APRIL GARDEN, PART 2

More things are happening in the gardening, mostly flowers, but I noticed these at the top of the Christmas tree, which I grew from a seed many years ago. Are these going to be cones this year, for the first time? I've never seen them before on this tree or noticed them elsewhere, either.
I bought this lilac at a car boot about 15 years ago when it was about 18" tall, I think. Now look at it! This autumn I'm getting the 'tree man' back to prune some of my shrubs, they're just getting too exuberant and I can't reach up in this one to cut off all the dead heads. Each flowering point has two flowers and the scent as you walk past is like a cloud of talc.
I've always known these as Welsh poppies and they're usually yellow but somehow over the years a lot of them have become orange - or they've been transferred from someone elses garden. This one grabbed my attention because the ?calyx is still on the flower.

These pesky bluebells are growing from a fuchsia magellanica so they're a permanent fixture! They are pretty, though. The tulips are Jan Roos, a favourite of mine, and Gillian's, too. The half pot is covering a clematis and this is where, a couple of years ago, a badger dug out what I now know must have been a honeybees nest. I was watching the Nature programme on BBC2 last night and Chris thingy mentioned that bees do nest in the ground. The first allium is just beginning to open and there are lots more to come. I can't remember which kind this is. I've found that as Gillian now plants everything I lose track of what is where. This year we've resolved to pick up what we've been slack about the last couple of years and that's making a note of what goes where. I shall make labels from old margarine tubs which can be stuck in the ground...

These Camassia were bought years ago at Toad Hall in Henley and have increased enough to have been able to split so I have three groups now. They come from North America, Oregon. The plant behind them is a Nandina, a present about 5 years ago. It has sprays of dainty white flowers and is evergreen, too.

I wish it would rain, overnight of course!