Mum and I called in at Holehird Gardens in the English Lake District this week to see what Spring had brought so far. I’ve written about Holehird before, here and here, but today I’m joining in with The Propagator’s Six on Saturday. I had thought that the ‘Six’ had to come from your own garden, but the helpful participant guide says six things from a garden visit are also welcome, so without further ado:
1. Chionodoxa (Glory of the snow)
Blue and pink Chionodoxa were at their peak in and around the rock garden. We were a little early to catch the daffodil field in full flower – I’d guess it was a week or so off looking its best.
2. Fritillaria michailovskyi
A visit to a garden is always a treasure hunt, so I was happy to spot a few of these, hidden away just past the hellebores, not far from a small clump of Fritillaria meleagris. The bell-shaped flowers are an unusual colour combination – rich purple-brown with bright yellow tips.
3. Caltha (White marsh marigold)
Plant lovers are funny creatures. Out of the whole garden, this small clump of flowers was the one I was most excited to see, partly because I hadn’t a clue what it was. I half thought they were bulbs, though the leaves didn’t seem bulb-like. Their white petals with smudges of green, golden-yellow centres and starry shapes peeping out among last year’s leaf litter made them seem like tiny miracles, as spring flowers often do. After consulting one of my go-to books, it’s a white form of marsh marigold: Caltha palustris var. alba.
4. Pulmonaria (lungwort)
One of my favourite cottage garden plants with hairy foliage and spotted leaves. The flowers are typically shades of blue and pink on the same plant, like this.
5. Erythronium (dog’s tooth violet, trout lily)
Another plant with blotched and spotted leaves, this time, chocolate and green. I love the graceful, swept back effect the petals adopt when fully open and the chocolatey smudges on their reverses that echo the leaves.
6. The greenhouse
I’ve chosen a couple of shots to illustrate this classic greenhouse, which is stuffed with plants, including a table full of cacti and succulents. After writing about attending a talk about a lot of remarkably similar small, green spiky things, it serves me right to discover I’d been converted into a believer (or should that be beleafer?).
It tickles me how the sheeny, pinkish-grey rosette on the left appears to be offering its unlikely flowers up to its neighbour for adoption.
If you’re considering a visit, plants in flower at Holehird Garden at the moment include snowdrops, lots of early daffodils and a few tulips, irises, primulas, crocuses, eranthis, cardamine (pink and white), muscari, cyclamen, and black mondo grass, so striking at this time of year.
Please take a look at some of the other submissions for this week’s Six on Saturday and consider submitting six of your own in the not-too-distant future. The challenge neatly bridges the social media divide, so you’ll see some familiar faces as well as garden bloggers from other platforms.
Susan Rushton 
Chocolatey smudges, eh? I’m going out on limb here (as gardeners do) and guessing that someone has chocolate on the mind. Apparently your condition is contagious: you can’t tell me that those leaves among the marsh marigolds aren’t chocolate! I’d love to know how the chocolate lace was made. I have renamed the Dog’s Tooth Violet: it is now the Swan Lake Violet. Doesn’t it look like a white ballerina lifted and swooshed across the stage? It’s gorgeous. As to beleafer, I’m still recovering.
Rumbled. I like the skeleton leaf with the marsh marigolds. It looks so fragile, yet it has obviously survived for quite some time outside.
Ooh quite taken with those fritillaria. Lovely Six, judging by your photos that garden has a lot to offer the visitor. Hope to see you again soon!
It is a nice place to visit at any time of the year and has several national plant collections.
Lovely! And lungwort – what a name for a gorgeous flower!
I love the way the folk names still have the old lore wrapped up in them.
Yes, it’s so interesting!
What beautiful flowers they all are. I don’t quite know which one to love the most, but perhaps the dog’s tooth violet. Or maybe the fritillaria? What a wonderful garden to visit!
I like the way it has a feeling of a private garden, just on a very large scale. The gardeners are mainly volunteers and are often out in force.
that chionodaxa in the first picture is pretty sweet!
All my pictures are from the landscape at work because it is more interesting than my home garden.
Okay maybe not all. I got many for the park in town too.
Yes, they’re one of my favourite early bulbs – they look great in a drift.
Who could resist visiting a garden with the name Holehird Gardens! Just a bit far from me, so I thank you for taking me around. I shall have to look into the ‘six on Saturday’, sounds like something I would love to participate in.
I think you would enjoy it and you have plenty of material to share.
These flowers are all so gorgeous, and I can only imagine having a greenhouse like the one in your post in my backyard. Thank you for sharing this beautiful post. Very inspiring! We’ve had 80 degrees this week (27C,) it surely helped spring take giant leaps forward. Have a wonderful Easter!
You too! Our weather is a bit of a damp squib at the moment, but you’re holding out hope of better days to come!
Beautiful pictures 😊👌
Thank you!
What a lovely garden that is! I often put off visiting gardens until later in the summer, but see what I’m missing, not going in spring! Thanks for the Six tour & welcome to the group.
I always think you understand a garden better if you have chance to see it at different times of the year, but it’s hard, especially when there are so many gardens you want to see.
There are some real treasures there and the garden looks beautiful. A real credit to the volunteers who look after it.
Hear, hear!