April 2015, what a month! Practically no rain and hot all month, then the weather turned cold and wet in the final week. The plants have LOVED it. And evidently they weren’t the only ones…
Haha! Rumbles, never one to miss out on a good perch to sunbathe. Ignore the dead cyclamen…
April was pretty amazing, everything exploded out of the ground from nothing to fully grown and getting ready to flower in no time. Truly incredible.
I’ve also been able to start on the plans I’ve been thinking of all last year 🙂 Main updates from April:
- Astilbe blasted out of the soil into a full bush of lush, beautiful foliage in only a few weeks. This was the biggest shocker as they looked thoroughly miserable at the end of last summer.
- Existing Ferns have all unfurled! They’re looking very healthy and bushy which is great to see.
- Sambucus nigra ‘Black Lace’ leaves are all emerging and, to my surprise, the flower buds have appeared at the same time. That’s been the biggest surprise actually, seeing how quickly plants have come into bud.
- Plum tree burst into blossom and has since leafed up. Hopefully it will be healthier this year.
- All of my tulips have failed. Gutted. I think my bulb lasagne was overly ambitious and too full of ingredients! Too closely packed, perhaps too wet. Which is a shame because the one tulip that did flower (above on the right) was stunning. I’ll buy Green Star again in autumn but plant more sparingly.
- Apart from the tulips, everything else has been growing – and I haven’t lost an entire batch of seedlings yet. The Nasturtium minor ‘Phoenix’ mix has exploded out, forming my front line in the anti-aphid army! And the last to grow, Verbena bonariensis, finally sprouted after two months and is growing like wild fire. Everything else that was looking slightly sickly in the lack of sunlight has now fully recovered and is away. Definitely don’t sow seeds until mid-March in London folks.
On another note, I’m constantly impressed by the packaging plants arrive in through the post now, it’s very advanced:
