An English Garden 2015

Pottering in the garden at Broxwood is always enjoyable because I get to enjoy flowers that would never survive in Texas. This year, I’ve seen the Broxwood garden in winter, spring, and the start of summer. Here are just a few of the photos.

A snow storm hits the back garden and showcases the poppy from the Tower of London exhibit. I took this photo to show Tom and by the time I stepped back inside to send it, the sun was out:
!Broxwood Snow 2015
Broxwood Snow 2015
Broxwood Snow 2015

It took Katie and I three attempts to be brutal enough with trimming down the roses in the back garden. We made our first attempt, watched Monty and then hacked off some more, and then got advise from Tony, Albrighton’s Master Gardener, before ending up with this brutal result. Katie assures me they are back on track to be lovely again this year, but I haven’t seen any photos yet:

March in England is always full of beautiful drifts of daffodils. Here are the first blooms from the Broxwood collection:

I always get mixed up whether these are primroses or primulas (or something else entirely?!). Here are a few shots of these lovely bright plants over a couple of months. They grew to be so big and vibrant and I think Katie may have to divide some of them for next year:

A couple of random shots: a vase of blooms from the garden, the newly painted garage door (thanks to handyman, Roger), and a pressie for me from the Codsall and Wergs garden center that now sits on the potting bench at Cloverleaf:

Katie told me the name of this shrub on a daily basis because it wowed us every morning when we opened the lounge blinds. Of course, I’ve already forgotten, but it looks lovely (Update--just got off the phone with K...it's a pieris). And Katie’s tip is to take off all the flowers so you get the vibrant red foliage (although the pale pink blossoms aren’t the end of the world if you forget):

Chris’ first stab at runner bean architecture. The tradition continues (although we all thought that his structure was probably not up to the exact standards of previous years...):

I was hoping to see this bloom before I headed back to Texas, and it did: