@Peter Aberdeen

Peter, I've been trying to get rid of my Arums for years now, it seems to be an impossibility. No matter how thorough I think I've been in digging them up, they always pop up again the following year. I think they only need the smallest piece of missed root or tuber to regrow.

@PeteS—yes, that’s exactly their way.

The Arum italicum subsp. italicum ‘Marmoratum’ doesn’t so much return as quietly remind you it was never really gone. Miss the smallest piece and it simply resumes, as if nothing had happened. I’ve come to think it shows they like it—and perhaps they rather like you.

There’s no point fighting them—it’s like punching the wind.

I must admit, that particular persistence is something I’ve grown to admire. No fuss, no drama—just a quiet determination to be there again when the season turns.

Mine—the Kevins—are in their second year now, and I find that aspect of them more reassuring than troublesome. A plant that keeps its place in the world, regardless of one’s best efforts, has a certain charm.

I suspect it’s less a matter of getting rid of them… and more a question of deciding where one is happy to have them stay.

Beautifully put in their defence Peter, but I really do wish they would get the message that they're not wanted.

Well I guess it’s official. Not as heavily petalled as she can be, but Marie Pavié is the first to bloom:

Love that Marie Pavie leads the way into this season @NollieSpainZ9.

Here it's windy yesterday and today, probably the side effects of Storm Dave. Lots of broken tender growth. Roses are resilient though.

Weather a bit off here too Eustace. Nice to see your first, Marie Pavie, Nollie and your Whitalii species tulips - I find the shape and warm colour enchanting. Wow what a cherry tree (Nigra) PeterA. Interesting to hear more about Timeless series/PurpleTitian, Eustace, Tack, Marlorena. All the best for now,Tack. Love the aubretia and epimedium combination, Marlorena.

Earlier last week before the weather turned

Tulip Cream Charm

Jasmine and miniature roses from supermarkets - was desperate for brightness before the garden began blooming

Narcissus 'Geranium' in the distance. New DA standard Eustacia Vye and tulips in foreground

Happy Easter all. The wind has thankfully subsided now. Here are a few photos taken today.

Tulips - some erect, some prone.

Muscari from the magic series; I think they were planted before COVID and they come back every year.

Camellia flowers dropping and fading; show is getting over.

White dicentra

Gorgeous, Eustace. I would love to grow camellias here, but it's too cold. The color of yours is stunning. Our magnolia is over pretty much with blooming, and we do have a huge white crabapple in bloom. The red crabapples are next and I like them much better. Roses are about a month and a half away. Diane

Hope everyone had a good Easter break and I am enjoying all the lovely Spring colour from everyone. I must say, it’s probably been the warmest and sunniest we have ever had here. I have been watering like crazy already and my supply of rainwater is down to the dregs.

@ClematisDorset Mild humid9b, I look forward to seeing your Eustacia Vye standard!

It is really good your muscari come back, Eustace. Mine don't seem to last long. I would really like to see your red crabapple Diane. That sounds like great weather Nollie, though all the watering can get time consuming so early in the season. I have just checked my Eustacia Vye standard and I spied two green buds, which is reassuring.

I keep taking photos of the wisteria, which is looking pretty good, if much sparser than usual following a severe cutback. Best of the bunch:

Loropetalum ‘Fire Dance’ standard in full bloom, excuse the sun glare:

Nollie, that wisteria against the stone is unbeatably beautiful and something you'd never see in this newish part of the US. I can't stop looking at it, so I can see why you keep taking photos. So would I.

Clematis, here's a look at the red crabapples' blooms. We are having a lovely spring so far and enjoying weather in the 70sF. I've given up on pruning all the roses, so many will get a slight trim. Diane

@NollieSpainZ9

That wisteria is magnificent!

That’s the reward of real structure. Even after a hard cutback, the framework carries the display. It’s not the volume—it’s the placement. Beautifully handled.

I wanted to post some better crabapple pics and then double posted. Diane

What a stunning crabapple, Diane. I have a small ‘Everest’ with white blooms, but it’s incredibly slow growing and still a teeny tiny tree compared to your magnificent specimen.

Thanks for the Wisteria appreciation, I discovered that afternoon shade shows it off best - the colour is really washed out against the stone if photographed in sun. It would totally overwhelm the façade if I didn’t prune back several times a year, Peter, so one does have to be bold and resolute with the loppers every now and then.

