A bit of a cheat I know, but I will list 7 of the things I love about my garden.

1. Having 59 varieties of birds visiting the garden.

2.Finding Dormice have taken up residence.

3.Feeding the robin while it is standing on my hand.

4.Photographing so many varieties of butterflies.

5.Enjoying the perfume from all the flowers.

6.Working on  new projects with my husband.

7.Having success with Meconopsis plants.

We are also asked to pass the award on to 15 other bloggers – I think most of the blogs that I follow have won it a few times already and how do I possibly choose from so many wonderful blogs?

Please Lyn, forgive me for not taking part fully – I really do appreciate you giving me the award.

It only takes a few minutes to see something different, can you make out the frost on the grass?

Only a couple more minutes and there is our first proper frost for all to see, fantastic!

Sunrise doesn’t last long does it, only another couple of minutes and it was almost gone, beautiful while it lasted though.

At last, I have some leaves decorated with frost, Ophiopogon planiscapus nigrescens now has silver stripes down the side.

A frosted Chestnut leaf that has managed to escape being swept up and bagged to try and eradicate the leaf miner moth that lives inside it.

A few more leaves looking rather pretty with their added sparkle.

Definitely a frosted lawn, not to be walked on when it is like this, otherwise you leave footprints where the grass has died!

Why am I so excited by a bit of frost? Just after Christmas I sowed my Meconopsis seeds that I have kept in the fridge since last summer and they need a period of freezing temperatures to get them ready to start growing. They originate in Tibet, in the Himalayas, so are used to temperatures a lot colder than we ever have, I just hope that this period of sub zero temperatures is cold enough for them. I will leave them out a bit longer, for another couple of weeks,  then bring them into the conservatory, which is kept frost free,  they should then sprout  about 3 weeks later. That is the plan anyway and it has worked in previous years.  I was thinking that I might have to put the seed trays in the freezer if the mild weather had continued,  so  thank goodness we have had our frosts at last!

We have a nursery fairly near to us, just where the borders of Devon, Somerset and Dorset meet, that has a  reputation for good hellebores, that nursery is R.D. Plants, and is on the road between Chard and Axminster, just outside the village of Tytherleigh.

The nursery is usually open from March to June, but each year they open on Feb. 1st just for hellebore fanatics like me!

They don’t have a web site, they don’t do mail order, they don’t accept cards as payment, just as well we had enough cash between us as I had forgotten to take my cheque book! Word of mouth and a recommendation by the RHS is obviously enough to bring people flocking.

These are the three that tempted me, I think they will have to stay on the front porch for the next few days as the weather forecast is for lots of frost, here they will be quite sheltered, not as much as when they were in their poly tunnel, but enough I think.

Yes, happiness is definitely hunting for Hellebores!

The twisted grey leaves indicate that this is the species gracilis, a lovely small snowdrop with beautiful clear markings on the inner petals.

Lovely green marking, all down the inner petals. This is just 2 yrs old and has now put up 2 flower buds, hope it continues to increase like this. The name Ding Dong is explained by the fact that it comes from Avon Bulbs in Somerset ( I get most of my snowdrop bulbs from them), think back to the Avon cosmetics TV advert in the 70′s, you would have to be a certain age to understand!!

This one is called Lapwing and I think has a rather nice marking on the inner petals.

Still havn’t identified this one, can anyone help please, quite tall with very grey leaves.

A large double, Desdemona, increases nicely, looks lovely when fully open in the sunshine. I don’t have many doubles as I feel they look rather similar.

A very tall snowdrop with large flowers and a fantastic marking on the inner petals. John Gray was the first special one that I bought, it has a lot to answer for!

A tiny snowdrop, a species Galanthus rizehensis, lovely little one which increases well when happy, I think mine are happy!

Another that is very happy and gets split for open days is Magnet. This has increased really well and is now forming nice large clumps. I split mine when flowering is over and the leaves are just starting to turn yellow, I feel that the leaves have now fed the bulbs for next year and it doesn’t seem to do the bulbs any harm as they always flower again the following year without any problem. There is a feeling now that we should leave them to be dormant before splitting them, this would mean digging them up in the summer when I would never be able to find them, think I will stay with the old method as that is what works for me!

This is still Magnet, showing the extra long pedicel which joins the flower to the flower stalk. Because the pedicel is so long, the slightest breeze makes the flowers dance as if they are a cloud of butterflies!

Very new, just planted last year, Modern Art. The leaves are grey with a silver stripe down the centre.

