birds. He/she has been back a few times, but is so quick, it is hard to capture, hence my not very good pictures.

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New garden visitor. Images: Kathryn Hawkins

That’s me for another month. I’ll be back in the kitchen next month. Until then, take care and enjoy the sunshine.

End of April in the garden

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Primroses in their prime. Image: Kathryn Hawkins

Hello again. What a glorious time of the year it is in the garden. Some of my favourite plants and flowers are at their best right now, and this year so many spring flowers seems to be blooming better than ever.

The primroses started flowering in March, but the clumps of flowers are just getting bigger and bigger. They grow at their best in the dampest, shadiest part of the garden, and they really bring these borders to life. The Hellebores are beginning to go over now having been flowering for several weeks. They become more upright the longer they have been blooming which makes them so much easier to photograph.

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Hellebores fading gloriously. Image: Kathryn Hawkins

The new kids on the block are the bluebells. We’ve had a few chilly, grey days here, but now things are brightening up again, the pretty blue flower heads are opening up all over the garden.

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First of the bluebells. Images: Kathryn Hawkins

Another spring favourite of mine are the unusual looking Snakeshead Fritillary. Alongside the well known pink variety with it’s petals patterned like snake’s skin, a white variety has also become established.

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White and pink Snakeshead Fritillary. Images: Kathryn Hawkins

The Chionodoxa that runs wild all over the paths and flowerbeds from late February into March has been replaced by tiny violets. They have a delicate delicious sweet fragrance as well as looking so pretty.

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Garden violets. Image: Kathryn Hawkins

I am very happy to see all the small fruit trees in full blossom now. I am looking forward to a good crop of Morello cherries again (fingers crossed). There seem to be lots of bees around so hopefully they are doing a good job of helping to set the fruit. Only the miniature apple tree is in blossom at the moment, but I can see quite a lot of flower buds on the large tree so with a few warm days, I think they will open up.

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Late April fruit blossom – Morello cherry, Conference pear and Victoria plum. Images: Kathryn Hawkins
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First of the apple blossom. Image: Kathryn Hawkins

One of my favourite annual tasks in the garden is dead-heading the Hydrangeas. I can stay upright for this job, little bending or kneeling is required, unlike most of the gardening chores.

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Hydrangea haircut – before and after. Images: Kathryn Hawkins
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Dried Hydrangea flower heads. Image: Kathryn Hawkins

I hope you have enjoyed my pictures of spring. May is just around the corner which means even more colour in the garden. Looking forward to the warmer, even longer days, so until next time, enjoy the beautiful sights and sounds of this special time of the year. Thanks for stopping by and take care.

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Bold and bright tulips. Images: Kathryn Hawkins

May’s finest: asparagus, purple sprouting broccoli, Jersey Royals and some of my favourite (rain-soaked) flowers

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    May’s finest vegetables: asparagus and purple sprouting broccoli. Image: Kathryn Hawkins

Hello again everyone. I hope you are keeping well. We have been suffering another down-turn in the weather since my last post. Very unseasonal hail storms, winds and heavy rain. It’s been chilly too. The lack of heat has helped keep some of the spring flowers going but delayed later ones like the bluebells, and some of the trees are still bare.

I have been busy with work since my last post and haven’t been able to spend much time in the kitchen. The poor weather has put pay to spending much time out of doors. However, May is my favourite month of the year and I have been eating some fine seasonal produce. And today, I ventured out into the garden to take a few images of some of the best May flowers.

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    British asparagus and purple sprouting broccoli, and Jersey Royal potatoes. Images: Kathryn Hawkins

When vegetables taste as good as this selection, I rarely do anything adventurous with them. The asparagus and broccoli get trimmed, brushed with oil and lightly seasoned, then roasted on a tray for a few minutes in a hot oven. As for Jersey Royals, I just steam or boil them and eat them dressed with seasoned oil or a dot or 2 of plant-butter. Simple but delicious.

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    Roasted asparagus and purple sprouting broccoli. Image: Kathryn Hawkins

Most of my flowery images are a little bit rain-soaked this month. The tulips started flowering early this year and many have been out for 3 or 4 weeks. With the heaviness of the downpours, some have started growing horizontally.

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    Vertical and horizontal tulips in the rain. Images: Kathryn Hawkins

This beautiful purple tulip was actually filling up with water as I took the photo.

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    Rain-filled tulip. Image: Kathryn Hawkins

There are now bluebells in the garden, but the lack of sun is slowing down the opening of the flower-heads, and the rain is holding back the scent in the air which is something I love about this time of year. The forecast for the week ahead is for more of the same, so it may be a while before I am able to enjoy their sweet heady fragrance.

