Vinca

This little purple flower with a white centre with five spiralling petals is called a Vinca. It has glossy dark green leaves and sprawls across the ground under dappled shady patches. We used to have some in our garden but I think the shade got too deep and other plants grew over it. We will have to try again. It cheers me to see this purple among the muted colours of helibores and fading tulips. Soon the summer will arrive and the flowers will change again.

Camellia

Beauty on a spring morning. Petals turned toward the sun. Glistening pink surfaces. Yellow/orange centres. They look edible, like gorgeous sweets. Crisp and crunchy, or like cupcake icing. Sugar lumps of tasty colour. Then the dark green shining leaves. They add a polished background to their jewel like flowers. How strong they grow in early spring. The frost sometimes nibbles petal and leaf. But on a bright sunlight morning, what better sight.

Still growing

Fushia plant in a hanging basket, reaching up to the sky. My Fushias seem to last through the winter (you can buy standard Fushias that can be grown as hedging plants) I love the way the buds swell and their petal skirts swirl out, some are called ballerina among other varieties. I love the mixes of colour you get from pale pinks to dee magenta. The shapes from plain petals to billowing folds. You can get all sorts of flowers for summer but Fushias are at the top of my list.

Blossom time

The sky, bright blue.

Clouds of cherry blossom

float above the ground,

tied down to branches,

so they don’t soar up,

creating pink and white billows,

high up in the cerulean sky.

Blossoming petals,

snowing down in the breeze,

landing on soil and paths,

scattered by the breeze.

Cotton candy flowers,

nourishing the bees.

 

Hydrangea

IMG_20200301_185058_664

New plant for the garden, although its really too cold to go directly into the garden at the moment. Hydrangeas change colour depending on the acidity of your soil. I don’t remember which way it is, but they either turn blue or red depending if the soil is acid or alkaline. You can do a pH test if you want to. The flowers appear as florets, lots of little flower heads spread across the bloom. There are different sorts, some with small flowers which looks like lace, others are chunkier, some are flat headed, others have rounded bunches of flowers. Leaves are large and usually mid to dark green with serrated edges to the leaves.

I remember the pink hydrangea in my Grans garden, it was pink with huge heads of flowers. I did a painting of her in front of the plant. I will have to try and find a photo of it.

X