Alison Hilary, another nice one, just starting to increase well.

Straffan is being over run by Milleum effusum aureum, must do a bit of judicious weeding before the snowdrop gets choked to death!

Robin Hood is another tall snowdrop and another of my first ones. I wish this had opened up so that I could show you the markings inside, maybe next time.

Another of my early purchases, Merlin, the first one I bought with all green inner petals. This is quite a tall snowdrop, but hasn’t increased as fast as some of the others unfortunately. In the background you can just see some of the wild snowdrops just starting to show, they are coming on time, have never known the others to be so early.

Showing the really dark green of the inner petals on Merlin.

This one is Augustus and has quite rounded flowers compared to some of the others and the leaves have a silver stripe down the centre. The outer petals have the texture of seer sucker material.

Another species, Galanthus woronowii, which has very dark green shiny leaves. I have found that this one is seeding around and has now formed 3 distinct clumps – lovely!

Another double, but not as tall as Desdemona is Hippolyta. The petals are quite heavily ridged on this bulb that is increasing nicely.

These are all the snowdrops that are flowering at the moment. There are lots more still to come and of course the wild ones which will make the woodland look as if we have had a sprinkling of snow, should open in another couple of weeks, will keep you up to date. Do you still think that they are all the same, I hope not!!

Well, you should just see them now, look at all the new growth that they have put out, lots of leaves everywhere.

And not just leaves, tiny flowers wherever you look.

If you look at the other end, there are loads of roots forming!!

I really can’t bear to waste anything, so these will be used to form a hedge at the end of the woodland where we have  a bank just covered with ivy. I’m now thinking of next autumn when we will have lots of the purple tinted leaves, followed in the winter by the bright red stems. I could split my wild snowdrops and plant them between the cornus, through the ivy, so the whole of the bank will be red, green and white for at least 3 months and it hasn’t cost me a penny! That’s my sort of gardening, do you agree?

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Now that Cyclamen hederifolium has stopped flowering, it is their leaves that are forming a beautiful tapestry on the floor of all the shady borders.

No two plants have the same pattern on their leaves, this one is very silvery and has white flowers, the corm is now huge, it is one of the first ones I planted here, over 20 yrs ago.

Milium effusum Aureum has seeded throughout the woodland strip where they look like patches of sunlight on a dull day. I have to keep this plant under control, it is a bit too happy here and would soon take over if allowed!

Ferns usually die down over the winter or soon look untidy with the wind and frost, this year though, there are quite a few still looking presentable. This is Blechnum chilense with quite tough fronds.

The male fern, Dryopteris felixmas, pops up all over the garden and sometimes has to be removed or sometimes I replace it with a more unusual fern, hoping it will like the same conditions.

Adiantum venustum is one of the ferns that usually disappear in the winter, but this winter it is still looking as good as it did in the summer.  Very fond of this one, lovely for flower arranging.

Why do some ferns have to have such long names?! This is Polystichum setiferum Plumoso-divisilobum, a lovely fern with quite springy fronds, these will all need cutting off in a couple of months to let the new fronds unfurl. They are so beautiful when the new ones are coming through.

Evergreen hedges earn their keep in the garden, setting off the other plants, here the Choysia is still flowering with the Laurel hedge behind it, which protects us from the westerly winds and from the neighbours!! No, I don’t mean that, we don’t need protecting from the neighbours, they’re lovely!

This is a seedling of our large Euphorbia mellifera which died in last winter’s snow and ice. So far it looks very happy,  I’m hoping that it will flower this year so that we can have that beautiful perfume in the garden once more.

One of my favourites, Ophiopogon planiscapus Nigrescens certainly likes it on my heavy clay, when I have moved it to improved soil in the sun, it never seems to do so well.

Various conifers add structure to the garden all year round, most eventually grow too large and have to be removed, but even plants that are bought as “dwarf” can be enjoyed for about 20 yrs before they get the chop!! We brought this one with us from the NW when we moved here, so it must be about 30 yrs old now.

Pittosporum Irene Patterson is a good shrub with a lovely variegated leaf. It is good for clipping, I think mine needs a good haircut, but will wait until spring before giving her a trim.

Not everyones favourite,I know, but variegated Laurel is useful for forming a screen and also for flower arranging. It also brings a bit of sunshine to a shady border, who can argue with that!

Quite a prickly customer, especially when you are weeding round it, protection is needed! Osmanthus heterophyllus is a lovely evergreen shrub which takes kindly to being clipped to shape and helps to screen the huge water butt hiding behind the trellis.

