Onions

We've just returned from a glorious ten days in England to a glorious weekend at home. Our first full day in the Cotswolds we lucked into a village festival that included open gardens throughout the village. Be still my heart - I was practically hopping on one foot and the other all afternoon. Luckily, Kurt and Griffin and John were only hurried by the thought of a pint and pub lunch and like plants almost as much as I do (or love me enough to fake it). All those gardens, and what do I like best? Onions! The Allium giganteum made the most beautiful display - profile, really - in nearly every garden we saw. Like just about everything else in our garden, they bloom in May/June, but I'm determined to have some! Here it appears under an arbor of Laburnum.

We saw cotoneaster used all kinds of ways and it now seems like the perfect plant to me because it blooms in spring, has beautiful berries in fall, can cascade or sprawl - I loved it beside the stairs at Snowshill Manor.

The only garden disappointment in England was that the roses were about one-two weeks from blooming. Columbine was everywhere and forget-me-nots hover about all the gardens. It was absolutely beautiful and green.

Back home, our Ballerina rose, foxglove and peonies are in full bloom, so it's a very pink garden! I'm off to Roxbury for allium and purple after this.

I was relieved to see that the bloodroot, fern, Lenten roses and ginger that Mama gave me are thriving. Either Peter remembered to water or we had some rain.