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    Bluebells springing up all over the garden. Images: Kathryn Hawkins
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    Raindrops on bluebells. Image: Kathryn Hawkins

More blue flowers. The forget-me-nots are growing in abundance in one of the raised beds and provide quite a carpet of blue until other flowers take over. I spotted the first Centaurea or Mountain Cornflower in bloom today. These robust, thistle-like, flowers will continue multiplying and flowering well into the autumn. They are a great value garden plant and their vivid blue colour is very striking in the borders.

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    Forget-me-nots_and_Centaurea. Images: Kathryn Hawkins

Usually in my May garden posts I am able to share pictures of abundantly flowering vivid pink and red Azaleas, but at the moment they remain stubbornly in bud. The scarlet rhododendron has come into flower this last week and is putting on a lovely display. It sits next to one of my favourite rhododendrons in the garden, a rich, candy-pink variety. Sadly the frost caught the other side of this mature shrub. These blooms are on the sheltered side and thankfully remain untouched.

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Red and candy-pink rhododendrons. Images: Kathryn Hawkins

That’s all for now. I’m off to start practicing my sun-dance which I hope I can perfect in order to drive the rain away for a while 🙂 Until next time, take care and keep safe.

End of April in the garden

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Flaming Pierus under a clear blue Scottish sky. Image: Kathryn Hawkins

Hello again. Thank you for stopping by my blog. I hope you are keeping well. Not so many words from me in this post, I am letting the glories of the spring flowers speak for themselves. I hope you enjoy looking at them.

Like the rest of the UK, we have had a wonderful month of weather here in central Scotland. In fact, it has felt more like May than April, with several flowers, shrubs and blossoms a couple of weeks ahead than this time last year.  Funnily enough, as I sat down to write this post today, the skies clouded over and we have had some much needed rain. It is also cooler, and the forecast looks set that way for the next few days ahead.

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6 of the best tulips. Images: Kathryn Hawkins

The bold and brassy tulips are early this year by about 2 weeks. The classic upright varieties have been planted for a few years now, but the multi-petal, peony-like ones, I put in last Autumn. The colours are so bright, they take on an almost day-glo look in bright sunlight.

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Snakeshead Fritillary in white and deep pink. Images: Kathryn Hawkins

More sedate-looking are the Fritillaries in white and in deep pink. They don’t grow in huge clusters, just a few dotted here and there, but year on year, they are slowly increasing in numbers all round the garden.

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Morello cherry and Conference pear blossom. Images: Kathryn Hawkins

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Apple, my favourite fruit blossom. Images: Kathryn Hawkins

The fruit trees are laden with blossom. Fingers crossed that this means a good harvest of fruit later in the year. The bees are certainly busy, so the signs are looking promising so far.

Now that the daffodils have finished flowering in the raised bed, the Forget-me-nots are free to take up the space left behind. This is a very sunny spot in the garden, and they thrive here.

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Dainty baby-blue clusters of Forget-me-nots. Image: Kathryn Hawkins

My final image this week is of another early appearing flower. These last few days of warmth and sunshine have brought out the bluebells in front of my greenhouse. Their sweet, spicy fragrance hangs heavy in the air, and their vivid blue-lilac, little pixie hat-shaped flowers are popping up all over the flower-beds and paths.

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Scottish garden bluebells. Image: Kathryn Hawkins

Over the past few weeks, I have been feeling more fortunate than ever over to have such a wonderful garden to escape into, and with beautiful weather to boot, these strange times we find ourselves in have been so much easier to deal with.  My best wishes to you, and I look forward to catching up with you again soon 🙂

Spring in full swing

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Raised bed of spring flowers. Images: Kathryn Hawkins

It’s been a glorious week here in central Scotland and I just couldn’t resist posting another series of images of spring flowers. It is my favourite time of the year and this year the garden seems more abundant than ever, bursting with colour in every corner.

Whilst  the sky has been blue and the temperature relatively warm during the day, the nights have been chilly, and only this morning the lawn was covered with frost.

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Muscari and Snakeshead fritillary. Images: Kathryn Hawkins

There is plenty of blossom forming on the fruit trees, and the sprigs nearest the walls are already in bloom and sweet-smelling. The bees will be smiling.

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Victoria Plum, Morello Cherry and Doyenne de Comice Pear blossoms. Images: Kathryn Hawkins

I have been in and out of the garden all week keeping my eye on the progress of the bluebells because they are exceptionally early this year. In the sunny spots, the stems are getting longer and the buds bluer, and today I discovered one wee bell-shaped flower fully open in amongst a thicket of twigs, and here it is, my first bluebell of 2019 🙂

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My first bluebells of 2019. Images: Kathryn Hawkins

One of the most prolific plants in the garden is Euphorbia. This time of the year the flowers are lime-green and yellowy and look stunning in the sunlight. They really brighten up the dullest parts of the garden and make an eye-catching display with the fading pink and white hellebores in the background.

