What thing do you love in your garden?

[MerylSqueak]

In praise of lovely plants! Which ones bring you joy?

Hooray for the chocolate chip aguja I have planted in a shady area. Spreads nicely, looks good all year and I like the flowers. It's a right little trooper.

Hooray for the floribunda rose The Fairy. It's neat and compact and flowers like mad.

Hooray for the anemone blanda I have near my pond and am really looking forward to seeing how my fern and astilbe arrangement works out.

Also a cheer for the random hellebore I bought. It's given such good value.

Today my favourite plant is my Chaenomeles “Orange Storm”. It’s flowering its pants off and is an absolute cheery joy on this cold and rainy day.

Blue bells are out at the moment too, if you like blue flowers.

Oh yes, I have those as well! And muscari.

My roses look like they’re about to bloom any day. They are usually late May/early June

Lavender, we have loads and they do really well. Also the many hydrangea we have.

Also a mention for tomatoes and basil in the greenhouse, always do really well.

Can you tell its nice and warm and dry here?😁

Sadly we are so dry and sandy that all my David Austin roses really struggle

Same

Do you mind me asking, what containers are best for the tomatoes?
I have some in pots but I feel they are going to be too small.

A tree peony with a lovely shape.
A huge fern
Exochorda (flowering now)
Clematis viticella

The ever-changing view from the bedroom window. Everything is overgrown and really tall, so stunning. At the moment there is Amelanchier in full bloom, then a selection of spring greens, and at the far end, blocking the neighbours house apart from a tiny bit of roof, a 50 year old pink flowering cherry mingling with a bright orange berberis

Later there will be rowans, the curious white new growth of a whitebeam, apple blossom, quince blossom; then rowan berries, autumn colours including Vitis coignetiae, and a bit of a rest before we start-again with catkins on a contorted hazel, Cornus mas flowering yellow on bare stems, witch hazel, and two earlier flowering cherries.

oh, and I’ve forgotten the lilacs.

I must plant some Stocks, they are Heavenly on Summer nights.

At the moment it’s my azaleas. Just such a joyful blaze of colour and abuzz with bees 🐝😊

Our little pond. Marsh marigold round the edge,water spearmint and water forget me nots. Tons of tadpoles.

For the smell - viburnum, roses, wallflowers, honeysuckle, mock orange, lilac, sweet william and lavender.
For the taste - my plum tree, thornless blackberry, rhubarb patch and herb garden.
For the flowers - all of them, but especially the spring bulbs, forsythia and kerria that cheerily signal the end of winter, then the rhododendrons, roses and peony.

I’m loving all the small bird activity in my little garden. Have a couple of places for them to drink and bathe which I keep topped up in drier times. There’s a number of well established bushes which gives them cover and security from larger birds, although the magpie got to one nest full of blackbird eggs I spied. The robin family are really quite tame and I can get pretty close, they seem to know who I am now. Added a pic I took on time lapse by a water station.

Next door have had there entire lawn Astro-turfed though, about 1000 sq ft of the stuff so at least they have a place to get worms and grubs still.

@halfpasteleven I don't put my tomatoes in containers as I have a bed in the greenhouse and they go in there. That way their roots can go down as far as they like as the bed is directly onto the soil.

I have tried growing tomatoes in grow bags etc but never had much luck. I think its difficult to give them enough moisture and space in pots

I used to love my almond trees because the pink flowers are so spectacular and cheering in early spring. Sadly over the past few years wood pigeons have taken to eating every bloom they can reach from the branches that support their weight. The poor trees are looking slightly sorry for themselves now. We still get a good harvest of nuts though so I'm loathe to replace them.

My absolute favourite plant is an Adriatic fig tree. I've grown Brown Turkey before and they are delicious, but Adriatic is next level. Just for a few precious days each year we eat the ripe fruits for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

My hellebores which flower for 6 months in the darkest of winters in shade or sun. They really work hard for a living and look amazing.
And my english bluebells. They remind me of so many things I loved.

My silver birches are wonderful all year round. We only planted these a couple of years ago, though one was from my mum and has been in a pot for about 18 years. The other 4 grew from seed from the tree we planted in the ground at our old house (the same age as my mums pot grown one, and it's amazing the difference between them). We've planted them quite close together to try and keep them a bit smaller and the amount of different birds we get visiting now is wonderful. We get lots of starlings, collar doves, pigeons and jackdaws, but we now get robins, goldfinches and last week two long tailed tits!

My mock oranges, “Philadelphus Manteau d’Hermine”
Really pretty, long flowering and smell truly gorgeous

I also love a tulip set I bought a few years back from Sarah Raven - beautiful colour combinations of purples & oranges

@MerylSqueak
My teucriums..two in pots, one going max in a bed

Mad not max. Tho max is also appropriate!

Not sure exactly what it is because it was planted by the previous owners but it is definitely part of the azalea family. It is in flower at the moment and it's perfume fills the whole garden. If I could bottle the smell I'd be a very rich woman. It is yellow and not the colour I would go for but it is absolutely stunning at this time of year. It's huge and I think it must be very old.

I should have posted close ups of my teucriums - they are abuzz with bees!

Last year was the first year I had a rose, which is the same as one we had at my childhood home. I’ve got far more buds on it now than last year, so looking forward to smelling those flowers.
I also love my lilac, again one from my childhood.