Discovering Spring

I have always admired quince in the spring. Driving along country roads in early May I love seeing the wonderfully overgrown quince, in it's own hue of red, growing next to a weathered barn.

When we moved to our new home I discovered a quince in the garden, so of course I was anxious to see it in bloom. Needless to say, as one can see from the photo, it was not red, but the most beautiful apple blossom pink.

In our courtyard there is a weeping cherry. Truthfully, I do not believe this is a tree either James or I would select, but  we have already grown fond of it. It's trunk is sturdy with interesting branching giving it good winter form.

And  the cascading branches with the umbrella like flowers are completely graceful.
It brings to mind ballerinas dancing across an elegant stage in pink tutus.

James and I have always designed and created our gardens, so this time, at our new house, it is different. It is first about discovery and watching to see what the existing garden reveals.

Hostas are emerging from the shaded ground, as are astilbe, ferns and bleeding heart. The first flower that we saw once the snow melted was a lenten rose......a very nice surprise! New things appear daily now as days grow longer and warmer.

A crab apple grows over the outer edge of the courtyard, filling it's corner of the garden with pink blossoms, and creating shade for the astilbe beneath, as they await their time to flower. A week ago
I cut a few long budded branches for a vase that brings this dynamic spring color into our living room. Must savour as much spring has to offer as possible!

This beech, with it's massive smooth trunk makes a big statement and it dominates the landscape giving it the feel of a park. It is pure magnificence.

The walled garden is also revealing itself to us. The boxwood create structure as well as punctuation in the garden. Some things will remain, other things will change......that is just a fact in gardening.
Two roses must be removed since they are non-performing and  are in too much shade. It is likely that when they were planted back when the overhanging branches of the oak were not creating the amount of shade that they now are. 
This is a relatively small garden ( that translates into manageable, thank goodness!),
making every space counts.
So here are a few of the plants we are finding day by day;
3 peonies, a tree peony, nepeta ( James' nemesis),
echinacea, daylilies, columbine... loads of columbine, bleeding heart, cimicifuga, ornamental grasses, dianthus, and clematis.
We will be adding to the garden some of our old favorites as well. That will be fun. Happily, James and I are more enthusiastic about gardening than we have been in sometime. In part I think it is due to the fact that for the first time in our lives we have some help with the garden.

Now, if the black flies would just go away we could get outside and put a few new plants in the ground!