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Euphorbia with hellebores. Image: Kathryn Hawkins

My last images of my post this week are of a beautiful pink Persian Buttercup (Ranunculus) with its many layers of delicate petals. I don’t seem to be able to grow them in big clusters, just the odd one comes up here and there. The other is a very “early bird” in the garden this year, a single Mountain Cornflower (Centaurea montana). Usually these thistle-like flowers grow in abundance from early summer and onwards throughout the autumn, but this fellow has popped up several weeks ahead of the others.

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Persian buttercup and a Mountain cornflower. Images: Kathryn Hawkins

That’s all for this week. Have a good few days – enjoy the sunshine if you have it. I’ll be back in the kitchen with an Eastery recipe for next week’s post.

Tulip-tastic May

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May-time tulips. Image: Kathryn Hawkins

I’ve been working away from home since my last post. When I arrived back at the weekend (a gloriously sunny one), I was delighted to see the garden so full of colour, and the tulips looking particularly magnificent. The extended winter/late spring has done wonders for the flowering bulbs this year. All of them have emerged strong and bold, and are lasting longer than usual.

Tulips have been a favourite flower of mine for many years. I love their simplicity. Whilst I have few words to share with you this week, I have some colourful images of these lovely, elegant blooms. I’ll be back in the kitchen again this weekend, getting ready for my next post in a few days time. Until then, have a good week.

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The colours of spring. Image: Kathryn Hawkins

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Tall, red tulips in planters. Image: Kathryn Hawkins

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Six of the best. Images: Kathryn Hawkins

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Tulips overhead. Images: Kathryn Hawkins

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spring, glorious spring

~ My virtually free-from kitchen ~ 4 Comments

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Snakeshead Fritillary under a blue spring sky. Image: Kathryn Hawkins

It really was a glorious day today. After a few April showers this morning, it was a sunshiny blue-sky afternoon. It was very pleasant to take a stroll, breathe in the fresh air and enjoy the sunshine. Out of the sun, it is still chilly, and the night-time temperature is low, but the spring flowers are at their best right now, and I couldn’t resist another post showing how the garden is looking at this very colourful and fragrant time of year. The scent from some of the flowers is intoxicating, I only wish there was some way of posting the aromatics as well as the images!

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Bold and brash, candy-striped tulips. Image: Kathryn Hawkins

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Pale lemon Narcissus, each tiny stem has 4 very fragrant blooms. Image: Kathryn Hawkins

I’m in the throes of a very busy period with my work and subsequently, I have had little time to spend trying new recipes in the kitchen. I will have a recipe post ready for next week though, so in the meantime, I hope you enjoy the glorious multi-colours of my Scottish spring garden. See you next week.

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Pale pink rhododendron. Image: Kathryn Hawkins

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Grape hyacinths (Muscari) by a privet hedge. Image: Kathryn Hawkins

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Highly fragrant, double-blooming pink and magenta hyacinths. Image: Kathryn Hawkins

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Spring sprang, then winter returned….

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The blue star-shaped flowers of Chionadoxa. Image: Kathryn Hawkins

We had a lovely, blue-sky Easter weekend here in central Scotland; I was able to spend several hours working outside (without a coat!) and taking my images for this week’s post. However, come Easter Monday, the temperature dipped again,  it snowed, and just about everything I photographed disappeared under a layer of white slush.

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Chionadoxa in the snow. Image: Kathryn Hawkins

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Spring flower bed. Image: Kathryn Hawkins

I will never tire of these vibrant blue, star-shaped spring flowers. In the sun-light, they dazzle with vibrancy, and in the gloom, they take on an almost iridescent quality. They seem quite hardy and I can see that they haven’t been crushed by the weight of the snow.

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Chionadoxa and a Dog-tooth violets. Images: Kathryn Hawkins

It’s been a marvellous year for crocus. I have never known so many come into flower. Apart from the ones I transplanted into a wooden barrel last year, there are small clumps all over the garden which seemed to  have appeared from nowhere. I think the Crocus fairies were busy planting when my back was turned.

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My barrel of mixed crocus, the white variety looked particularly stunning in the sunshine. Images: Kathryn Hawkins

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Shades of pink and purple Crocus planted by the fairies. Images: Kathryn Hawkins

Most of the spring flowers in my garden are shades of blue, yellow and white, but these tulips fellow are an exception. Always the first to flower, long before the rest of the tulips, and this year, ahead of the daffodils.

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Early dwarf tulips. Images: Kathryn Hawkins

To round off my flowery post this week, I have a wonderful display of Hellebores again this year. They have been slow to open up, but are now in full bloom and glory. They are quite magnificent, and because they grow in the sheltered parts of the garden, they are not snow-bound 🙂 Have a good week.

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