Early Morning Tulips and a Rather Fine Bleeding Heart

Tulipa "World's Favourite" sit in a raised bed under the emerging canopy of a lilac tree, possibly Syringia vulgaris "Madame Lemoine," the common lilac. To the left of the tulips sits another large, upright rosemary bush, raised from cuttings taken from the gorgeous herb garden at Hardwick Hall. To the right I have a delightful corkscrew hazel bush, Corylus avellana 'Contorta.' Last summer it produced its first cobnuts, small and round and incredibly fresh and juicy tasting when cracked open and eaten straight from the branch. And in the bottom picture, a white Bleeding Heart, Dicentra spectabilis "Alba," emerges unscathed from the heavy Derbyshire clay soil.