Darling Buds of May

The last two weekends have seen a return to cool breezy weather and showers or persistent rain - not very pleasant for gardening so I haven't done much. Instead I've been out and about, and in my travels I have acquired several plants to fill in gaps in the planting.

From a trip to Polesden Lacey, I acquired a Thalictrum "Black Stockings", which has tall dark stems and lilac fluffy flowers. I have planted this in the shady border under the trees. It isn't open yet but here it is in bud:

A walk to Petersham Nurseries produced two more new plants. The first was Anthemis Tinctoria "E. C. Buxton", also known as "Golden Marguerite". It has pale yellow, daisy-like flowers and I have planted it in the border on the left, which I am developing into a white, yellow, orange and red border (with a small amount of purple for contrast). The second plant was a Salvia Nemerosa Tanzerin, which has spears of purple & blue flowers. I have planted this next to the deep pink "Gertrude Jekyll" rose which grows up an obelisk in the bed on the right.

This year has been a good year for my apple blossom, which seems to have lapsed into a two-year cycle, with alternating good and bad years. In a good year the blossom looks like this:

A fortnight ago, I blogged that my New Zealand tree fern was starting into growth. The emerging frond has now started to unfurl, and now looks like this:

 

My Vitis Coignetiae is also in flower. This is not spectacular, because the flowers are very small and green, but I like them anyway.

Also in flower now is a little wild welsh poppy which I introduced to my garden from seed collected in a friend's garden where it grows as a weed. This has seeded itself into many gaps in the borders and in the gravel round the sundial. I like the relaxed effect of self-seeding plants.

And finally, here is a view of my garden from my bedroom window.