Spring has certainly arrived in the garden here, it is washing over the garden and changing the colour from white to yellow. Early snowdrops are now almost finished and the colour white that was everywhere a few days ago is gradually changing to the yellow of the first narcissus and primroses.
In the border by the archway into the woodland are Narcissus Tete a Tete, Hellebores, Cyclamen coum, pulmonaria and snowdrops.
Looking into the woodland from the archway, the colour has definitely changed from white to yellow. And yes, the rusty pheasant fools me, I just hope it fools the real pheasant!
Little Tete a Tete narcissus are popping up everywhere making pools of sunshine throughout the woodland and other borders.
We have cowslips and primroses in the woodland, where they cross, this is the result, a False Oxlip. The colouring and size of the flower is from the primrose and the tall stem and arrangement of flowers is from the cowslip.
Corydalis Beth Evans is starting to flower in the woodland, it forms a lovely dome of beautiful leaves which are then enhanced by pretty pink flowers.
My only witch hazel to flower this year is Hamamellis Robert. I have checked the other two and they are still alive, thank goodness. I must remember to water them if we have a hot summer!
A lovely little Viola which I have dotted round the garden.
My Camellia, which started flowering in November, is still flowering away in the corner of the back garden. Non stop flowering for 5 months is pretty good for any plant.
Primula sibthorpii up near the veggie garden is putting out more and more flowers each day. I would love some of it in the woodland but wouldn’t want them to cross with the wild primroses there, otherwise seedlings might turn out a really wishy-washy colour and that would be a shame.
Wild primroses are popping up everywhere in the garden and in the lanes round about. They grow on the banks that form the boundaries of all the properties, it is a pleasure to drive along the lanes at the moment.
Things are stirring in the bog garden. Primula denticulata is always the first to flower in this area of very boggy soil. The candelabra primulas are only just pushing through the very wet soil, hard to believe at the moment, that they will be flowering in another month.
Little Scilla siberica are starting to flower, soon there will be a lot more, but I should have planted 100s more as they are so tiny!
Still flowering over by the field at the side is Verbena bodnantense Dawn. This is another shrub that has been flowering on and off since November, good value!
Another one still flowering from November is the Chaenomeles by the back door, this has flowered non stop in spite of all the frosts that we have had. The frost didn’t seem to make any difference to it, it just carried on regardless.
And yet another that has been flowering for such a long time. Daphne bholua Jaqueline Postill is still pumping out her perfume and working in the woodland these days is such a pleasure, with the sun on my back and her beautiful perfume filling my nostrils.
More and more flowers are coming each day now on the Leucojum aestivum, they usually end up with 6 or 8 flowers per stem and look wonderful when all the flowers are out at the same time.
Also increasing nicely is its cousin Leucojum vernum, I split a clump last year and they have all come back as good as ever.
In the alpine scree bulbs of Chionodoxa Pink Giant are almost out, the ones on the left are a deeper pink than the ones on the right, I wonder why? I must buy more for the woodland, I think they would look nice in there on the slope at the end where they can seed happily downhill.
Crocus tommasinianus Ruby Giant. I think this one is sterile, it doesn’t seem to be seeding about.
Growing on the sloping sides of the ditch is Euphorbia amygdaloides robbiae. This is spreading but I am glad that something will grow on the slope which is full of tree roots.
I can’t remember Cyclamen repandum flowering this early before, what started as just one corm is slowly spreading courtesy of my ants carrying the seed away to lick the sugary coating from the seed.
I think my species narcissus are starting to seed around as I have never planted my bulbs singly like this. It is only Narcissus pseudonarcissus that I leave to go to seed, this narcissus is one of our natives with a darker trumpet within paler outer petals.
Our Japanese Azalea near the house has decided that spring has arrived, usually it is at least a month later before flowering starts.
A few years ago, when we opened the garden for a snowdrop day, I put some extra colour on the rockery with some brightly coloured Polyanthus. They never seem to be out of flower and are now in desperate need of splitting.
In the front garden Iris unguicularis Walter Butt is still putting up new flowers, this was flowering before Christmas, it’s nice to see the occasional flower open now and then.
In the back by the house, Iris unguicularis has been flowering since Christmas. Since then it has always had 4 or 6 flowers on it, its a pity the foliage is so shaggy!
I noticed a few holes in the leaves of Cardamine pratensis, which means that something has been nibbling. I’m hoping it is the caterpillars of the Orange Tip butterfly as this is the food that they like.
Hellebores are getting better each day, I think they are rather late to get going this year, some are only just pushing through the surface of the soil.
You didn’t think I could leave the snowdrops out did you?! There are plenty still flowering but G. Augustus can represent them all as it is looking so lovely at the moment.
Soon my fickle heart will desert the snowdrops because the fritillaries are almost flowering, I swear they have grown 6 inches overnight!
