Magnolia pics

And my four favourite garden plants.

Hello my flower loving friends,

Last week was gorgeous here in my sunny little spot of the UK. I spent a day at Ascott house and gardens admiring the magnolias in the sunshine. I love visiting National Trust gardens early, as soon as they open, I have many reasons for doing this- I love the peace and wandering around with fellow early birds that are as equally happy appreciating the flowers and getting lost in their own thoughts, but the main reason is to get the top pick of the cakes! I deliberately chose Ascott house on this occasion for its magnolia collection which I always find inspiring, my favourite being this one photographed above. It stands out above all others, I think it’s the colours I love so much. I have a small magnolia stellata outside my kitchen window and I know I need to add more further down the garden. At my last house I left behind the king of all magnolia trees- the grandiflora and another gorgeous deep plum one. I must plant a grandiflora here!

There are some plants that I feel I will always need in my life- Roses, my first love and born from my grandparents garden. Wisteria, I owned my first one when I bought my last house, it was extremely old and rambled along an old wall that was once a barn, I’ve grown seedlings from it, one is at the front of that old house and another is planted at the back of the cottage we’re now in, I really wanted to bring a piece of it with me. Honeysuckle in abundance is another one, it’s my favourite early morning garden scent and it was the first rambling plant that I ever planted way back in my tiny garden of my first house, that and a climbing Iceberg rose. And lastly a lilac tree, this also needs adding to my garden as I left one behind. I love the pale blue/lilac ones the most. Of course there are many plants I love to have- perovskia, lavender, foxgloves to name a few, but these four are my absolute make-it-a-home/garden must haves!

I have so much work to do on the garden. There are still seedlings that need potting on. I’m leaving the doors to the greenhouse open so things can start to gently get used to the temperatures, it’s still frosty when I wake up in the morning so it’s too soon to put anything tender out yet, I usually wait till the beginning of May. My dahlias have been planted in pots for just over a week now and I’m patiently waiting for the shoots to appear. Lilly has taken over one of the sheds for her flower room so I’ve been moving furniture around to make it nice for her. You can find her flowers at My Little Vintage in Olney on Friday the 25th of April. You can also find a selection of my ceramics and smaller artworks there which are just past the counter on the right-hand side, they’re in there permanently now, I think they’re closed on Sundays though.

I find even when my thoughts are muddled and I’m feeling frustrated (a symptom of peri-menopause) just spending some time in my garden recharges me and calms me down. I know I’m privileged to have a garden like I do but I do think that any garden, any size is better than none. My first house had a tiny garden but I crammed it with roses, Jasmin and honeysuckle and it was a little piece of haven. I often think if I ended up with a courtyard garden one day I’d have so much fun designing it! I wonder if one day- when I have a Porsche I’ll rev the bollocks off it like the chap parked in-front of me outside the coffee shop where I’m enjoying my coffee in the sun has done… Maybe it’s obligatory, maybe one day I’ll find out although being a gardener and potter- I’m not so sure. Anyway where was I? Oh yes courtyard gardens. My favourite part of our garden is the little courtyard/gravel garden immediately as you come out of the cottage. It has a tiny pond with a stone bench and nice fire pit which I like to cook over pretty much all summer long. If it were the only garden at this house, I’d squeeze in a tiny greenhouse and maybe make a raised bed for some veggies, another house another time maybe…

My attention has been taken up a lot by the cottage which I’ve finally decided to decorate from top to bottom. I’m still working on the kitchen, it’s a modern extension which is so at odds with the rest of the cottage, it’s so modern and I hate it-so I’m putting in some country charm so it flows better. I wouldn’t mind if it was a mix of contemporary with old but it’s just a thoughtless box of crap bricks, why do people do that to lovely old houses… Anyway, I made the Mr do an emergency stop and U-turn when a sign for vintage furniture closing down sale caught my magpie eye. In the words of the youth OMG! I was in heaven and found a beautiful dresser that fits just perfectly linking the kitchen to the dining room. But enough house chat, I’ve rambled for too long, I’ll share some pics soon though.

Enjoy this week of sunshine.

Emma x