7/22/2023 0 Comments Cornus mas budThe Coronilla glauca has more flowers and the ever green leaves a good addition to the hedge. My plants are quite young but I am hoping for a better show this year. I have seen the first flower on the Cornus mas. The flowers of the apricot trees stand out on the bare tree discretely. The willows are still bright but I am keeping my eye on them as the leaf buds are just visible and soon they will have to be reduced to stumps providing lots of canes. The large plum tree on the right has finished flowering and has started to put on leaf. Spring continues to be mild with plenty of rain to support the abundant new growth. Likewise I have recently added Cornus mas or Cornelian Cherry to the garden as the pollen is supposed to be high in protein so I was glad to see the bees on the flowers. I never see our catkins mobbed with bees like some of our flowers so I was glad to catch this bee this morning with a heavy load of hazel pollen. We are told that hazel pollen is a very important early pollen for bees. The flowers are full of honey bees, bumblebees and other pollinators. The plum tree opened up this week but today was the first sunny day that we could appreciate it properly. The noisiest part of the garden is near the plum tree, although patches of Hellebore try to rival the plum tree for the highest “buzz” volume. The bees love them and gather the pollen until the flower ages and the stamens fall off. I did not do my usual moving of self-seeded plants last autumn but the plants I have moved in previous years are providing so many flowers after another dark, damp week here. If I had only one word to describe the garden today it would be “Hellebores”. I’m sure it is looking forward to the sunshine as much as we are. We kept a careful eye on the weather forecast and put it back into the bedroom when the temperatures dropped again. Last week we were so pleased with the sunny days that we took it onto the terrace for its mid-winter summer break. It cannot stay outside in the winter so we bring it in to the spare bedroom. Although it is small it produced 52 lemons last year. The Hellebores are starting to cheer up the garden and they are certainly welcomed by the bees. They have just started properly flowering this year but so far the bees seem unimpressed. I planted three Cornus mas as I had read that the flowers were attractive to bees. The plants in the shadier spots flower later and prolong the availability for the bees. We find it a very useful hedging plant and have it in several places in the garden. The Viburnum tinus is much more generous and provides a bountiful supply of winter pollen. The bees do not stay long on each flower and I feel it must be such a little reward of nectar from each flower. The grass has started to grow and the Speedwell (Veronica persica) has decided it is time to flower so there are plenty of blue patches in the grass for the bees. Our old plum tree is flowering but we are back to the cold and overnight it drops so low that a thin layer of ice has to be broken from the birds’ water in the morning. One day the temperature rose to 17 degrees Centigrade. We have had some long-awaited sunny days.
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