That is my selection of March flowers, thanks to Carol for hosting this meme every month, do pay her a visit to see all the other spring and autumn flowers around the world.
Your Corydalis is still flowering, I’m waiting for mine. Beautiful looks your garden!
Sigrun
The Corydalis has only just started flowering Sigrun, I hope it flowers for a while yet, the little flowers are so pretty!
Spring has certainly arrived and how beautiful she looks. That first photo is a real picture. There’s a sense of deja vu looking through your post, so much that we have in common which is not that surprising really. Although you have a lot more success with bulbs!
Are you moving the rusty pheasant about a little bit occasionally?
I move the rusty pheasant every day Jessica, but today the real one got a nasty shock. Our daughter and family were visiting, including their dog! I think I will have to hire him every March in future because he certainly got rid of the pheasant in the morning and he stayed away all day!
We have both mentioned the primroses in the lanes in Devon, aren’t they wonderful at the moment?!
You have so many pretty flowers! I wish the slugs here didn’t like our Primroses so much. Happy GBBD!
Thanks Alison, more flowers are opening each day, spring has certainly arrived! We have plenty of slugs but we also have lots of birds that like to eat them!
Yes, your pheasant does look real! The woodland is lovely at this time of year and your hellebores are gorgeous Pauline!
I had added help with guarding my fritillaries today Cathy, our daughter came with her family which included her dog! I’ll have to put him on the pay roll as the pheasant beat a hasty retreat!
More flowers come out each day in the woodland, I love my morning wander.
So much colour and variety Pauline. It is such a pleasure just to look at your photos, as you are much further on than we are here in Lincolnshire. I was out in the garden this afternoon and it felt like winter – cold grey and miserable, but Spring is just around the corner.
I love Walter Butt (or ‘Water Butt’ as I read it the first time I saw it!) Such subtle colours.
Thank you Jane, we probably are a week or so ahead of you, I think at the moment you are getting a very cold east wind straight from Russia! I hope it warms up for you soon. Poor Walter, being mistaken for a water butt, the colours are really delicate , much paler then the species which I have in the back garden.
The woodland garden is such a credit to you, I just love all the plants there, and those that are still coming up. Everything looks utterly gorgeous! I was especially taken with Primula denticulata!xxx
Thank you Dina, when we moved here 25 yrs ago, it was just the huge old trees, brambles and nettles. Plants are seeding around in there and it gets better every year, I have to admit it is my favourite part of the garden. The Primula denticulata will end up taller than it is now, they always seem to flower too soon when the flower is still at soil level.
How strange that some of the plants we both grow are at similar stages yet others are much further behind.
Everything is looking super with your there Pauline and that first picture is jam packed full of spring beauties.
I think Angie, that some plants go by the number of daylight hours and others by temperature before they flower, which may account for the difference in some of our flowers. I think this is a wonderful time of year when everything is starting to grow once more, it’s like seeing friends again that have been absent for a while!
Lovely to see your spring garden thriving. I’m amazed at the things you’ve had blooming throughout the winter, especially the camellia.
I too am amazed Susie by the way some of our plants have coped with our winter. I suppose it is really that we didn’t have any severe frosts or snow, so that must have kept our plants in flowering mode, usually they stop when we have a frost but the lowest we had was -2C
Spring, glorious spring! Your snowdrops are always delightful! I’ve a single variety of which I inherited a large number with the garden. As I’ve transplanted other plants, they’ve spread to many parts of the garden and have also seed about a bit so instead of your lovely procession of bloom, mine all come and go at the same time. You’ve so many things blooming! The floriferous spring march to the glorious abundance of summer has begun!
How nice Peter, to see your snowdrops spreading round your garden, I love to have free plants courtesy of nature! We are able to buy early flowering varieties and late ones, so the season lasts for over 3 months, which is wonderful when nothing else is flowering!
I think now that spring has really started, nothing is going to stop the flowers coming day after day, it’s a wonderful time of the year, so much promise wrapped in every flower bud¬
I just came in from a walk in my own garden – today is the first really sunny day in weeks, and spring came in during the rainy days – and what a pleasure to extend my walk through your post! I am like a thirsty wanderer, drinking it all in! Your woodland is such a delight. In ways your garden is ahead of mine. My primroses are barely poking their heads through the ground and my corydalis is still sleeping. But most of my narcissus are finished. The weeks of rain with a hard frost or two did not help them much. They came up and bloomed, then lay close to the ground and stayed that way through all the bad weather. Your snowdrops and hellebores are fabulous, and that ever-blooming camellia is amazing!
What a shame your narcissus got battered by your weather Deb, it’s so frustrating when that happens. More and more flowers are opening each day, I have to have my daily wander in the woodland to see what has popped up overnight!
The camellia has never performed so well before, usually it is February when it starts flowering, I don’t know what made it start in November last year but I’m so glad it did!
