Beating the Big C, the Mitcheldean Garden 2020
Hurtling into Summer

This page is part of a series of garden blogs from 2020. Click here for the index.

It's been almost exactly a month since I sifted through my latest photographs. When I'm out in the garden, there's a non stop evolution going on and only looking back now can I appreciate the changes. Overall. there's a feeling of constant bright colour, at this time of year the sunshine tends to make it look quite harsh. And it's not just the flowers, the copper beech is clearly in need of a hair cut. 

Back in mid-April, there were lines of bright tulips on either side of the small azaleas. now the tulips are almost gone and the azaleas are in flower. 

We find that our standard red tulips are the first to flower, followed by standard yellows. Over the years, Yuehong has bought a fair number of special tulips which invariably flower later for some reason. I can't face trying to keep them separated and so it's always a pleasant surprise when they open up. 

Yes, that yellow monster is a tulip and the very late dark red hairy monster provides a link to the next section.

The only truly happy azaleas we have are the ones in the rockery and they flower last. As for the rhododendrons, the lighter coloured ones flower first such that the full red ones and the purple monster at the top that we inherited are still some way off their peak. We have a group of 5 in the lower garden which started life here roughly the same size but this white one is now twice the size of any of the others.

Yuehong's favourite is the pale one on the left on the other side of the steps. The colours are so dazzlingly bright that the camera cannot do them justice.

Yuehong says that rhododendrons look better the closer you get to them, the details on the individual flowers are quite amazing.

One of my first of many tasks when we return from Penang is to rescue the hundreds of dahlias from the garage. I squeeze as many as I can into the greenhouse and this year within four weeks many were already full of green shoots. Another 3 weeks saw many pot bound and it was time to move them out into the big world and take their chances on the possibility of a late frost..

This is our new show bed which contains the 'brightest and best'. April had been so warm and sunny that the tulips had been whisked out and the dahlias planted in the first week of May. The dark dahlias followed into the bed next to the vegetable patch. 

Bluebells too rarely come singly but they are slowly colonising the bed in front of the house where the early season conditions are so good that they grow tall and straight. Even if he wanted to, Garfield would find it difficult to tip toe through the ones at the top. Last year saw this top bed get a makeover. The bluebells survived as I expected and next year there will be even more. There are two dozen peonies mixed in there and some of them should be in flower for the next chapter of the 2020 story. It may look totally chaotic, but there was some kind of a plan when I rearranged it in 2019. 

Yuehong rebuilt the lily bed last year to give it some structure and it's looking very good ahead of its season. The first irises are already out...

Elsewhere, I've had to be selective with the pictures, many worthy contenders failed to make the cut. Our purple lilac is now a guaranteed spectacle, the lesser whiter one is not too far behind. I am pleased to report that our cytisus has survived Yuehong's overenthusiastic pruning two tears ago, it will get a gentler repeat next year.

Yuehong's roses have been tentative, they've not been fooled by April's temperatures, perhaps they can remember the last two dry summers which were not to their liking. This bloom is from her favourite 'Double Delight' which also sports an intense fragrance. We enjoy our clematis while we can, this year we have resolved to water them near continuously as they have shallow roots compared to their bedmates and at the moment it's working.

Back up by the summer house, we have an arc of bargain buy small azaleas and miniature rhododendrons. behind them our half a dozen peonies which after 4 years or so are now starting to look established. Behind is the bench from where we like to relax and look out over the village in the late afternoon while enjoying some suitable refreshment. 

Invariably Garfield appears at some stage and leaps on the table for attention. Since the bench gets shaded quite early at this time of year, Yuehong got a chair out one day so she could sit in the sun a little longer. However, before she could sit down, somebody else had grabbed it...

Click here for the next part.