While weeding at the front yesterday I found this little beauty just starting to bloom:

It’s a Chaenomeles superba or Flowering quince Pink Lady.

I’m almost done my very rough clean-up of the garden. We have just under half an acre and much of it is planted so there is a hell of a lot of tidying to be done.

Yesterday I also cleaned up this little area. I can’t wait until the mornings are warm enough to sip my morning tea out here:

In the beds to the right of the fence, I planted Gladiolus Green Star and Grande Passion (Green Star pictured):

Did you know that during the Roman Empire, the gladiolus was the official symbol of the gladiators that fought within the coliseum in Rome? In Latin the word gladius means sword, and it was because of the gladiolus’ sword-like leaves that it has the name we know this flower as today. Another ancient name for the gladiolus was “xiphium,” derived from the Greek word “xiphos”, which interestingly also means ” sword.”

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