garden – Ann Mackay: Inspired by Nature

NB: A note for WordPress Reader users – you need to click on the title of the post again to come out of the reader and go to the post itself. This allows you to see the whole of the top photograph. (Otherwise you may see just a tiny section!)

We had our first glimpse of winter this week, with a frost over most of the garden. There had been a dusting of frost over house rooftops and cars before that, but this was the first real cold of the year.

I’m always hoping that there will still be a few flowers around when the frosts arrive. There’s often a few lingering roses and, when frosted, these make likely subjects for a wintry photograph. The rose here is ‘Rhapsody in Blue’, although these flowers look more magenta than the usual dark purple. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s due to the effects of early morning light, or it might be because the petals are frozen. Whatever the reason, they look much lighter than they usually do. (However, you can see a slight trace of the darker colour on some of the petals in the photo below.)

At the start of winter there are not many flowers remaining in the garden. At the moment there are these roses, a couple of flowering shrubs, and here and there a flower or two still clinging onto the smaller plants. At the sunnier end of the garden, the few bumblebees that are still active are making good use of the yellow flowers of the mahonia bush. Nearer the house, the scented pink flowers of Viburnum bodnantense ‘Dawn’ should be with us right through until early spring.

Photography in the garden can be very limited at this time of year, so if there’s a frosty morning I like to make the most of it and get outside before it melts. While the gardener in me worries about the effects of frost on plants that aren’t entirely hardy, my creative side is delighted to find something to photograph. I often have mixed feelings when things turn icy! ❄

Frosted roses and buds — Only a slight trace of the usual dark purple is visible on the petals of this frosted flower of ‘Rhapsody in Blue’.

The red and purple flowers of Tulip 'Little Beauty'

These bright little flowers are Tulipa humilis ‘Little Beauty’, a dwarf tulip that is creating a vibrant glow of colour here in my garden. They are very small tulips, growing only 4 to 6 inches high, with flowers around the size of a large crocus.

My reason for planting these, as opposed to the bigger tulip cultivars, is that they are a species tulip. That means that they are fully perennial and will probably multiply over the years. Most of my larger tulips have gradually died out and now there are just a few lonely leftovers scattered here and there in the borders. (The exception to this is a clump of viridiflora tulips which continue to flower well and slowly increase in numbers.)

I’m glad to say that these dwarf tulips have been a success since they were planted in 2002, having – so far – reliably reappeared each spring. Their resilience encourages me to try more species tulips in future. (I still like the bigger hybrid tulips, but to avoid the sad look of stray tulips left alone as they dwindle, I’d plant the hybrids in pots initially. After their first year I could move the bulbs to a mixed cut-flower area in our planned veggie garden to see if any survive and flower again.)

Tiny though they are, these tulips make plenty of impact when the sun shines. Then the petals open wide, allowing you to see their attractive markings. Inside the deep crimson flowers are centres of a rich purple-blue, edged by a border of pale pink. For me, ‘Little Beauty’ certainly lives up to its name, with its vivid colouration adding a lively gleam to the springtime garden.

Tag: garden

A Chilly Glimpse of Winter

Gleaming Gems: Tulipa humulis ‘Little Beauty’