Cloncallow

Hosta Great Expectations and the delicate lime green of an unfolding fern. What a winning combination for late May.

Maybe autumn isn’t so bad after all.
Fruit trees heavily laden; from top left :
Apple Discovery
Apple Dick Davies
Apple Lord Lambourne
Pear Beth
These were planted in 2011, root stock from Future Forests.
They took a few years to establish and strengthen.
2020 is looking like the best yield so far.

Lilium Mr.Job is a great mixer.
At this time of year its lovely vanilla cream petals stained with red wine mixes with a lot of shrubby plants.

Mr. Job , an Oriental x trumpet Lily is fragrant and hardy.
It grows tall and appreciates a shrubby shoulder to lean on.
Here it is pictured mingling with Leycesteria formosa,the Himalaya honeysuckle, aka flowering nutmeg, granny's curls or pheasant berry.
A very useful shrub whose name I only came to know of recent times.

Leycesteria formosa was a childhood favourite of Gertrude Jekyll who describes it as
'A soft wooded shrub, whose beauty , without being showy, is full of charm and refinement'
That's what we like here at Cloncallow, charm and refinement 😃


@ Wicklow, Ireland

Waiting for opening time.

We had a black and white weekend:

Black
Yesterday morning a Raven was heard and spotted on the tallest spruce tree .The voice was so distinctive,we knew this was previously unheard in the garden. We looked up and up and up.
Take away: must invest in decent binoculars.

White
This morning, 10am we had a visit from a Snow White Egret. I saw it sail in and land on a weeping birch tree overlooking the pond. It’s flight was so like the heron who visits us frequently. Because it is not as big as the heron the ducks were not Intimidated into total silence, as they are when the heron lands on the side of the pond.

@ Wicklow, Ireland