Acanthus mollis is making itself at home in the area round the pond, starting to spread quite a lot so will have to keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn’t spread too far. Normally the leaves have collapsed into a mess by now, but not this year, they are looking as good as they were in the summer.

Arum italicum subsp.italicum Marmoratum has such beautiful leaves, ideal for flower arranging. The seeds are spread around the garden by the birds that eat the bright orange berries that are formed in the autumn, always welcome, wherever they pop up.

This shrub is Euonymous fortunei Silver Queen which slowly forms a beautiful mound and has white flowers in the summer. We also have a few E. f. Emerald Gaiety which are similar but lower growing, both good for clipping if you need to keep them to a nice shape.

In this dark corner, hiding the wheelie bin, is the hedge of beech and laurel, with a camellia in front, alongside Mahonia Charity. All the foliage contrasts with each other and I think makes a pleasing pattern in what could be a very dull boring spot.

Between the house and the garage is my formal rose garden. Just under the kitchen window is this low hedge of Lonicera. With hindsight I should have planted something that doesn’t grow so quickly, but it never takes long to give it a quick trim. While gardening here we have found numerous Yew seedlings, I could have had a Yew Hedge! The blackbirds love the metallic purple berries that are formed here in the autumn. The golden blobs in the background are Euonymous Emerald and Gold.

Box balls, I love them! They add such structure to the garden in the winter, they take centre stage in the rose garden for about 5 months then have to take a back seat when the roses start frothing over and around them during the summer. These are Buxus sempervirens which, thank goodness, doesn’t seem to get box blight.

Normally we would have had various phormium adding to the winter scene, but having nearly lost them all last winter in the snow and ice, they were all wrapped up in late autumn. Wigwams were made of fleece and netting, padded out with old fern fronds to keep them nice and cosy – they must think they are in a Turkish bath this winter, it has been so mild.  We keep getting told that frost is on the way, so you never know, there is time yet for them to be needed!

So there we are, this is most of the foliage which is still looking presentable here in January, much more than usual due to the mild weather. Thank you to Christine  for hosting this Garden Bloggers Foliage Day, please go to

myhesperidesgarden.wordpress.com/2012/01/21/gbfd-phoenix-botanic-garden/

to see all the other beautiful foliage in the world.

Mahonia Charity is still carrying on flowering long after it should have stopped.

The wild snowdrop is only just starting to show above ground, all the ones that are flowering now are special ones. I did have them all labelled, very tastefully with black labels and silver writing, but most of them seem to be missing, where have they all gone!! Will have to get my large snowdrop book out and re-identify them all and then make a map of where they are all planted!

I think this one is John Gray.

Is this Atkinsii, I think so, a good one that increases quite quickly.

A clump of one of the Greatorex doubles, Hyppolyta or Desdemona,  from its size, I think it is Desdemona. I won’t bore you with any more snowdrops until I have managed to re-identify them.

One of the Camellias has been flowering since December, the others have nice fat buds but are not showing any flowers yet.

Another that was in flower before Christmas is Narcissus Rijnveld’s Early Sensation.

Rosa Graham Thomas just refuses to stop flowering, and there are so many buds forming too. It was cut back by half in November, but has put out lots more new shoots, just hope it won’t regret it later.

The same has happened to the Anthemis in the front garden, it just doesn’t want to stop flowering!

Hellebores are now starting to flower in all the shady borders.

Some of them are the most delicious plum colour.

Some are double, pink outside and white within, absolutely gorgeous!

And some are spotted, will do a separate post about these lovely plants when they are all flowering in February.

The small Sarcococca bush that we have, just inside the woodland strip, might have rather insignificant flowers, but they certainly pump out the perfume! On a still day the perfume hangs around in the air and people wonder where it is coming from , not realising that it comes from such tiny flowers.

The summer snowflake, Leucojum aestivum,  is another flower that was flowering before Christmas!! Have just noticed that the spring snowflake, L.vernum, has put out its first flower, but it has a lot of catching up to do.

The tassels on Garrya elliptica are getting longer each day.  When we went to Rosemoor the other day , the RHS have a fantastic bush at the entrance with the most amazingly long tassels, put mine to shame!

Choisya ternata just gets better and better, it never seems to want to stop flowering.

Another little bush that is thoroughly confused, Convolvulous cneorum. This little plant just keeps  forming more and more flower buds, how do I stop it!

