At last we have had some rain! It seems so long since we last had any here in the SW of England so it was very welcome Thursday afternoon through to Friday morning. We are now back to non stop sunshine for the next 7 to 10 days, so I will be back watering my pots again, not something I normally have to do in March and April! Mrs Blackbird has obviously laid her eggs, which have hatched, as she is now collecting a beakful of mealworms each time she comes for food. Flowers are coming and going, new ones taking over and one plant especially has me very excited, more about that later!
Cyclamen repandum in the woodland, never seems to seed about, I think I’ll have to give it a helping hand in a few weeks time.
Bergenia Beethoven by the front door is happy in deep shade.
Caltha palustris or King cup, growing rather rapidly by and in the pond!I think I will have to move some of this as it is taking over.
Erythronium White Beauty which is growing just inside the woodland, I’m hoping I’ll get more buds soon.
Narcissus Thalia flowering on the rockery, a lovely little narcissus, not too tall and it increases nicely.
A couple of views now of the fritillaria meleagris in the woodland.
They have increased so well just by me sprinkling their seed each year, just one bag of bulbs were bought well over 25 yrs ago.
And now what has had me excited yesterday morning?
My orchid in the circular meadow! I was wondering if it would return and hadn’t seen it until wandering up there yesterday morning.It was only when I put the photo onto my laptop and had it full size that I though I saw another little leaf at the back, could it be from another little plant?
Sure enough, when I went back and looked round the other side, there it was, a second little orchid, it has split into two. Wonderful!
Those are my offerings for this week, I hope you like them. It looks as though we will all have good gardening weather for some time to come, so frustrating when I’m not actually strong enough to do any yet, I’ll just have to rely on my gardener! To see more spring gardens with their abundance of flowers, do pop over to Jim at Garden Ruminations who will have a wonderful selection for us to see.
I have fritillaria envy, Pauline! That is a fabulous display. I can’t wait all those years for seeds to fill my tiny woodland patch, but having seen this, I’ll have to invest in bulbs and/or potted plants. I love your Erythronium White Beauty too.
It only takes 2 or 3 years for the fritillary seed to flower Catherine, you can have a drift quite quickly as long as the conditions are right.The Erythronium is a little treasure, they don’t last long in flower, but are so worth their space.
That’s good to know, Pauline. I’ll have to do more reading about them – they are so pretty when you see them in large drifts like yours.
Thank you Catherine, it has been worth the wait!
Gosh your snake’s head fritillaries are fabulous, they obviously like your woodland garden. The Erythronium is also lovely, I tried once to grow them, but they got attacked by the S&S and I haven’t seen them since. I know what you mean about having to water pots. My bulbs are almost all in pots and with the wind and the sun they dry out very quickly.
The fritillaries certainly do like the damp end of the woodland Jude, although they are now popping up around the garden, still in damp places, without any help from me! Sorry to hear your Erythronium didn’t make it, those slugs have a lot to answer for!
All very lovely. My garden could do with some rain too.
Thanks Rosie, the rain was certainly welcome!
You’re very lucky to have had a few drops of rain, because here nothing for several weeks, and apparently nothing until April 15th… Erythronium flower really has a characteristic shape, we recognize it quickly.
Finally, what a quantity of Snake’s head fritillaries there are!
I was so pleased to see the rain on Thursday Fred, we have been told that we have had the driest March since records began and April seems to be the same. The fritillaries are spreading just by me sprinkling their seed in the woodland each year, although now they seem to be spreading further by themselves and appearing in different parts of the garden.
Nonstop sunshine sounds fabulous following a round of rain, and your garden is obviously very happy. All the blooms and foliage are lovely!
We are more used to rain in March and April Beth, the lovely sunshine makes a nice change, though the garden was ready for the rain on Thursday. All the plants look a lot happier for a good soak!
That’s exciting regarding the Orchid and wow to those fritillaria – what a show. I think we had the same rain on Thursday and Friday morning!
The rain was wonderful wasn’t it Graeme, we had waited a long time for it! I check on the orchid each day, my wander round the garden is my daily exercise, so it is a pleasure to go and check on it, just to make sure nothing has nibbled it overnight.
No rain for us here, sadly, so I can imagine just how thrilled you were with yours. I could feel your excitement about the appearance of your orchid too! Your fritillaries are glorious – and, strangely, later than ours, which are virtually over. Such a lot of spring beauties, Pauline!
We have since had quite a bit more rain Cathy and we certainly needed it! The orchid and its offspring are coming along nicely and my fritillaries are now over too!