LOTS OF COLOUR IN APRIL GARDEN

beautiful, beautiful!! you have some really lovely plants and a lovely garden

What an amazing garden, Bornagain. You obviously put a lot of work into it. Lovely selection of plants, too - I want all of them!

That's just lovely!

Ah, Ba, it's all looking so lovely - so much colour. It looks nice enough to sit out already!

I didn't realise how big your garden was,Ba..it is beautiful..and a lovely lay out..you have some wonderful plants too..a lot of love and hard work has gone into that..thanks for sharing :o)

Great Blog gives a wonderful perspective of the garden from above, and all so neat and tidy, think I need you to do a makeover on parts of mine.

What great pics! Your garden looks wonderful!!!!!!!!
Love all your plants..very nice :)

Your garden looks wonderful. Lots of lovely climbers and pretty planting. Well done :o)

Wow what a lovely garden:)

your garden is lovely BA and love the way you have partitioned it like rooms, love the little bistro set area, bet its lovely having breakfast sat there :o))

Terrific blog Ba . . . and you have some gorgeous plants there. The Clem which you say "will look fantastic in a week or two" looks fantastic already! I love the Erysimum and the Narcissus Thalia . . . and don't worry about the Sambucus Black Lace - you can cut it hard back and it will soon grow more bushily (is that a word?!) probably in the autumn, but hopefully someone will know. :))

What a pretty garden Ba.......how do you ever get any work done in your office!

Thanks Sticki:-)

Gattina, you can have any celandine you find and I've noticed the odd dandelion flower too lol. I'm sorry to disillusion you, but I'm a rather lazy gardener;-))

Thank you Nariz, at the moment we're having bursts of bright sun speedily followed by heavy showers... then drizzle...wierd. What's it like where you are?:-)

Hi BA enjoyed the visit to your lovely garden, the Clematis on the arch is wonderful and I love Heuchera Sweet Tea such a lovely colour, also Polemonium Heavent Sent, I have the Dicentra but it is nowhere near as advanced as yours! Weather here awful just cannot get out the rain is so heavy and cold with it too!!

Hi Bornagain, Lovely garden great pics, your hard work has definately paid off!

Wow beautiful Bornagain, sooo much colour already, love your unknown clematis :-)

Your garden is lovely Bornagain, love all the plants you have there..:)))

What is it left for me to say. ADMIRATION!!

Gosh I'm never going to be able to catch up with your lovely comments, but I'll give it a go:-) Karenfrance, I'm afraid that between the flashes of sun (when it is quite warm), the weather is very cold and we have had almost constant rain! Bloomer, it isn't really big, just looks bigger in pics and the layout was in part inspired by Louis circle garden and many of your lovely gardens on GOY. The hard landscaping work was carried out by Makeover Trev.
Anyone interested in seeing it before and after can look at my July 2010 blogs:-) Bj's, it looks neat the further away from it you are;-) Thanks Pixie Terra and Nana, it's pouring down again now...still hosepipe ban cos it's at the wrong time!:-) Sandra, I love a garden made into rooms too as I think it makes it look bigger:-) Thanks Sheila, it did have one very long arm so I cut it the same length as the other lol:-) Hello Pam\0/ I hardly ever get any work done anywhere:-)

Thanks Carole, I think the hot weather early on fooled them into thinking it was spring...now though they're probably regretting their early appearance...it's always raining and cold now except for brief flashes of sun. Have you had Heaven sent long? I love the colour of its leaves dont you? Ithink it's sterile but does it spread out well?:-)

Thanks Crv, only a little one though not such hard work...and no lawn:-) Hi Simbad, i've never had such colour in April, I bought the unknown clematis at a car boot, I love it too:-) Thanks Michaella, can't wait for my roses to start:-) Thank you so much Costas:-)

That all looks great - there is very little I can add that hasn't been said already.....except your Poppy - if it's an oriental poppy - you need to cut it back after flowering to encourage it to flower again. It also helps to tidy it up a bit!

