Morning Has Broken….

How refreshingly invigorating to be out in the garden first thing in the morning, greeting the children as they continue their upward stretch towards the warming rays of sunlight!

The Rare and Unusual border is showing increasing signs of life and activity. I’ve been most eager to see how some of the recently transplanted jewels managed over the winter – not that we actually had a winter – but more to see how they would adjust to being relocated from the shaded protection of the Shaded Walk! This was the answer that awaited me this morning!

  Epimedium ‘Sakura Maru’ the most recent addition from Lost Horizons seems to be quite content, busily sending forth his delicate new foliage! I cannot wait to see his claw shaped blooms later this Spring!

I fretted like an expectant parent that Anemonopsis macrophylla would not be happy – being used to the heavy shade afforded it along the Shaded Walk, but I simply had to move it so that I would be able to better appreciate its blooms without having to replicate the late Houdini’s contortionist bodily shapes!

After being graced with a single jaw dropping bloom last year [see below] I knew that Glaucidium palmatum needed to have a showcase location, front and centre of the Rare and Unusual border. I counted three potential blooms this morning, leading to one of my trademark yelps that the neighbors are slowly adjusting to [Oops, I forgot we have new neighbors to the right, no wonder she looked over with an alarmed look on her face and then rushed inside to the safety of her home! Note to self….]

   The second and third bloom are slightly more difficult to see, but trust me, they are there, all snugguldy bugguldy, waiting for the warmth of the sun to coax them to open, and present me with something like this….

I am most anxious for the clump of Diphylleia cymosa to return itself to its former glory. It started with my sharing some with a kind hearted gardening conspirator, not to mention the fact that its inopportune placement, smack in the centre of the walkway of the Shaded Walk, made it prone to being stepped on by my anything but delicate size elevens! Nestled safely beneath the upward reaching branches of Cotinus coggygria ‘Grace,’ I hope that one day soon it will bring back familiar memories of this…..

There is a delightful flower hidden within the delightfully fuzzy foliage of Saruma henryi. I adore how easily this plant is to divide, having three substantial sized clumps throughout the garden.

The newly emerging foliage of an unidentified [I will need to see the flowers!] Epimedium bring it all home for me! How can you not fall head over heels in its delicate beauty. They look like golden leaves!

One of my most favourite moments in the Spring garden is when the wonderful pink infused stems of Polygonatum burst through the ground! I am always in awe of the prolific abundance of new growth that appears every year. I cannot find it within me to complain about its rambunctiousness in the slightest – especially when its the delightful variegated Polygonatum odoratum ‘Variegatum!’   

A delightful new Corydalis, thanks to the generosity of D, whose garden I oversee throughout the year. This divine gem, tentatively identified as Corydalis solida ‘Purple Beauty’ grows from bulbs that are most happy to spread throughout the lawn!

And the countdown is upon us! Soon we will be shaking our heads in wonder, trying to discern when exactly it was that this…

   … turned into this, and this!