One plant that should be flowering now is Iris unguicularis, this has put flowers out since December, they don’t last long, only a day or two, but with so many buds there are always flowers showing, brightening up a dull day.

I know there are a few flowers that I forgot to photograph, the Japanese azalea, is now covered in blooms for example, but these are most of what is in flower at the moment here in the SW corner of the UK. Thank you to Carol at Maydreams Garden  for hosting this GBBD, to see more flowers, please go to http:// www.maydreamsgardens.com to see what is blooming around the world.

This was the first sculpture that we came to, titled – The Sun  Hat. I liked the colour and the texture of this one and if I had a spare £ 1,150 I’m sure I could find somewhere in my garden for her!

Lots of lovely Camellias, this one had loads of quite small flowers, I think it is Cornish Snow.

It wasn’t long before I discovered my favourite red stemmed Cornus, no winter garden should be without it!

This one is titled Refuge, I like to think of my garden as refuge for all the wildlife which is being squeezed out of the countryside because of chemicals and it is also a refuge for me, away from the world we live in today, my daughter says that I live in a bubble here!

Lots of Snowdrop Atkinsii under the willow stems with Euonymous Emerald and Gold adding to the sunshine.

“Ben” looks rather lonely, I think he wants to go home with someone!

All the Betula Jaquemontii look as if they have been pressure washed, they were all such a sparkling white.

Just shows what you can create with recycled copper, I think this is my favourite of them all, but I suppose it will change colour to blue/green when it gets weathered, it looked so good gleaming in the sunshine.

So much colour here, it could be summer. The heather in the foreground and the peeling bark of Acer griseum add light and texture to the overall scene.

Amazing what you find sitting in a tree, very lifelike, but these won’t fly away.

Lots more snowdrops further into the garden, still Atkinsii.

Another piece of work by Melanie Deegan who made the Sun hat at the beginning, again in my favourite blue.

Viburnum Bodnantense New Dawn flowering merrily away, looking very pretty.

We would all be really worried if our dandelions grew this tall, they were about 5 ft !Lovely though, could see these in my garden.

All of a sudden we were enveloped in the most amazing honey perfume, I knew what it was, Sarcococca, but found it eventually about 20 ft away, the perfume was trapped between the yew hedges. Their bushes are so much bigger than mine and therefore the perfume was so much stronger with so many more flowers.

This gourd shape lends itself to being sculpted as do the seedheads that we saw dotted around the garden.

Another beautiful Camellia, there were lots in flower, making it look very spring like.

I could see something like this in our woodland strip, not quite a totem pole, but similar.

I put this in to remind me to dig up and split my clumps of Acorus, they will make a good ground cover in part of the garden.

I know Stag Beetles are an endangered species, but I wouldn’t want to meet one 4ft long!

So sculptural in real life, no wonder Zantedeschia have been copied here.

By this time we were half way round the huge garden and my muscles were starting to protest. This is the furthest that I have walked since last August so felt it was time to turn back. We did stop half way along our walk to have a light lunch in the restaurant and give me a chance for a sit down, by the time we left Rosemoor I was feeling really pleased at the progress that has been made since Christmas.

We really enjoyed our visit to Rosemoor in lovely sunshine, for the first time, the sun had quite a bit of heat in it – I think it is going to get colder as the week goes by – the winter garden showed just how colourful a garden can be at this time of year and the sculpture exhibition was the icing on the cake! Hope you enjoyed walking round with me.

Butterflies fly best when their body temperature is between 85 and 100 degrees F. Quite often they rest on rocks, paving, or gravel to sun themselves, we quite often see them on our gravel areas. If you place a few rocks or stones where they catch the morning sun, the butterflies will soon come to use them regularly. Sunny borders are where the butterflies come to feed, flowers in shade are not often visited by the butterflies.

Butterflies need shelter from wind, rain and predators. I can hear someone in the NW of Scotland laughing because of all the gales that she frequently gets up there but maybe there are little sheltered areas behind the wonderful shelterbelt of trees that are there. Apparently they shelter from the rain and bird predators by hanging underneath twigs and branches.

Butterflies lead simple lives, they mate, the female lays her eggs, then they spend the rest of their lives drinking nectar. If you plant nectar bearing plants and they are passing overhead, then they will come to your garden. This means planting single flowers as opposed to doubles so that the nectar is available and planting flowers which are shaped like a helicopter landing pad, eg. verbena bonariensis, daisy type flowers, achillea, echinacae etc. and of course buddleia. These flowers are composed of hundreds of tiny tubular flowers which the butterfly can feed from with its proboscis. You could also have a variety of plants which flower over many months, such as rock cress in spring, verbena and buddleia in summer and sedum in autumn.

