Spring into Summer...

'The louder you scream , the faster we go' ! This is the start of the best ride of all, that fleeting, quickening whoosh that the garden makes, as it transforms from a Spring garden to a summer one.

The bare earth is vanishing, replaced by fresh green burgeoning growth, giving that lush feel of early summer. Most things are growing strongly now and just waiting for their turn to shine.

Some have stepped out onto the stage already ...

Camassia

Berberis Thunbergii Atropurpurea

The buds are beginning to fatten on the peonies

This is the first Centaura of the year - how can something this beautiful be such a thug !

The first Geranium.

The first Vinca.

Euphorbia Wulfenii

Euphorbia Polychroma

This Angelica is well over a metre high already.

Wallflowers

Fresh new leaves on the Acer Palmatum.

It won't be long before the flower spikes start to form on these lupins.

There is something about daisy type flowers that I don't really like, and I don't like yellow flowers much as a rule ! How perverse ! However ... in the case of this Doronicum I make an exception, as it is so bright and cheerful early in the year.

Not the best photo in the world but I had to include it because it is the FIRST rosebud of the season. It is my favourite climber 'Cinderella' and it won't be long before it comes out to play !

However, it is not all sweetness and light ...

My poor Fremontodendron looks as if it may be the only victim claimed by the Winter this year, but I will wait with optimism, to see if there may be a flicker of life in there somewhere.

Hello to old friends...

I spend a lot of time in Spring walking around the garden talking to, no, not myself, but to old friends who are returning. Those emerging plants which WERE NOT THERE last time I walked down the garden and are suddenly unmissable ! They seem to appear to thrust through the soil overnight. It is such an exciting time of year, filled with surprises for me, as I tend to forget where these star players are in the garden, until they turn up again.

This year they seem glossier, more vigorous and stronger than ever.

This Hosta has shoots which look like talons at this stage. They are at an ideal stage to split -  and just before the stage where I need to put a campbed next to them and go on 24/7 slug-watch !

The lovely glossy young leaves of a Ligularia, which I think is Dentata. It is, like the Hostas, prized by slugs and snails alike ! I have had lovely plants decimated overnight, some years.

This looks much more exotic than it really is... it is a lupin which for some reason (maybe the cold weather) is much darker leaved than usual. Note photo-bombing by naughty dandelion !

Here are the fresh new leaves of Berberis  Thunbergii Atropurpurea, which are part of a newish hedge, replacing a hebe hedge which was lost in the 'Great Freeze of 2010'. The leaves are at their best when they are new as they tend to fade a bit throughout the season.

More red leaves ! This is a new Climbing Rose 'Antique', planted in the Autumn, and clearly happy and healthy. I can't wait to see the big soft pink flowers when it finally blooms.

At last - a green one ! This is one of my blackcurrant bushes which is bursting into life in the veg garden.

There are lots of new ones every day, and it is a lovely time to evaluate the garden, when you can still see the 'bare bones' of the garden (the unchanging elements) and the beginnings of the 'flesh' (the planting that fills out the skeleton). The clarity you find at this time of year becomes less obvious as the season progresses and the plants lose their early definition.