Spring, finally

15th March 2024

It’s been a cold, or perhaps I should say, climate normal, Spring in Copenhagen. Today was the first day, under blazing sun and blue skies that it was really warm enough to sit outside at lunchtime.

Even so, it was chilly out the sun but the local wildlife it waking up. The birds are so going loudly in the mornings, we’ve seen newts coming up for air in the pond the last week and many of our trees are starting to bud including the early flowering cherries and pear.

In the spring borders, the miniature Tete a Tete daffodils are starting to come out as are the beautiful chionodoxa flowers that are scattered through the garden – one of my all time favourites.

The snowdrops have been out for weeks but the cool weather has kept them beautiful though the winter aconite are now fading.

I had never been a huge crocus fan, but I was persuaded to plant a few small orange wild crocus in our spring border at the front. They were spectacular last year but are only just holding on this year. I fear they can’t deal with the competition.

However the standard purple and whites in the lawn are doing better than ever and now the children are bigger I might risk planting more to naturalise too.

The spring border itself is coming into bloom but the tulips are too large leaves, I don’t expect them to flower so may remove them this year and be contented with the mini daffodils and naturalising hyacinths. We typically plant out indoor bulbs here and it’s always rewarding to be greeted by small spring flowers.

On the other side of the garden path the peony bed has a few crocus in it too. I think we decided today to plant about 500 crocus (in purple, striped and white and perhaps also yellow orange) to give that early spring interest. This is a note to make sure we remember to do it!

The little scilla flowers on the other side also need replenishing. They’re beautiful but have fallen victim to various works we’ve done in this bed the last year or two.

I have similar thoughts about our plum, pear and tulip bed. It was a mas of winter aconite earlier and has some nice snowdrops but it is also looking a bit scruffy now. The tulips have been occasionally added to, but this may be the year to pull them all out and replant. We will revisit in late May when we can see how many have flowered..

Returning to the back garden, the weather has inspired the end of the pruning – a magnificent effort this year on our large apple tree. We’ll have to see if we’re rewarded by extra good flower and fruit this year.

The branches look very bare against the clear blue sky, I love this weather even if it’s cold, but it’s always important to remember that it won’t be really warm until May – we have been caught put before by expecting spring and summer to be warmer earlier than it really will be.

Something that also gets quite frequently caught by frost is out camelia. The red one is out already and I always find them rather incongruous with their rose like flowers so early. The frost or the wind has slightly burnt the opening buds.