The back garden is a mixture of bare trees, leafing trees and blossom.
I don’t want the Nashi and the Accolade flowering cherry to finish.
In the front garden there is plenty of colour even although most of the daffodils have finished.
The Eleagnus umbellata trees are full of flowers and attract honeybees.
I would highly recommend Eleagnus umbellata if you were looking for a fast growing small tree. I bought 10 at 1.71 euros each and shared some with friends. That was in February 2017 and they have grown rapidly. I like them as trees but they can also be used as a hedge. They survive our dry summer weather which is a great plus.
Another beauty is the Malus coccinella, it was bought in February 2020 and is smothered in flowers just now (one of the Eleagnus umbella trees is behind it in this photograph, slightly to the right.)
I do not want the blossom of the Malus to finish but it will eventually be replaced with small ornamental apples that were appreciated and completely finished by the birds in the winter.
The weather continues to seesaw from our recent summer-like temperatures to overnight lows near zero. We took our lemon tree back inside yesterday, we knew that the it would only be a short warm spell at this time of year. Still the frog was able to sunbathe in its leaves some of the days. Can you see it so perfectly camouflaged? (Hint, towards bottom left.)
At least we are having more sun than was predicted but when I look at all the blossoms and flowers I feel like shouting at the garden – Slow down you move too fast, you’ve got to make the springtime last!
a french garden 
Hi Amelia. Yes, all this early flowering with frosts far from over could be an accident waiting to happen. We arrived last week back to the Dordogne. It will be below freezing for the next three nights, but I think you might be spared this being closer to the sea. My damsons have long since flowered, my cherry i entering peak flowering, the apples are beginning to bud, and the grapes are still dormant. Who knows which of these might draw a short straw with any frosts…
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It is always Russian roulette with the late frosts here. We can get frosts here on the odd year up until the middle of May, even being close to the sea. The timing makes a big difference to the garden fruit yield. Amelia
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We’re still in the dying grip of winter in Minnesota, but I look forward to seeing blossom soon! Unfortunately, Eleagnus umbellata is considered highly invasive here. Too bad, because it is really pretty and attractive to the bees.
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I looked it up also and discovered from gardenia.net that it’s banned from sale, distribution or cultivation in a number of states. Hopefully, it doesn’t become a problem in the French Garden.
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That is interesting. The USA appears to have a number of plants and trees that are considered invasive exotics whereas they behave themselves in our gardens in Europe. Perhaps it is because you have more wild spaces? Amelia
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Beautiful blossoms. Sadly we’ve got snow! Thinking of my neighbours’ lovely magnolias, which will all be ruined. Thanks for the tip for a small but fast growing tree, am going to file Eleagnus umbellata in a corner of my brain. Does it have more than one season of interest? Btw it took me some time to locate your frog, perfectly camouflaged indeed!
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That tree is considered invasive in a number of places, do the research first before planing one just to be on the safe side 🙂 We still have loads of snow here too in southern Finland. It should have melted ages ago, this year it’s a game of patience.
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Your winters last so long in the North. I find the countries with shorter winters do not cope with them so well, as if ignoring them would change things. Amelia
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For more info https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaeagnus_umbellata. Amelia
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It is a shame when the beautiful Magnolia flowers get touched by frost. The E. umbellata gives fruit too and is given the name of Autumn olive because of these. I like the fruit, called Senjed in Iran, but I do not think I will be able to dry it here. Amelia
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That’s interesting, and thanks for the link, it’s not a tree I know about so I look forward to reading about it.
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The blossom is fabulous
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The spring blossom is beautiful and it is shared as you can see the trees in other peoples gardens. Here there is a lot of white sloe blossom growing wild at the moment. Amelia
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Hello Amelia,
Lovely blossom photos, and I know what you mean about wishing this time of the year to hang around for a bit longer. Thanks too for the interesting link on the Eleagnus – and the comments about whether it might be invasive or not – I can’t seem to find much specific about this in the UK, but it does seem to be flowering at a very handy time for the bees. It’s evidently still sold in the Uk as an ornamental plant by many nurseries, so I’m guessing it can’t be viewed as a terrible risK????
Best wishes
Julian
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I cannot imagine anything being more invasive than my Ash trees here, I am constantly pulling out seedlings and if they manage to hide away somewhere for one year then I really have problems getting them out. So far the E. umbellata are not putting out suckers but whether they will do this with age, I do not know. Amelia
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Thanks Amelia – I know what you mean about ash and sycamore too. Has the dreaded ash die back reached your area? Maybe you’re too dry? It’s causing devastation round here, keeping the tree surgeons very busy, best wishes
Julian
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I have not heard anyone complaining about disease in Ash trees here. I think it might be more confined to North East France. It is felt temperatures above 35 degrees will kill the fungus so we usually get a few days above this temperature, plus our high annual sunny days could keep us safe.
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All your blossom is a wonderful sight Amelia! The cold spell may help slow things down a little, but if we get more warm sunshine again soon things will race on as usual! I have to keep reminding myself to take lots of photos before things go over. I could not find the frog in the last photo… very good camouflage!
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We had white frost on the lawn this morning so that may slow down things for a few days. I’ll tell the frog to perk up a bit for his next photograph. Amelia
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It’s similar here, we had very mild weather and now a series of frosts, some quite sharp. I am beginning to be concerned about the wisteria which is covered with buds and the cherry is not far away from flowering. We can only watch and wait!
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Alas, our Wisteria flowers are frozen after two days of morning frost. They will flower again but not as beautiful as the first flowering of the year. A lot of trees and plants have been caught after that too early warm spell. Amelia
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What enticing blossoms, especially if one were a bee! Really lovely.
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The bees are spoilt for choice at the moment with so much blossom available. Amelia
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