Creeping Colour



Tulipa Clusiana 'Lady Jane'

After the early splashes of colour provided by crocus, and those dark velvety anemones de Caen, it's refreshing to see the petals of these bright tulips opening up to the March sunshine.  I ordered some bulbs three years ago from a Dutch supplier and more or less chucked them down in different corners of the south-facing garden, where they have quickly naturalised.

Tulipa Kaufmanniana 'Ice Stick'

These species tulips are particuarly wiry and slender but not at all self-effacing.  They look quite demure when closed... but as they open you become aware of that brash painted stripe on the outer petal. 

Once fully open to the sun, you get the 'poached egg' effect of a rich yellow throat intensified by yellow stamens curled within.

 

You can see why they're sometimes referred to as the 'waterlily' type of tulip.

Tulipa Clusiana comes out a couple of weeks later and is even more delicate, its yellow interior speckled with dark brown stamens.

Being small but perfectly-formed, these early tulips have less foliage to worry about and give way gracefully to later perennials.  According to the bulb growers, they should flower in March to April in the south of England (though possibly not this year...)

Less striking but equally welcome are the flowers of Narcissus 'Sailboat', which open early and form a natural-looking group under the olive tree.  

Its petals are slightly reflexed and, again, there's little in the way of foliage to die down afterwards.   Nature provides a profusion of blooms in this climate, but once the sun comes out they soon begin to wither and there's nothing worse than having to look at a tangle of brown leaves, being slowly devoured by snails!

My aubretia bank has nearly come into full-flower now and is certainly doing its job of hiding a slope of unsightly rock and broken tile. 

In the top left of picture you can just see part of the pathway of oyster shells that we laid down over a weed-suppressing membrane. 

There’s a nearby beach on the Gironde Estuary where these empty shells tend to accumulate in piles, washed clean by countless tides; we discovered they’re ideal as ‘top-dressing’ for paths or used as a mulch around trees!  

Spring is really gathering pace now, I’m glad to say, and fat bumblebees are chasing one another from pieris to mahonia – the latter’s flowers are as sweetly-scented as freesias.

Last week we heard our first cuckoo and glimpsed the newly-arrived hoopoes, with their unmistakable crests and undulating woodpecker flight. 

The blackcap is back on our bird table, fighting off competition from great tits and sparrows, and swallows are once more ducking and diving over fields and ponds.

Although our climate is generally about 10 degrees warmer than southern England, I reckon we track the UK weather quite closely as we’re equally influenced by the jet stream.  Hence we’ve had a very wet winter and spring has come about 10 days later than normal, judging by the return of swallows and so forth.

Temperatures continue to be depressed by the north-easterly wind but overall there’s more sunshine than in England, so our soil is warmer and things like peas and beans are already flourishing.  At least our strong coastal winds provide one benefit in drying the soil more quickly so local farmers have been able to get on with their ploughing. 

And it won’t be long before the vines are bursting into life once more!