Garden Bloggers’ Foliage Day: Would You Be-leaf it?

Earlier this week I was gazing out of the kitchen windows at the garden, as I do – and realised there were leaves on the trees! Not on every tree (next door’s beech is still naked), and most not fully open and still unfurling, but still an extraordinarily sudden change from winter’s skeletal branches. I can’t believe I hadn’t noticed before, but perhaps it really was as sudden as it seemed; I know I have been totally enamoured with all the activity in the various beds and borders recently and will have been looking down a lot, but still don’t think I could have missed noticing this distinct greening as the trees begin to close in around the garden. Indeed, it was not the only occasion I have been staring, transfixed, at the views of the garden this week so perhaps there really has been a subtle and intrinsic change …

Christina of My Hesperides Garden is hosting Garden Bloggers’ Foliage Day today and indeed on the 22nd of every month, so celebrating the reappearance of leaves on the trees is certainly a good place to start. Thank you, Christina, for hosting. The above picture, showing the view that triggered my awareness of the event, is not brilliant as it was taken at about 7.00 this evening because I was too busy with gardening tasks to take photographs earlier in the day. The picture below is not much better but shows another of this week’s surprises – on looking up at the wisteria to see if any flower buds were evident, I found not only the delicate growth of fresh foliage but an absence of flower buds due to gradually lengthening flower trusses! Just how did that happen so suddenly?! I was in awe at the reclothing of our trees, but those of you have nurtured a wisteria may well understand that my reaction to the annual reawakening of mine was beyond awe…hyper-awe?

Trusting you will pardon that slight digression from  a purely foliage related post, I shall now turn my attention to hostas. One of my recent Titivating Tasks has been replenishing the slate chippings that top various potted plants, especially hostas, some of which were being repotted as their existing pots had scraped through too many winters to look presentable any more. Admittedly, there were also a few new hostas to be potted, our local garden centre for some reason having had a delivery of a surprisingly large range of hostas at a mere £3.99 or 3 for £10, and out of curiosity (and as a purely academic exercise, f course) I counted how many hostas there were in the garden – 61… Sixty one?! Good Grief , Girl! How did that happen? The fact that more than 20 of those are miniature hostas makes them a little deceptive I guess, as they are grouped together in shared pots, but sixty one – would you believe it?! The best slug and snail restaurant in the area perhaps…

Ignoring this excessive total, who could not be enamoured by the foliage of hostas, nor the way their spikes re-emerge each year, pushing through their way to the surface of the soil before unfurling in all their ribbed or puckered or striped or monochrome glory? Bright green or dark, glaucous or grass green, the variation is endless – particularly when there are sixty one of them!