Monday 17 May 2010

Spring is sprung......

Spring is sprung,
the grass is riz,
I wonders where the birdies is?
The bird is on the wing they say,
but that's absurd,
because the wing is on the bird!

Lets take a walk round my garden.............
starting at the back




The bush in the photo below has never flowered before as it was dominated by the huge laurel - until we cut that back hard last year.
I'm not quite sure what the yellow bush is. Any ideas?





Name that bush?!




If anyone knows what the lovely maroon plants are, I'd love to know!
They grow to about a metre high and have sweet little yellow flowers in mid to late summer.
Now to the front garden - and first the view from my bedroom window.



The quince flowers positively glow at this time of year.




The wisteria is slowly opening - it should be a good year for the flowers after our hard winter. The fragrance has been wafting around in the breeze today ...... I wish I could bottle it, I'd wear it all year round!






Let's go back up to the Japanese garden to finish off.



I hope you enjoyed your wander round?!

29 comments:

Sue Garrett said...

Lovely phhotos - our wisteria hasn't any flowers yet but has buds so hopefully soon!

D said...

Hello Liz! so good to see you and have a wander around your lovely garden. In fact I did two loops about... hope that's okay. ;)

I'm pleased to see the roof is on (in your prior post)... Great job!

We have had beautiful weather and with much blooming in the garden, but rain the past several days has caused many a flowers to fade.

Have yourself a wonderful week.

Pondside said...

Good morning! Nice to see you back in blogland. Your garden is bursting! We have lots and lots of mahonia over here - grows wild everywhere - but none that has grown as tall as yours appears.

Mrs Robinson said...

when can we come for a visit? :) :)

RURAL said...

Everything looks gorgeous, don't you just love spring?

Jen

Nutty Gnome said...

Hi GLA - thanks for popping in.My wisteria is opening out more every day, so I'm sure yours will soon catch up!

Diana - you can wander round my garden as often as you want.....my gate is always open!
Himself has done a fantstic job on the roof - but just wait until you see the door panels!!!
We had a couple of weeks in April where it was glorious - warm and sunny, then about 3 weeks where it was REALLY cold again, so everything slowed up (or got frost nipped!), but now it's all bursting forth joyfully. I love spring! :)

Hi Pondside - it's nice to be back! There are still lots of brown spaces in borders - mainly because I aquired two new borders when we had some laurels chopped right back a few weeks ago. I hadn't planned for that in my seed planting - so I've frantically been setting seeds in the greenhouse!
Mahonia and holly both grow like weeds here and, yes, they do get very tall!

Mrs.Robinson - the guest room is always ready ;)

Jen - thank you.My photography has definitely improved with you as my role model!
I think every season is my favourite season when I'm in it!:)

Jo said...

A lovely tour of the garden with so much to see. Our bluebells aren't in bloom yet, it looks like you're a little ahead of us.

Shady Gardener said...

Hi Liz! Everything is beautiful over "your way!" Isn't it wonderful that we can tour each others' gardens without feeling badly that we cannot travel there personally? (Almost as good, anyway!) :-)

Carah Boden said...

Nutty - you've beaten me to it! I was going to do a walk round my garden too and have been taking lots of pictures. Like you, I've been doing nothing but gardening for the past few weeks now that finally the weather is warming up a bit: re-stocking borders, re-invigorating an old veg patch; planning, thinking, buying, planting and nurturing.

Your garden all looks very beautiful. I must try and get over to see you one of these days - and if you're coming to Lyme Park then you should stop by for a cuppa!

dee said...

Hi just popped over to blogger and saw the comment you left there.Whoops its been a while since I've done any blog surfing. Anyway,thanks for the comment. Your quince looks fab, I've got a lot of blossom on mine this year, though I'm not sure if it will fruit,last year it sulked big time and I didn't get any

Carolynn Anctil said...

So pretty. How lovely to be surrounded by all that beauty & growth.

Ruth said...

I was worried you had forgotten the blog mum! But here you are, with my favourite summer time rhyme.
I am just finishing my essay right now, but I'm going to start working on your new banner soon.

Rufus xxx

Nutty Gnome said...

Hi Jen - we've had a fantastic crop of bluebells all over the garden this year. I hope yours are as glorious when they come out!

Shady my friend , you will always be welcome here if you get the urge to tour the garden in preson ...... just bring your gardening gloves! :)

Her on the Hill - Thank you ....kettle's on, you can be here for elevenses!

Hi Dee - I know what you mean, I've been a bit lax with blogging due to all the gardening instead! You're right - the quince is magnificent this year and almost irridescent ....so I'm not too worried whether it sets fruit or not as it's so gorgeous as it is!

Hi Carolynn - thank you. I do feel blessed to have such wonderful surroundings ....and I'm off out to do my tai chi under the oak tree when I've done this :)

Rufus - how could I forget the blog my love after all the work you put into persuading me to do it?! I've just been busy working in the garden rather than writing about it :)
love you. xxx

Pei Xuan - thank you for visiting me and for your very thought provoking comment. It is so true.

joey said...

I most certainly did enjoy wandering around beside you, Liz. Your spring is glorious! Now, it is time for tea :)

Liz said...

Hi Liz,

Glad to see you managed to take some shots of the garden, I love the Wisteria and really want one some day!

It's far too hot, and just as I arrive home from Norfolk it gets even hotter here... So much for escaping some of the heat by coming back oop norf.

Tootsie said...

I think I fried the wisteria....so might need to grab another one...your photos...wow...one is just as gorgeous as the next...You are lucky to have so much beauty in your gardens!