Butterflies can’t drink water from ponds or bird baths but they do like a muddy puddle! One way to provide this is to fill a shallow container with mud or sand and keep it topped up with water, or if you have any over ripe bananas or pears, then put them out for the butterflies. In the autumn of course they make the most of windfall apples, seeming to get quite drunk in the process!

Last of all, you should never use any pesticides as you will kill the adults as well as the larva.

Having now attracted the butterflies into the garden, now we have to make sure that we can provide the plantfood that the caterpillar likes, otherwise the butterfly will go elsewhere to lay its eggs. If you are lucky you will see the caterpillar laying her eggs  and you will be supporting the next generation of butterflies. Remember though , these plants will be eaten, there will be holes etc. in the leaves, maybe best to plant these plants in a more inconspicuous place.

I put “Butterfly larva plant food” into my search engine and found 3 websites which I think might help with the choice of plants to feed the caterpillars-

www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/foodplants.php     this had a super list of larval foodplants.

www.foremostbutterflies.com/butterfly_garden/butterfly_garden_location.htm

Here are  the butterflies that I have managed to photograph in our garden and that seem to live here. Europe, down to the Meditteranean, will have some of these but also lots more that don’t visit as far north as the UK. Some in our garden don’t get as far north as Scotland, so people in NW Scotland will have some northern ones that we don’t have.

This is a Tortoiseshell butterfly which lays its eggs on nettles, I feel there are enough nettles in the field next door without me having to grow any!

Commas lay their eggs on nettles, hop or elm. We have a golden hop over an arbour in the back garden, does the butterfly mind what colour it is?

The larva of Gatekeeper butterflies feed on grasses.

We have seen 3 Ringlets tumbling over and over each other, were they trying to lay claim to the grass that we had allowed to grow longer, in order to lay their eggs there, as the larva like to eat grasses?

I don’t think Brimstone butterflies lay their eggs in our garden, their larval food plant is the alder buckthorn, which we don’t have and I don’t think my neighbours have either. Maybe we just get butterflies passing over who think our garden looks as though it has plenty of nectar, they would be right !

Peacocks are another butterfly that lays its eggs on Nettles.

We often see The Speckled Wood butterfly dancing in the woodland in patches of sunshine, they lay their eggs on grasses.

The bane of the Vegetable gardener’s life as the Large White lays it’s eggs on all the brassica family. Always have so many of these butterflies in the garden.

Female Silver Washed  Fritillary butterflies actually crawl along the woodland floor looking for suitable sites with dog violets. She then flies to the nearest tree and lays an egg in a crevice of the bark, it is believed that this provides a suitable microclimate for the overwintering larva. 2 weeks later the egg hatches and the larva moves further into the crevice and spins a silk pad where it then hibernates. The following spring the larva descends from the tree for its first meal of young, juicy leaves of the dog violet. After moulting 4 times it then pupates for 2 to 3 weeks before emerging as a beautiful butterfly- amazing! We have loads of violets in the garden and plenty of trees for them to take their choice.

The Holly Blue butterfly is such a small butterfly, compared to the others, but so pretty. This butterfly uses both the Holly and Ivy plants for it’s larva to feed on. Spring larva feed on the flowers of the holly bushes and autumn larva feed on ivy buds. We have quite a few of both species so plenty of food for lots of caterpillars.

There are also a few butterflies which I havn’t managed to photograph yet. Orange Tips fly in early spring, they lay their eggs on cuckoo flower and honesty. I have already planted the cuckoo flower for them, must sow some honesty seed this year. The meadow brown butterfly lays its eggs on an assortment of grasses. We have been told by our village butterfly expert, that we must have Purple Hairstreaks as they live at the tops of Oak and Ash and we have 5 of each, but they are not the sort of butterfly that comes down into gardens to find their nectar, apart from coming to bramble blossom. The eggs are laid in the tree tops and the larva eat the tree leaves. We do sometimes get Painted Ladies, but these are summer visitors from France and don’t breed here yet. The Common Blue butterfly is also sometimes seen here,  the larva like to eat trefoils and legumes. I don’t understand why the Duke of Burgundy Fritillary is so rare in the UK, apparantly it is the 2nd rarest butterfly here in spite of the larval food being cowslip and primrose and we have hundreds of those plants in the garden, they are welcome to come any time!

