Plant Highlights in the Curve Garden, April 2022
At this time of the year, visitors to the Garden especially love to see our changing display of Tulips in pots, with their amazing array of colours, but we’re taking a moment to celebrate some of the ‘quieter’ botanical beauties that are filling our hearts with joy.
Over the years we have worked hard to develop the ‘woodland’ plantings, underneath the Birch and Alder trees and right now we love some of this year’s planting combinations. The Shuttlecock Ferns (Matteuccia struthiopteris) have unfurled their fresh new fronds, in among perennials such as Epimedium, with its delicate heart-shaped leaves and Dusky Cranesbill (Geranium phaeum) which has freely seeded itself everywhere.
Now that the leaves have filled out on the trees, the succession of Spring flowers, all planted as bulbs last Autumn, is coming to an end, but if you look closely, you can still spot some precious little jewels, like Erythronium pagoda and Ipheion uniflorum ‘Wisley Blue’, with its sweet-scented lavender blue star-shaped flowers. The latter was a ‘trial’ bulb for us this year and we plan to grow a lot more of it for next Spring. Another first for us which we plan to repeat is Camassia leichtlinii Caerulea, with its tall spikes of star-shaped dark blue flowers.
As well as the woodland plantings, we’re still enjoying the scented bee-filled blossom of our Crab Apple and espalier apple trees, and the Lilac, which is traditionally associated with May Day.
And last but not least, alongside the pots and tins of species or ‘botanical’ tulips, there are late-flowering Daffodils, Narcissus ‘Pipit’ and the sweet-scented miniature Narcissus ‘Baby Moon’ and the sky blue Muscari ‘Valerie Finnis’.
If you haven’t paid the Garden a visit this Spring, now really is a special time to drop in.
Thanks to photographer Erola Arcalis for her beautiful record of the Curve Garden on an April morning. All photos are copyright of Dalston Eastern Curve Garden.
Look out for our next blog coming soon, with photos of the Tulip display.
