The one strong feature of the garden in April is the perfume of the Wisteria as it pervades the garden and the house.
Of course, there is the noise of the Carpenter and bumble bees in the Wisteria that is part of April as well.
The Cerinthe is well established in the front garden now and pushes through unbidden each year. I have a little in the back garden but it is so attractive for the bumble bees and Anthophora that I will collect the seed and throw more in the back garden.
I like to read under the olive tree where the Cerinthe have decided to grow thickly and the noise of the buzz pollination of the bumble bees can be distracting!
April is to watch the fruit trees flower one after the other.
It is to watch the Andrena fulva in the blackcurrant flowers again.
The Camassia bulbs in the pot in the patio have once again opened their flowers providing us with entertainment with our morning coffee outside. I highly recommend three or four Camassia bulbs in a pot as a sure magnet for bumble bees. They do not last long but I savour them while they flower.
Another relatively short flash of beauty is the tree peony which is going from strength to strength giving us more of its huge blossoms each year.
But despite all the expected pleasures there are always new discoveries. This year I have seen bumble bees taking nectar from the white Spirea for the first time. It is good to know that these bushes that do so well at the side of the garden can also be useful for the bees.
My one concern this April is the lack of rain and the low ground water level in the area. Watering has now been forbidden until after 7 o’clock in the evening. Winter and spring is the time for heavy rain here and we have had very little. I would not expect any appreciable rainfall until next autumn.
This coupled with high day temperatures (often over 25 degrees centigrade) and some mornings with a thin layer of ice on top of the bird bath in the back garden make it an April to remember.
a french garden 
Beautiful. Thanks for sharing.
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Glad you enjoyed it. Amelia
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We are still in a moderate drought too. I hope you’ll see some rain soon!
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Today we have had a bit of drizzle but not enough to reach the flowers. Still no real rain in sight. Amelia
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We went through that last summer.
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Beautiful! That is my favorite tree peony color.
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Yellow is a favourite of Kourosh also and the reason I chose that one. Amelia
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It certainly has been an April to remember. Very dry here as well, and heavy, heavy frosts at night. Hopefully we are due for a couple of days rain from this evening. I see that even in Britain it has been a dry spring. Your bee pictures are a delight, as always. Thank you!
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I’m glad you enjoy the bee pictures. It is the bees that add the spice to my gardening. Amelia
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Thanks to you – and others like you – Amelia, I am paying far more attention to them now as well. Last autumn I was mesmerised by how much they loved the asters and the ivy. This spring it was pulmonaria and hellebore watch. I want a chart for the kitchen so I can identify them – your expertise in that department is enviable!
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I wish! Solitary bees are so interesting but so difficult to identify. The best book to start with is Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland. I cannot give you the equivalent for France because it does not exist! The best French web site is El Gritche on Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/51044789@N02/albums
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I shall take a look – thanks for the info.
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Beautiful photos as always! Such a lovely time of year…!!!
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Such a stimulating time of year with so many things happening in the garden; watching fondly the old favourites and getting excited about the new arrivals at the same time. Amelia
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Lovely pictures! As I look out of our front window I see bees on the wisteria and cherry tree, both looking beautiful in the sunlight this morning. I now also have cerinthe (thanks to you!!) but it has not yet grown very large. We have wintery showers forecast for later.
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I’m glad your cerinthe has survived, they could be later than the ones that have self-seeded over here. I find that the plants that self-seed are much stronger (natural selection, I suppose). Amelia
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It has been very dry here this spring and winter too. I also fear there won’t be enough ground water to keep the well full all summer, and it is our only source of water. I think your days have been warmer than ours.
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It is interesting that we could be getting higher daytime temperatures sometimes than you. This is not at all our usual weather. Amelia
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Looking lovely, Amelia! We had a lovely warm spell here a couple of weeks ago and the garden was literally buzzing with activity. Very chilly again at the moment, though, and the lack of rain is worrying over here, too.
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It’s great to have the sun and warm weather to get everything moving. Amelia
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Some lovely photos Amelia. Everyone seems to be showing Cerinthe this week and I have failed at trying to grow it. So perhaps I should give it another go! We have also had cold nights at around zero or below for a week or so now. But the daytime warmth of late Match and early April has vanished too making it an April to remember here as well!
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My Cerinthe came form plants growing in Scotland and I feel they do better self-sown but I do not know how the seeds would survive your cold winters. Amelia
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Your wisteria looks wonderful,I can imagine the scent. It has been a very dry period here, while we need the rain I hope we don’t have a deluge when it comes, causing floods like it did in May/June 2007.
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There have been floods in France too in the past when there has been too much heavy rain at the wrong time and that can be worrying too. Amelia
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