Fantastic, beautiful [plants Ba...Did you prune your Sambucus this Spring?...They respond very well to hard pruning and it might help to improve its shape....:>)

Hi Scottish, thanks, it's from a "super poppy" collection from T&M, and poor weedy things they were too. 2 survived after 'nursing' along. I'll see what it does this year..it had better knock my eyes out lol . When you say tidy it up a bit...what do you mean? Does it need it now? :-)

Thanks Motinot, I think I cut it back early this year when it was warm. I did it more to even it up though as it had one very long 'arm' over fence height and one longish 'arm'. Can I shape it after flowering? I do want flowers this year:-))

Hi BA, lovely photos, i have sambucus too, mine Thundercloud, i cut mine back last year to try to get it to bush out abit, but it grew back the same, very similar to yours, didnt get any flowers last year but have got some coming on it this year, although i am slightly disappointed with the shape, will see how it develops, when i bought it a few years ago it was fuller :^)

Hi again BA, i have a picture of mine on a blog i did last year Garden 2nd July, 3rd picture down :^)

I'll have a look Daylily. I wonder if we cut them right down would they branch out more?:-)

Just had a look at your lovely garden Dlily. Yours looks better than mine and mine seems a bit limp too more like perennial than woody. It was the same last year:-(

Hi BA, thanks very much, that was after i cut it right back last year, is quite woody now but new growth is quite soft, we will have to see how it goes :^)

BA, when I say tidying up - oriental poppies tend to look very yukky after flowering - and as the seed heads are sterile (so I've been told but don't quote me on that) - you can cut them right down to the ground and the foliage will regrow and with luck you will get a 2nd flush of flowers - not as many as the first but you get 1 or 2. This is only for orientals - I don't know anything about any other kind!

Thanks Scottish, I've never cut down the leaves before, but I will give it a go. These 'super' poppies are definitely from orientals, they are supposed to be smaller and sturdier and naturally flower twice according to T&M, a company I no longer buy from:-)

Your garden looks really lovely and I love the way you've made different rooms with the arches. The clematis Avalanche is beautiful. I've never seen this one before.

Thanks Rose, I first saw c. Avalanche here on GOY too, it was on a Floribunda blog or pic. It looks even better now as more of the buds have opened. It's poured down here all day apart from a flash of sun lasting about 5 minutes occasionally:-)

Hi Ba, the garden has come on in leaps and bounds since the makeover and that clematis `Avalanche` is a beaut ~ went to Aldi today and bought Clematis, Dr Rupel, Etoile violette, and Comtese de bouchard all at £1.39 each cant plant them out yet the weather is not nice at all, we are having some quite high winds.

Is it an early flowering clematis and did you have to send away for it? Do you think it will flower continuously? They are bargains what you got Stroller. We have an Aldis here but I've never seen plants in it. We have had hailstones again today followed by heavy rain, again!

Rose,Thursday is usually plant day at Aldi,but they still have some left on other days at ours..I got my tulips there last Autumn,and they have been wonderful..

It's amazing what bargains you can pick up in supermarkets isn't Stroller. Morrisons often has clem bargains, I always end up buying some all under £2 as well. I used to have etoile violet so dainty, lost it though:-(

Rose I bought it on line from Whitehall garden centre. It was full of flower when I bought it too. Not cheap, but lovely quality:-) It is an early flowerer and evergreen, that's why I thought it would be nice to look at through the year from patio window. I have another later flowering clem climbing up it, Avalanche is in a large pot so I can give it some shelter:-)

\0/ hello Bloomer:-)

\O/ to you too,Ba :o))

Absolutely love it ....:-))

Thanks Bloomer for that info. and thanks again Bornagain. I 'll have to look online for it.

Thanks Nanjo:-)

Rose, will you stop giving that Bloomer the credit for my hard work harrumph. Bloomer, stop taking the credit! It says in on their website Rose that they won the top online garden centre award...whatever that is lol, but they are good:-)

Behave yourself,Ba..just giving Rose a choice..and a cheap option..:o) we are not all made of money..Lol....I don't order anything on line..I need the excercise..:o)