There are so many new flowers to look at in the garden, I told you yesterday that I would never be able to describe them all, but here are some more. Quite a few are pink: after March's blaze of yellow, pink is coming to the fore. The Clematis montana that was already growing up the veranda when we moved in is in full flower. I never found a label for it, and am not such an expert on C. montana as to have ever worked out which variety it is, but it ramps splendidly on poor soil. Indeed, it is almost too vigorous for its position, although in the past couple of years I have managed to keep it more or less under control, and it has not become such a tangled mess of stems as it was at one stage. I shortened the branches that were escaping out into the rose bed back in the winter, and will give it another haircut as soon as it's finished flowering.
Our pink Deutzia is D. x rosea 'Carminea', though I had to look it up on my spreadsheet. It is delightful while it is flowering, and then does nothing at all of interest for the rest of the year. I don't even remember much in the way of autumn colour. However, the flowers are charming, small bells opening from dusky pink buds to reveal a paler interior, while the backs of the petals retain a broad central blush of dark pink. They are held in little nodding clusters, and there are enough of them to make a good show. I am growing a late flowering clematis through it to provide interest at the other end of the year, though last autumn it wasn't entirely happy. Rubbish soil again, but perhaps this spring's generous dose of old mushroom compost and 6X will do the trick.
Chamaecytisus purpureus is an agreeable, low growing little shrub. Once happy it runs at the root, freely enough that it might become a nuisance in a really small border, despite its low height. There is a white variant, which with us is not so vigorous as the purple, but whether that's down to white versus purple, or merely reflects the fact that the white one is planted in one of the most arid spots in the entire garden, I don't know. It would take a larger statistical sample than one plant to prove it either way.The flowers are typical of the pea family, in a soft pinky purple, and the buds while still tight shut are flushed yellow at the base. The calyx is reddish, which makes the overall flower look darker than the pink of the petals would lead you to expect. I find that some stems die back during the winter, so that it needs a good tidy with secateurs in the spring.
Down at the edge of the bog bed, Chaerophyllum hirsutum 'Roseum' is just getting going. It is an umbellifer, with delicate, mid-pink carrot flowers over yellow-green foliage. Pink and yellow is not always a good combination, but the leaves of this pretty cow parsley relative are a soft enough shade not to quarrel with the flowers. My plant came as a souvenir of a visit last year to the gardens of Fullers Mill, which were so good that the friend I went with went back two days later to take her husband and brother-in-law.
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