It’s (excruciatingly and painfully) slowly beginning to happen here, roses are being reluctantly dragged into the light of Spring. Following Marie Paviè, the first bloom on Darcy Bussell:

Your crabapple is wonderful, Diane. What a gorgeous specimen. It makes a difference when spring weather is so good. Your trees must be awash with pollinators. Really wish I had known about red flowered apple trees when I first became interested in gardening, because I would have planted one instead of other ill-advised plants!

Your wisteria makes me cry Nollie. It is perfection against your limestone wall. Darcy Bussell looks lovely. Would you say more pink than red generally? She really seems to glow.

And I'm off the starting block with, unsurprisingly, Canary Bird. This is its first year inground, a colder shadier spot than the space it had on the patio. Prior years the first blooms were 4/4, 29/3,3/4

So excited to share I forgot to acknowledge all the good wishes. I am so touched, thank you x.

I posted today morning about @NollieSpainZ9's magnificent wisteria and @Diane Brakefield's superb crabapple flowers. The post seems to have disappeared. 😕

Nice to see roses starting to bloom - Darcey Bussell and Canary Bird. Thanks for sharing 🙏

Nollie, that photo of the wisteria against your beautiful stone wall deserves to be in a book.

Diane, lovely red crabapple. I had a weeping cherry die on me earlier this year, and I've replaced it with Malus Ioensis Plena - a double, pale pink flowered crabapple. I used to have one in a previous garden 30 years ago and loved it.

Clematis, I would say (unhelpfully) Darcy is a reddish pink! A light crimson with pink overtones.

Everyone is a fan of wisteria, it seems! I would have preferred a climbing rose in that single spot deep enough to plant anything, but my OH insisted on wisteria so here we are.

Trish, I have just lost two weeping cherries and the third is not looking too healthy. A previous owner planted them draping over a terrace wall overlooking the pool and they did look fabulous in earlier years. I don’t think the shallow, alkaline soil here is ideal for cherry trees, the cherry plums are also suffering. It’s possible prior drought years have finally caught up as well.

A little too sugary perhaps, but the small-flowered gladiolus Charming Lady is doing well. Technically they are a ’nano’ type but the stems are long and need the support of the wisteria trunk:

Another bloom on Marie Pavié. It looks like something has been nibbling on the centre:

Nollie, I understand your preferring a rose. Wisteria blooms are over so quickly, but spectacular at the time. That gladiolus is well named. it's lovely. I love Darcey's colour.

Trish, to be fair to the wisteria, it does flower once or twice more here. Not as well as the first, but the later racemes do look nice against the bright green foliage.

I like Darcy B, but it’s not a particularly impressive rose for me. It’s never got above 3ft in the 7-8 years I’ve had it and blooms can be sparse. I have threatened it with the shovel for many years, but it was a gift, so I keep hold of it and keep hoping..

Oh thank you for the colour estimate of Darcy Bussell, Nollie. Looks very pretty on your photo. Well done with the wisteria. It really looks magnificent. Sorry the roses were no good due to depth of soil.

Edit: Just seen your update on wisteria and DB, Nollie! At least almost no roses are the colour of your lovely wisteria, so it must be a good alternative colour and shape too, amongst your roses!

Tricia, good point about short flowering of wisteria compared to alternatives. Still love it, probably because every year I say I will plant one and it would never look as good as Nollie's!

I am going to learn to prune my wisteria. It needs it more than my roses.

I hear that Wisteria 'Amethyst Falls' is quite popular. Does anyone know anything about that cultivar? Your wisteria sounds lovely, Sheila.

Clematis, I understand it’s smaller cultivar with darker flowers that can even be grown as a standard in a large pot. I have never seen it IRL though, so don’t know how good or otherwise it is - or whether it could be sustained in a pot long-term.

My wisteria is "Cooke's Special" wisteria sinensis. It is Chinese.

Mine is a sinensis variety too, Sheila, but I don’t know the exact cultivar - often missing from Spanish plant labels.

Lovely Spring flowers, gorgeous crab apples, don't see enough of those these days.

Nollie and Tack quick off the mark as usual. No blooms here as yet. Fab Wisteria.

Wisteria 'Amethyst Falls' is a hybrid which had a rather strange scent to my nose, not pleasant, but I only sniffed it once at a plant auction, and I do think Wisteria should smell nice.