All that colour is really quite thrilling! It’s the same story here with primroses, cowslips, daffodils, etc all in flower and the V.bodnantense is still absolutely covered with flowers! I’ve never known it be quite so abundant in previous years, it’s a real picture. I’ve also noticed a lot of new growth in the hedgerows and roadside verges when I drive through the Hampshire countryside – there’s daffodils in flower next to banks of snowdrops – it’s all I can do to keep my eyes on the road in front!
I’m like you Caro, I have to keep telling myself that I must watch the road ahead, not the flowers in the verge or on the banks! I think our shrubs have flowered for so long because we didn’t really have much frost at all, not enough anyway to make the flowers brown and stop flowering.
We seem to have got off quite lightly here in London, warm sunshiney days followed by a bit of wind and chill but nothing too dreadful. Let’s hope there’s no nasty surprises in store – I remember it was snowing in March two years ago!
Your woodland planting is a delight Pauline, you have chosen the mix of plants beautifully to give a succession of lovely blooms. I would love to be walking there with you.
Thank you Christine, you are welcome to join me any time! I hope eventually to have more drifts of white flowers later in the year, I can see that I need to sow lots more seeds!
So many pretty things, Pauline! I love the Corydalis…. I have planted a few pink ones of my own this year. Looking forward to seeing those!
I too think the Corydalis is a pretty little plant Julie, I hope yours pops up as soon as all your snow disappears!
Oh your woodland is looking quite fabulous Pauline. Do you ever wish that you could press a pause button? I’ve noticed that my cardamine has fewer holes on its leaves than last year but it seems very shy when it comes to producing flowers. Galanthus ‘Augustus’ certainly seems to be a good doer – mine are still going strong 🙂
Yes Anna, I really wish I could press a pause button sometimes, so many new flowers each day! There are still a few snowdrops in full flower in the woodland, but they will soon be over for another year, but then the fritillaries will take over, which will be lovely as long as the pheasant leaves them alone!
Such a wealth of gorgeous, bold, spring color…I do so love this time of year.
So do I Charlie, it is wonderful isn’t it!
All so very lovely Pauline – and yes, how quickly we are diverted from our snowdrops! I am really impressed to see your Chaenomeles still flowering – the one I moved from a pot is now in bud so although late looks as if it will flower better than it has done for a long time. I know you have said you cardamine spreads – has it spread enough to spare me a small piece…? I have been looking out for it and off and on for a while, without success…
Checking the fritillaries each day, takes my mind away from the few snowdrops that are still flowering.
I split my Cardamine last autumn Cathy, so maybe I will have some spare next year if they all take.
That would be lovely if you did 🙂
Oh goodness – I felt I just want to spend an entire day in your woodland garden – taking it all in. How absolutely wonderful! You have such glorious abundance. I agree with you – the Dawn Viburnum is an absolute treasure. Mine has bloomed since November too, and shows no signs of slowing down. Wonderful post!
Thanks Anna, you’re very kind! The Viburnum is still amazing, the whole bush is full of flowers, I’ve never seen it covered like this before.
How lovely that all the Spring flowers are coming out now. I should love a stroll round your woodland garden;so much to enjoy. It is just my sort of garden.
It is such a wonderful time of year Chloris, new flowers are opening each day, it makes my morning wander so enjoyable!
Fabulous spring colour and so much going on. It’s all very exciting. 🙂
Thanks Louise, it is an exciting time of year, I love it all !
Lovely seeing so many flowers and colours from your garden. I love the Primula denticulata, unfortunately it’s another one of those plants that are impossible to get in this country. But, close to here two houses are being knocked down and the gardens are full of snowdrops, I asked one of the builders what they were planning to do with them, and he said, help yourself, so that’s what I am going to do tomorrow :-)) –
Thank you Helle, I think spring is my favourite season.
How wonderful that you were able to rescue some snowdrops, they will look really beautiful in your garden next year!
Hi Pauline,
Lovely to see so much colour; wish we had as much here!
My drumstick primulas are beginning to flower too, still very close to the ground though and look a little odd before their stems grow tall.
Look at you with your irises. I always kick myself every year when you post about yours! Grrr. One day. Honest. Really.
It’s a wonderful time of year at the moment Liz, I’m worried about next week though as we have -C temperatures forecast for a few nights. I feel so sorry for plants that start opening in the nice weather and then get blasted by the frost.
My drumstick primulas are now growing tall and they look so much better than when I photographed them.
Iris unguicularis always manages to take me by surprise when they flower in the winter, its amazing that such fragile looking flowers can cope with the wind and rain.
So late catching up, but what a wonderful selection – and I’m very envious of all sorts of things. It is so wonderful when colour starts coming back, isn’t it?
Better late than never Kate! Spring is a wonderful time of year, I love my morning wanderings, after a winter of brown, the colours are certainly welcome.