What's making your garden shine at the moment?

[Chippychop]

I'm just back from holiday and my garden looks a mess.. Granted the grass needs a good cut and the weeds had grown but the garden looks a bit bare and land. The garden is only 3 yrs old (building site beforehand) so it's a work in progress. I've got shrubs and herbaceous plants mainly - and I do need to add more but I could do with some colour or something - any good ideas?

It's autumn in Melbourne, so very good for flowers: tibouchina, salvia "Anthony Parker", hibiscus splendens, nasturtiums, cosmos, various plectranthus, rosemary, mandevillea, bougainvillea, the last hurrah of gardenias and lions' ears, and the year-round flowers of the crucifix orchids and abutilon. Herbs grow all year round.

This is an uplifting thread so nice to read about all your blooms. For future reference I bought my tulip bulbs in Lidls & have been really impressed. Strong red flower, sturdy plants.

The cherry trees are in blossom and they look beautiful! We have two, dessert cherry trees, planted along a west facing fence and fan trained. The blossom looks great, and by the end of July we have lots of lovely cherries to eat. They don't take up much space either. They are positioned a foot off the fence so the air can circulate. They green-up the boundary, don't take much work and give both blossom and fruit. We did it ourselves buying the trees as scions and reading an RHS book. It took about three years for them to produce fruit and look like proper fans.

And of course, the daffs.

Yes, threads like these - and the gardens they describe - do lift the spirits.

There's lots of exciting new growth in my garden at the moment, but I
am particularly enjoying the blossom on my Lidl plum tree.

My Magnolia is out too. I will check the type. It is beautiful.

After saying that none of my tulips were out a couple of days ago I thought I'd post a picture of them today. Aren't they spectacular!

Those are fabulous, Methe! I love the lily-flowered tulips best of all. What varieties are they?

I don't know, I'm sorry. The bulbs were from b&q I can remember that much.

I really should learn to keep packaging!

Lots of tulips, wisteria, wallflowers, arctic poppies, and early irises all in bloom in my garden right now. Looking lovely!

Those purple tulips look just like the 'ballade' in my garden.

Thank you!

at the tulips, which cost a stupid amount in Au, and nowhere near the range you get in the UK.

I miss Ballerina, the orange, scented tulip. I planted up a pot every year in the UK.

Now, Ballerina is one of the tulips I do have. I'll post a picture on the poring shed once it's in flower.

Potting shed, of course.

the tulips and fritillaries are looking lovely, and the lilacs, peony and choisya are just coming into bud so looking forward to them exploding. blossom is confetti-ing everything at the moment which is beautiful

I have had a lovely display of tulips , 5 different vibrant varieties from a box of tulip bulbs bought from Lidl, they have grown tall and strong and all visitors have admired them

Aubretia growing down the walls, tulips in containers, honesty, which has self seeded everywhere ...

My garden was pretty much bare till autumn so it's not very exciting. I do have a couple of pots that are looking lovely though, two big ones in particular where I'd cheated and bought selection packs of bulbs which promised to give continuous colour. I planted some cyclamen and pansies on top and I think they'll live up to the claims. They had hyacinth, chionodoxa, iris and tulip in.

Other than that, I've got anemones, daffodils and tulips in the garden. I'm just happy that things are finally starting to grow!

Perfect little dog violets (photography less perfect, sorry)

Violets everywhere, and forget-me-nots. Cowslips and speedwell.
The Japanese quinces are still flowering strongly, the red more profusely than the white. The bumblebees are ecstatic about the lungwort (Pulmonaria), which has also been flowering for the last couple of weeks.
I always plant up bulb pots and then replant them in the garden as soon as they finish, so I can fill the odd spaces and create a cheerful spot next year. I also plan my bulbs so that there's a rolling pallette of early/mid/late flowering.
Earlier on, the lawn was covered in crocuses that have accumulated over the years.
I love having a seasonal garden that changes all the time, by June it will look completely different, and the colours will have changed too.

Best week of the year in my garden. High up we've git white cherry blossom against a backdrop of next door's copper beech and silver birch, mid height flowering currant, rosemary and spiraea all in flower, then at ground level aubretia, primroses, pulmonaria, speedwell and dandelions in th as yet uncut lawn.

Hag = that sounds brilliant.
I am clueless truly

It's more good luck and experimenting than any sort of real knowledge. I grew up as a forces child, so I had no idea about leaving things be and just letting them develop naturally. We never had the same garden longer than a couple of years. As an adult, I lived in flats or in a terrace with a back yard and pots. Then we moved to Sussex and whatever I plant just grows like mad.
The violets are all from a couple of plants that I got as Mother's day presents about 10 years ago, I just kept digging up a clump and sticking them somewhere else.

I just love the fact that everything is bursting into growth - the clematis grow an inch while I make a cup of tea; the runner beans I'd forgotten to sow earlier came up in a couple of days; the grass is lush and green and glossy.

I'm also nervously eyeing up the greenhouse and wondering where on earth I'm going to put all those seedlings when they're ready to go out.