Epimedium 'Frohnleiten' a cheerful underplanting, if a little invasive..

..sparkling Iberis sempervirens..

..who doesn't have Aubrieta and Arabis.. Salvia 'Royal Bumble' just starting to flower..

.. young foliage on 'Charisma'..

Thank you about the wisterias, Nollie and Sheila. I think I will make a mini project, researching what is available and the variances amongst them. That will keep me busy until I can (hopefully) select one in bloom next year. It is possible that a smaller variety would be more sensible...

A winner is emerging for my first bloom, as it always does. 'Dublin Bay', already full of buds, which will be bursting forth in the coming few weeks and then for the rest of the summer.

Nollie, your wisteria is every bit as glorious as everyone is saying. The sight takes my breath away even on photos. What must it be like in reality! My daughter has been begging me to grow one here as well. I want to, but am slightly terrified after reading how rampant and ruthless they can be.. However, I have done some
research and have concluded that the darker flowered ones will show up best in my direct sunlight. There’s one called Black Dragon that looks really nice, but I have no
experience with wisteria whatsoever, so I don’t know what I’m talking about.

Thanks Judi, I knew nothing about wisteria either when we picked one up from the nursery. They are certainly vigorous, but controllable. There are all sorts of rules about cutting back to so many buds at certain times of year, but I ignore all that and lop it back anytime it threatens to take over. Strong support is a must! This is a useful guide that you and Clematis might find helpful, with links to different varieties etc:

https://www.gardenia.net/guide/how-to-choose-the-right-wisteria

Hi Pete, has your rose sawfly damage started? Mine has, which I really object to before the first flush has had a proper chance to get going. I hate the b*ggers!

Looks like Munstead Wood won’t be long..

@NollieSpainZ9

Hi Nollie. No, they don't tend to show here until we get into May. In fact, last year they didn't show until June, but when they do I definitely know about it. I actually thought I had defeated the blighters last year, because they were so late, alas no.. Their life cycle suggests the larvae drop to the floor beneath the plant when they've had their fill where they overwinter just below the surface. So I've been scraping the top inch of soil away from underneath each plant, so I'll see if it makes any difference.

Excuse me while I laugh out loud. I posted earlier today with some photos but suspected that my post never showed up. It was the one right after Nollie's reply to Sheila about sinensis Wisteria. I checked via another browser and saw that the post was not visible. I know why. I made a typo with the word 'crab' apples, replacing the 'b' with a 'p' by mistake. I corrected the error and resubmitted and now it's there.

So, don't ever say cra*p*..

Oh, dear, Marlorean. Carol in Canada lost so many posts for using that forbidden word. I usually use cr*p as my substitute. Let's see if this posts. It should. Diane

Yes, it did. It's a favorite word of mine, and I dislike using substitutes. I often use worse at home. I apologize for misspelling your name. Now how the ^^^^ did I do that?

That's ok, it happens.

I think us British are not used to being censored like that, it's such a tame word to us, although I notice on some UK forums people say carp, which has developed a similar meaning.

I'm on a political forum that would singe your ears. Believe me, we're a foulmouthed lot. It's just this rose forum, I think. Diane

@ClematisDorset Mild humid9b Wisteria Amethyst Falls unfortunately smells like cats urine.

Well, deer around here would hate that wisteria. They hate our foul smelling boxwood that smalls similarly, and never touch the boxwood.

@Marlorena I love your choice of ground cover plants; they are clothed in flowers. Lovely epimedium. 😍 Is that Iberis a single plant or multiple ones planted in a formation? Thanks for your replies.

Looking forward to your winners, Munstead wood and Dublin Bay @NollieSpainZ9 and @PeteS.

In my garden, Louise Odier and Darcey Bussell are in a tight race; both showing colour, but yet to open.

Here are a few pictures of tree peony buds - these plants were planted as bare roots by me at my previous garden at Cambridge around a decade ago. They have grown into nice rugged shrubs. I still get to enjoy them during my infrequent visits. 😍

@Eustace_Oxf_UK_9a .. thank you, I'm a bit sparse these days, lots of bare earth, but will use annuals for infill later on.. yes Iberis sempervirens, I think they are all the same variety.