Quite a few little brown butterflies are here over the summer, just havn’t been able to identify them and photograph them yet. I seem to spend a lot of time during the summer, with this little butterfly book in one hand and camera in the other following butterflies round the garden, never quite fast enough ! So, wherever you live, I think the best thing to do is first of all,  either buy a good butterfly book or go on to the internet, from there you should be able to find out which butterflies like which plants where you live. Once you know which plants the butterflies lay their eggs on, then you can get sowing or planting and creating your own butterfly heaven! I wish you joy, butterflies really do add an extra dimension to any garden.

Thank you to Alberto and Frances for asking me to write this post, it was fascinating finding out about the life cycle of the Silver Washed Fritillary, would never have known all those facts, what an amazing life they lead!

The Chaenomeles by the back door flowers on and off from November until April as long as there is no frost, we are still waiting for our first proper one, in the meantime we enjoy the flowers each time we go out.

These snowdrops, Mrs. Macnamara, are by the front door and just wouldn’t sit still to be photographed, dancing about everywhere, they were, but somehow I managed to catch them. Mrs.Macnamara was mother in law to Dylan Thomas.

Winter jasmine, also by the front door, looks a bit bruised here, lots more lovely buds to come though and make a splash of yellow in a dark corner.

A few primrose have been out for some time now, flowering away in shady corners. If any bees are tempted to come out of their nests, at least there will be nectar and pollen ready for them. This is a white one, but there are lots of wild yellow ones flowering at the moment.

What is this Anthemis doing, still flowering in the bee and butterfly border? I had cut it back to give it a rest but it is determined to carry on and is still putting out more buds. I have taken quite a few cuttings, so if it does flower itself to death, then I have replacements handy, hope this doesn’t happen though.

Rosa Graham Thomas still looking good. Most of the roses have been cut back by half to try and prevent wind rock, Graham Thomas is determined to flower and is forming lots more buds.

Erysimum Bowles Mauve is another determined little plant. As with the rose, it was cut back in November, but has put up lots of new stems for us to enjoy.

Cyclamen hederifolium still doesn’t want to stop flowering, 5 long months this particular corm has been flowering, when will it give up?

My first Narcissus, doesn’t seem right to have it flowering in December, but there it is, Rijnveld’s Early Sensation.

One of the first Hellebores to flower, argutifolius, always looks strong and perky, no matter what the weather is doing, more pollen and nectar for early bees.

A lovely anemone centred Hellebore which has been flowering for a couple of months now, hope it will have plenty more buds so that it can flower at the correct time.

Lots of the hybrid hellebores are just getting going, quite a few are showing their flowers, but I will do a separate post about them when they are flowering at full strength.

This is the summer snowflake, Leucojum  aestivum   which should normally flower after the spring snowflake. No sign of the spring snowflake yet, but 2 clumps of the summer snowflakes started putting out their flowers in December.

The tassels on Garrya elliptica are elongating and starting to open up, they will look good for about a month in the corner of the back garden.

Choisya ternata almost hasn’t stopped flowering since last spring. This is it’s third flowering for last year, or is it the first for this year?!

This japanese azalea is covered in buds, just hope it flowers at the correct time in May!

A beautiful snowdrop, all green on the inside tube, have lost its label so will have to get my big snowdrop book out to try and identify it properly.

More lovely snowdrops,  more are opening each day. Lots more to come soon, showing way above the soil and pushing their buds upright at the moment, soon they will curl over and start opening.

Couldn’t believe it, Convolvulous cneorum flowering away, utterly ridiculous at this time of year!

A few Fuchsias are still flowering, brightening up the borders. In a couple of months it will be time to cut them right down so that they can start all over again.This one is Delta Sarah.

Iris unguicularis is flowering in the bee and butterfly border, never more than one flower at a time, but always something to look at when going in and out.

Campanula poscharskyana never seems to stop flowering, every clump always has a flower or two, no wonder it manages to spread so much!

The Camellia, at the side of the garden (by the school!) is flowering 2 months earlier than usual. It is covered in buds so should be in flower for quite some time and will brighten up that corner which we can see from the dining room.

That was a much longer list than I was expecting, all due to the mild weather that we have been having all winter. We have had one apology for a frost, only found a couple of frosted leaves, nothing worth photographing. If the weather continues like this, then soon all the winter bulbs will be flowering in the woodland and the new gardening year will be well and truly under way.

Happy New Year and Happy Gardening for 2012 to you all !