April Blooms Part 2

April is the month in which the garden truly comes alive. So much is happening then and this year especially, because of the weather we've been having. It's been a very mild winter in the Netherlands with only a few nights with some light frost ( minus 1 to minus 3 C) after which we moved into a very mild spring as well. Recently we even had 5 days of summer with temperatures from 25 to 28 Celsius. And nature has responded to this in a big way; flowers, plants, shrubs, bulbs and trees are at least 4 to 6 weeks ahead of their normal schedule.


This is part two of my contribution to Garden Bloggers Blooms Day because I'd like to show you all, how all the different areas of my garden are looking at the moment.

This is the south border in the back garden that wraps itself around my conservatory. In flower are grape hyacinths, tulipa tarda, Lily of the valley, Iberis, arabis, leucojum, cloves, forget-me-not, geranium,
the first columbines (see first picture), anemone blanda, clematis montana (second picture), rosemary and the last of the daffodils, some lovely white ones, called Thalia.
Of course many tulips are in flower in my south border too, such as Angelique, tulipa Greenland as shown here,
tulipa kaufmanniana Lilac Wonder,

White Dream, Queen of Night and Spring Green.
This is White Dream with forget-me-not, kind of an unforgettable dream.

The star this spring is, of course, my lovely, blossoming pear tree. Behind it is another seating area, this time in a cool and shady position, so it's lovely to sit there in summer when it's hot.

On the table are some plants; a lovely frilly Violet, a pink Chrysanthemum and a pot of mint. It's nice to pick a few mint leaves and put them in your cup of tea on a hot summers' day, very refreshing.
A close up of the pink Chrysanthemum, cute isn't it? I bought it last week at the garden center, just couldn't resist it, such a happy looking thing to cheer up even the shadiest spot in the garden.

But it's not only my pear tree that is in flower with such pretty flowers as you can see here, but also another tree,
my walnut that has flowers that are very different to those of the pear tree, but beautiful in their own way. (Click on picture to enlarge.)

One of my favorite plants is in flower already, and it's called Cymbalaria muralis, a very tiny plant with lovely soft purple/lilac flowers. In Dutch it is called muurleeuwenbek or wall snapdragon, as it can grow in walls and the flowers look like miniature snapdragons. My Cymbalaria is a descendant of a cutting a friend of mine took with her from England more than 18 years ago. When hers had grown, she took another cutting and gave it too me. Since then it has always been in my garden (my previous and current one) and I grow it everywhere.

Quite close to the walnut tree and the birdbath, there is a little feline friend that doesn't need all that much looking after.
My shy little friend is peeking from behind the Lamium with silvery white and green leaves and soft yellow flowers. Peek-a-boo, we see you!

The birdbath is at the moment surrounded by the Lamium and the last of the deep pink flowers of the Hellebore. There are a lot of grape hyacinths too but they have almost finished flowering and so has the aubrieta.

Violets are great flowers to have in your garden. It is possible to have a violet in flower all year round. Here's one I also bought at the garden center. Cute, isn't it? I love violets with their sweet and cheerful faces and they come in so many colours too. And there's another reason why I like them, Yolanda means violet.

If you would be happy your whole life long, become a gardener. Old Chinese Proverb