Bluebells Return and Ferns Run Rampant in English Countryside

Early May rain compensated for a lack of April showers. Along narrow lanes, drifts of bluebells interspersed with cow parsley, campions and seeding stitchwort are already being overtaken by ferns. A succession of fern varieties — buckler, lady, hart’s-tongue, male, scaly male and soft shield — will soon be topped by rampant bracken now entwined in bryony.

Swags of hawthorn blossom hang over neglected, uncut hedgerows. Landmark clumps of beech have lost the initial translucent quality of their luminous foliage. Hedgebanks, with their battered, regularly shorn deciduous growth, resemble linear stunted woods and sprout diverse greenery.

Before breakfast, the author wanders through the cool woodland garden, where blackcaps join chiffchaffs in melodic song, competing with the piercing call of a wren. The exceptionally thick blossoms of cherry, pear and apple trees have all finished, much blown off by cold east winds before April’s end. Short-lived but particularly beautiful were the white foam of bullion cherries and the delicate pink of the venus pippin apple.

A sparse set of small green fruits appears on the 30-foot-high blizzard burcombe cherry tree, named after a tree that survived the 1891 storm. It was one of the first grafted by James, the author’s brother-in-law, before he and the author’s sister Mary established their own orchard of local top fruit varieties.

In the adjoining fruit cage, the author removes tufts of bulbous grass and mulches compost around blueberry, blackcurrant and gooseberry bushes. Cowslips thrive there, along with alpine strawberries, columbine and alkanet, and some are dug for spreading about the garden. A large grass snake lies coiled in warmth beneath black plastic covering last year’s heap.

Beyond the garden, abundant blooms of wisteria, red hawthorns, azaleas and the Judas tree appear better than ever. The mulberry is the last tree to leaf. South Devon cattle have been rotated since mid-April on their summer keep opposite. Across the parish, pastures for bullocks and sheep, first-cut silage fields and germinated cereals await more rain for productive growth.

“Under the Changing Skies: The Best of the Guardian’s Country Diary, 2018-2024” is available now at guardianbookshop.com.