This is the journal of my endeavours to grow a range of fruit, veg and flowers from seed, grow organically, and my attempts to create a personal paradise with 1/2 acre of maintained gardens and 1/2 acre wild meadows. Northern Ireland's average daily high temperatures are 18 °C (64 °F) in July and 6 °C (43 °F) in January. Soil type: Clay

Tuesday 25 March 2014

Spring Colour

Spring flowers are on display here, there and everywhere... along roadsides and decorating parks, houses and countryside. There are blocks of colour that show just how planting in bulk can be very effective. However, on a smaller budget, a few bulbs dotted around can still look good.

Left: Narcissus Tete-A-Tete planted last year, aren't as tall as many other varieties. With  Northern Ireland's windy conditions, these shorter varieties hold up better to the gales.
Above: A single Anemone Blanda comes up; planted last year.
Above: Some crocus beginning to fade, whereas others are still going strong.
Above: Gorse growing in the countryside - not a bulb - but a prickly shrub that flowers throughout Ireland. 
Above: Daffodils planted in bulk are popular sights this time of year amongst the countryside and parks planting schemes; photographed at Antrim Castle Gardens.

Long May the Spring Colour Continue!

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.

7 comments:

  1. I just feel your joy that spring has arrived, everything is so beautiful now, but the gorse.......haha, looks beautiful now but I know they are very prickly. In New Zealand they say gorse is awful. I don't know how that is in your country.
    Happy gardening, we have here beautiful springweather too.

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  2. We tend to plant mini daffodils in the garden. The birds love nesting in gorse, those prickles offer great protection. Have you noticed that the flowers smell of coconut?

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  3. There's nothing that heralds spring quite like a daffodil. I'm still waiting for my container planted ones to flower but the ones in the ground are blooming away.

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  4. Round our way, many of the local councils have spent money on "beautifying" their neighbourhoods by planting loads of daffodils along the roadsides and in the central reservations of dual-carriageways. It certainly brightens things up for a while. I ijust wish they would follow the Spring bulbs with Summer-flowering plants too!

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  5. It was the first amazing thing, that hit me when I came to UK: wildly growing daffodils along the main roads:)

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  6. My daffodils are just hanging on now and the crocus are over already. But tulips are waiting in the wings to take over where they left off. What a great time of year!

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  7. Looks just like here with the daffodils everywhere.

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