Once things begin to move in the early season garden, every day can bring the pleasure of a new arrival. After a chilly spell, or perhaps at the end of days of false hopes, suddenly something is poking up through the leaf mould in the borders, with a clear message: Spring is round the corner. But March and April 2024 weren’t so simple. Spring came in fits and starts to the Dumfriesshire Garden and set the tone for a mixed season in the garden, when the notes rarely came together in a harmonious whole.
Nevertheless, here’s a selection of just a few of the plants that marked the intermittent Spring at various points, and gave a lot of pleasure in the process: narcissi, celandine, hyacinth and squill in yellow, blue and white, along with the bright stems of monk’s hood and iris.
My particular early favourites though have just one colour at their disposal and always feels particularly special. I’m thinking of the several hostas that are scattered round the garden. First the spike of green that appears when you least expect it. Then after a day or so, the tightly rolled, unfurling leaves and the promise of luxuriant growth. To me they capture everything that is fresh and anticipatory about spring.
This year I bought three of the hosta variety named Tyrannousaurus Rex. It’s said to be the biggest hosta of them all. Two I gave away to friends, and the third I’m looking out for next spring, as I wander round the garden ‘by the light of the magical moon’.
The full list of pieces that make up my A-Z in the Dumfriesshire Garden in 2024 can be found here: https://davidgrahamclark.net/a-z-of-the-dumfriesshire-garden-in-2024/
Quotidian 