Tatyana@MySecretGarden said...

Yellow bush - could it be mahonia?
A lot of action in your garden, Liz! Your lawn looks so healthy and fresh!

Nutty Gnome said...

Hi Liz - even I thought it was a bit hot yesterday and I need sun to thaw me out after winter! It's going to be around 82* today, so cold showers at the ready when I've done planting!!!
Did you have a good time in Norfolk?

Hi Tootsie - I am so lucky to live here! The previous owners (and their gardener!) had worked hard on the garden, but it was quite old fashioned. We've worked equally hard (with me as the gardener!) to make it lower maintenance but more colourful - so it's lovely to hear your praise. Thank you! :)

Hi Tatyana. No, it's not a mahonia - they grow like weeds round here! I'm veering more towards a peirs or pyrocantha type plant....but still have no idea really!

The healthy lawn is down to 'Green Thumb' - a lawn care company who come 3-4 times a year and treat it. Two years ago it was basically a very healthy lawn of pure moss! They have worked miracles on it :)

Sue Garrett said...

The yellow bush looks like some type of berberis to me - there are lots of different varieties. Our darwinni has flowers just like the ones in the photo. It is evergreen with very small holly shaped leaves but that is just one variety of many. Have you a photo of the leaves?

Any pyracantha and pieris that I have seen have white flowers

Thomas said...

Lovely! It's strange to hear that our British friends have had to endure much milder weather this Spring than we have. In the past, I've always envied your climate!

It sure looks like Spring has finally sprung!

Nutty Gnome said...

Hi Green Lane Allotments - you are a star! It is indeed a berberis, although I've not managed yet to work out if it's a B.Darwinii 'Flame' or a B. Lologensis 'Mystery Fire' - mainly due to small photos and me needing new reading glasses!
I hadn't thought of berberis because the others in the garden all have red flowers ...dhur!

I should have known it wasn't a pyracantha or a pieris - the leaves are wrong!

Thanks so much for that! :)

Hi Thomas. Our weather is never boring that's for sure!
Early spring was very cold and wet, with some very late frosts (my poor runner beans!). We've just had 4 days of high summer (- 84* on Sunday!)and now it's back to spring again - 63* today, which feels jolly cold after the last few days I can tell you!
....and strangely enough for round here, we've had very little rain for about a month now. I had to resort to filling my greenhouse water butts with the hosepipe yesterday to keep my irrigation system going!

Keep envying our climate! :)

Nutty Gnome said...

Hi Christine - and thank you for following me! I'll be popping onto your blog to have a look very soon ....I'm loving the name of it and can't wait to have a read!

F Cameron said...

Love the tour of your garden!

Sorry that I'm late to the garden party, but I've been in France and looking at photos on the tiny iPod was challenging and commenting was even more challenging!

Monica the Garden Faerie said...

Hi Liz, like your new blog layout! I bet things look different now, only a week later. I'm going to guess kerria for the yellow-flowered shrub simply because it's the only yellow-flowered shrub I know. (Well, except for camellia, which it isn't, and potentilla, which it isn't.) Also, the white long-flowered shrub could be spirea.

Irene said...

You've got an absolutely wonderful garden - and I have to admit, I am very envious of your wisteria! Have tried to grow it myself, but the stupid plant absolutely refused to enjoy life in my garden. In fact, it refused to live at all, so I gave up on it.

Have no idea what the yellow bush is, but then you wouldn't be much helped if I gave you the Swedish name for it, would you?

Britta said...

What a beautiful, beautiful garden! I love the smell of those little quinces(when they are ripe) and look of their glistening seeds inside, but the flowers with their different lacquered Japanese reds are beautiful, too. Britta

Britta said...

Thanks for commenting on my blog, Liz - I wrote something there, never knowing wether that is the correct approach. When I looked at your pictures again, I utterly loved the colours of the wisteria against the brick and the turquoise window-frame - that is so harmonious and beautiful! Did you ever find a scent with wisteria in it? (I would like honeysuckle - but maybe then all the moths will be after me). Britta

Nutty Gnome said...

Hi Cameron - I'm glad you're safely back from your sojourn in France (lucky thing!) and glad you enjoyed the tour ... feel free to pop in any time :)

Hi Monica - First-Born is responsible for the new layout....nice to see she's making good use of her time at university!!! I really like it - the border, not her being away!

I've narrowed the yellow bush down to a Berberis - either a Darwinii or a Lologensis. I think you're right that the white bush may be a spirea though, so thanks for that - hadn't thought of spirea!

Hi Irene - yes, you're right about how wonderful the garden is, but I can only claim a very small amount of credit as much of it was planted by the previous owners - except the Japanese garden, which is ALL mine!

The wisteria is fabulous this year and the scent pervades the whole house. It's gorgeous :) I want to take some cuttings (if that's what you do with wisteria?!) and have another one up in the back garden too - because I'm greedy! ;)


Hi Britta. I love the quince flowers as their colours are so iridescent, but I don't like the taste of the quince fruits so they tend to get left for the wildlife!

You're right, the wisteria does look lovely against the brick and the paintwork (my choice of colour!. The house is white render from about level with the window and I don't think the wisteria would look so good against the white - I think it'd drain the lilac colour too much.

No, I've never yet found a wisteria based perfume ...perhaps I'll have to develop one?! :)

Nutty Gnome said...

Google has translated this as :
Wei Yu Lun Cheng saying
"Ah ... hard work! Bless you in all aspects of getting better and better!".

Thank you so much Wei Yu Lun Cheng. I appreciate that. :)