Primroses continue to astonish in this cool, damp month – mud-splattered blooms merge with bluebell leaves and white stitchwort along the narrow lanes and, near Halton Quay and above the Cotehele millstream, masses of them drift across very steep slopes.
In cherished woodland plots, the usual succession of old-fashioned, orange-cupped narcissi (Lucifer, Croesus, Sunrise and Bernardino) were rain‑battered and soon past their best; then pheasant-eye actaea flowered before Easter, succeeded by the dainty horace with its pure white petals around a flat, red‑rimmed centre.
Chiffchaffs are again voluble in the regenerating woodland of these former commercial daffodil gardens; below the iron age “bury” (a fortified enclosure), blackcaps chortle among thickets of foaming blackthorn and fluffy catkins of willow, in an overgrown plot of faded white ladies. The adjacent gloomy woodland – occasionally sought by trampling cattle for summer shade – is floored with the greenery of dog’s mercury and sparse long-stemmed primrose.
Downslope, brassy celandines reflect occasional sun, and a brimstone flies fast across a flowery, terraced garden. Here, a dozen cherry trees were the first to be grafted by my brother-in-law, James, predecessors to the extensive collection of local top fruit that is now planted in his and my sister’s carefully documented orchard nearby. The Rumbullion cherry, grafted in 1981 with a precious twig collected from a ruinous specimen at a farm across the Tamar, now towers more than 40 feet high, every branch clustered with blossom buds.
Up in the more exposed part of the orchard, planted with rows of pears, cherries and apples, the creamy blossom of pear is first to emerge – green sweats and grey cattern already come out, but the tall belle de Bruxelles remains in bud. White cherry blossom follows, then the varied pinks of apple. The north-facing aspect of the orchard, towards the wintry summit of Kit Hill, holds back early flowering and helps reduce damage from late frosts.
Come the end of April, James and Mary hope for calmer weather and spreading canopies of blossom as they welcome visitors to their orchard, part of the Festival of Blossom, organised in conjunction with the National Trust at Cotehele.
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