Oh, that lone flower recalled to me
My happy childhood’s hours,
When bluebells seemed like fairy gifts,
A prize among the flowers.
Anne Brontë
April has been a mixed month: sometimes cold, sometimes warm but pretty dry all the way through and, with lots of new plants to establish, we have needed to water when most years the hose pipe stays stowed until summer. The garden is looking nice. We have had − and still are having − a lot of show curtesy of the tulips. The more tulips I grow the more I love them and the hellebores too have had a lovely long season. But I have to say the best thing about April has been the arrival of our new garden volunteer, Theresa, so now we are three! Theresa is an experienced gardener who was a volunteer at Lyme Park in Cheshire before she and her husband made their home here in Haworth − Lyme Park’s loss is our gain so ‘Welcome Theresa!’
This year we are thinking about Patrick Brontë and his arrival from Thornton with his wife and family, two hundred years ago, but let us also celebrate Arthur Bell Nicholls bicentenary which also falls this year. We are honouring these two men in the garden by putting new planting and thought into our shady bed (on the right from the Parsonage, shaded all summer by the graveyard trees). It’s a lovely garden in the spring, before the leaves come out and cast it into shade. This is a challenge as shade-loving plants do not always offer colour so any suggestions would be welcome. The roses given to us by Austin’s are doing well. Geoff and I decided to put the three Emily roses into pots, where they seem happier and can be moved around the garden when a space needs to be filled.
I hope you enjoy this month’s photos, which were taken by Geoff’s wife Chris, but please come and see the garden and feel free to make suggestions.
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