Bootiful Blooms and Seriously Smashing Seedheads

It's such an exciting time in the garden at the moment! So many things bursting into flower - there are zingy new colours everyday - and lots of beautiful seed heads from plants that have done their 'thing' already. This blog is a celebration of all the beautiful plants having their moment.

Of course no blog celebrating beautiful spring plants could pass without some Pulsatilla action! Now that the flowers have passed, they're having their second glory with these wonderful, almost heart-shaped tassley pom-poms!

A slightly less common sight is Mitella. Once their discreet, little acid greeny yellow flowers have passed, their stems are covered from top to toe with these tiny goblet-like capsules of seed. Each one looks like it's almost overbrimming with shiny little seeds. The overall effect is quite exquisite!

Of course, the most obvious performers in the seed-head category has got to be the grasses! At the moment, the real star of the show is this Briza Media 'Limouzi'. Any Quaking Grass is a star in my opinion, but this one in particular, with a slightly reddish tinge to some of the stems and seeds, is a real stunner!

Aside from the seeds, there's obviously plenty of activity on the flower front. The Cerinthes I grew from seed last year have self-seeded more freely than I could have hoped. They're looking gorgeous in the front heart-shaped gravel bed...

 Not a million miles away - staying in the heart-shaped bed - is this gorgeous little perennial flax. Think I featured it in an earlier blog, but now it's much more floriferous!  This picture was taken a few days ago when I thought it was really going for it. But now it looks like every bud has opened into a vibrant blue flower, and yet there's still plenty left to open! Magic!

The other real beauties in the heart-shaped bed are the Nectaroscordums. I never get over the elegance and delightful peculiarity of their flowers! Here's one as it just finished opening... 

And, if we're talking about blooms which are doing the herbaceous equivalent of singing at the top of their voices, you can't ignore Alliums! I've lost a couple of Purple Sensations this year, but the ones that have come back are doing really well. The one near the Euphorbia Polychroma is in full flower now and looking gorgeous!

Moving from the front into the back, the first thing you clap eyes on when you wander through the gate is my Rosa Banksiae 'lutea'. Unfortunately I pruned it wrongly (still learning!) last year, so it's not as covered in flowers as it should be, but there are patches which are absolutely plastered with these wonderful little clusters of creamy yellow flowers. Fingers crossed I'll get the pruning right next time and the whole plant will look as good!

In the middle of the back garden the Cirsiums are really coming into their own (though not quite as mad as the ones in the front!) As beautiful as they are when they're in full  bloom, I find them most charming when they're in this half-way house stage - half spikey, half incredible pin-cushion of a bud!

Further down the garden, things become a bit less showy and there are lots of little woodland plants secretly putting on some spectacular displays. Here are a couple of my favourites - Viola Sororia 'Dark Freckles' and Dodecatheon jeffreyi...

Right at the back of the garden, the new Bog is looking lovely! I'm so pleased with it and all the plants I put in and around it. A few of them were moisture-lovers I'd been trying to appease elsewhere in the garden with limited success and which are now ecstatic to be in their rightful place. Others are naughty new purchases, including this flamboyant Primula Japonica 'Miller's Crimson'. 

And my absolute favourite at the moment is my Saxifrage Hirsuta. I didn't realise quite how hairy it was until I zoomed in on the picture - check out the little hairs along the stems of the second shot, each with a tiny pink tip!

So, all in all, spring has well and truly sprung and the garden's brimming with bootiful blooms and seriously smashing seedheads. The overall effect's a little chaotic, but I like it!!