I think I prefer tree peonies to herbaceous, but they take up space. Those are superb. Didn't know you lived in Cambridge at one time. You will be familiar with the dry east. I miss the lush growth you see in the west.

I must say R.V. Roger up at Pickering have an improved rose list, and see they are now offering potted on most of their varieties. I don't think they used to do that.

Can any of you good folks ID this euphorbia. I think a bird must've deposited a seed or something about 4-5 years ago. I spotted it, potted it up, and several different pots later it's grown into this magnificent specimen. But alas I have no clue what it is called. Cheers.

They will be censoring asterisks next, just in case we are trying to sneak in a naughty word!

@PeteS I hope that your anti sawfly strategy works. Unfortunately I get several different species here that lay eggs in repeated cycles, so I battle them constantly. I think your euphorbia is Miner’s Merlot. I have several and they are excellent plants. Flowering is a little more advanced here and they are beginning to lose the initial pink flush and the intense burgundy colour to the leaves:

I stayed up into the early hours to watch the live footage of the astronauts returning and I feel as if I haven't slept for days, so will be typing this slowly and carefully...

Oh my, re the crabby-"carp" thing Marlorena! I am going to have to be careful because my autocorrect comes up with wild words sometimes and I don't always notice! I love the colours in your garden photos. The blues and violets are so vibrant and joyful.Oh dear re Wisteria A F. Sounds more like a 'deterrent' kind of plant then. Ross your description will ensure it won't be on my shopping list!

Thank you Nollie for your link on wisteria and it is great to see it is not necessary to get tied up in knots with the pruning etc.

I look forward to seeing more of your Dublin Bay, Pete S.

Eustace, your tree peonies are absolutely beautiful. They look wonderful enough masse.

There’s been quite a bit of life in here over the past day or so — and not all of it botanical…

I’m still chuckling at the ongoing censorship saga. Between strategic asterisks and @Diane Brakefield’s increasingly creative use of emojis, I suspect we’ll all be fluent in a completely new language before long.

On the gardening front, it’s interesting how differently things are moving depending on where we all are. Still very much in that “on the cusp” phase here — plenty of promise, not quite the full show yet. I suspect May will flick the switch.

And it’s genuinely good to see some familiar names reappearing — welcome back, @Marlorena. The thread always feels a bit more grounded when you’re around.

There seems to be a bit of a shared theme emerging as well — a move toward letting things settle, observing what works, and resisting the urge to rush in and “complete” things too quickly. Certainly something I’m trying (with varying degrees of success) to stick to here.

Be interesting to see how the next few weeks unfold across everyone’s gardens as things start to accelerate.

I’ve been spending some time up in what I call the GNB aka the Great North Border (a fairly large, shaded border viewed mainly from a distance — the summerhouse, usually with a glass in hand), trying to understand what it wants rather than simply adding to it.

There’s already a loose structure in place — some cardoons for foliage and scale, a camellia anchoring one end, and a run of roses in the foreground (Queen of Sweden, Princess Alexandra of Kent, and The Lark Ascending). Behind them, slightly unusually perhaps, I’ve planted a small group of Cardiocrinum giganteum — not at the back, but just behind the roses, with the idea that they’ll rise through and above rather than sit as background, also keeps them just out of the shadow line.

Where I’m currently musing is the middle layer.

I’ve started to introduce Aconitum — not as isolated clumps, but with the intention of forming a more continuous continental drift, something structural that reads from a distance and comes into its own later in the season. The thought is that this becomes the “spine” of the planting rather than a series of accents.

What I’m wondering about is how best to lift and articulate that without breaking it.

Two plants I’m considering (lightly, and not yet committed in any grand way) are:

– Thalictrum flavum subsp. glaucum — for the glaucous foliage and a soft yellow haze earlier in the season
– Actaea ‘White Pearl’ — used sparingly, just to introduce some vertical white later on

The idea, if there is one, is less about contrast in the usual sense and more about a kind of progression — something that moves from the softness of the roses, through a slightly more atmospheric middle, and into something with a bit more late-season presence.

But I’m very conscious that these things are better observed into being rather than imposed, so for now I’m planting the Aconitum and planning to sit with it for a season before deciding whether the rest is necessary at all.

I’d be interested in thoughts — particularly on whether using Aconitum in that more structural way feels convincing, or whether it risks becoming too dominant in a shaded setting.

No fixed plan — just thinking out loud.