April bouquets

This one. No this one. That one..

It has been months since I have had a surfeit of bouquets to show you.

But boy have I had a bumper month of flowers. And quite unexpectedly too. I have been travelling. And there is the small matter of pretty endless rain. Oh and storms. And now Covid.

Gazing at bouquets in vases while sneezing has been a tonic. These are Ballerina. So elegant.

Here are a few highlights.

The base layer is endless sprays of cerinthe. It overwintered well and one day, when my back is turned, the potager will be a cerinthe forest. It’s such a fabulous self-seeder for me.

The darker tulips are definitely my favourites. Queen of the Night, Black Parrot. plus a new one for me Labrador.

And they go so well with the blues of the cerinthe and the camassias.

Oh and now I can see I shoved a lot of quince blossom in this one. And very tall muscari. They don’t often have super long stalks. But I found some hidden in the jungle of the Dry Garden fighting for space with some gladioli and stipa gigantea.

Have a few more.

I managed to do a few deliveries in between house arrest and disappearing from actually seeing people.

This one went down very well at the Butcher’s as no one could guess the orange flowers.

I can hear all the Australians shouting at their screens. Kangaroo paws. It’s my first ever proper harvest of the plants that are flowering like mad in the potting shed. I’m so thrilled they made it through winter and can throw up enough stalks I can actually cut them for bouquets.

Antony won’t be thrilled when all those snowball blooms drop over the cash desk counter.

That’s the frilly Labrador on the left.

And how about this for a dried flower inspiration. I nipped over to our neighbours with some bouquets earlier in the month and came across Agnes’ dried flower arrangement for her mimosa.

Abundance works.

I had to delay this blog post for a day as I needed to consult my bulb list to try and work out which was the stellar tulip this year.

Note to self. Write the actual description on the list to avoid delays. And the winner for 2024 is Tulip Double Surprise.

They have no scent. But if you want to have the illusion you can grow peonies in April then these tulips will work for you.