Joys of Spring

Just looked at a website to see how long rose bushes can live. Says, "You can easily expect to see a quality rose strain outlive you if properly cared for."

Not sure you would actually see it do so.

Just heard on the TV news that there are 63 species of wild flowers in bloom in Wales which should not be in bloom at all yet.... The last two blooms on the roses in my garden have finally given up the ghost.

I've still got some marigolds out!

Indeed, super! Our next-door neighbour from that time is still there and she says the back garden is "a mess" too. It's ironic really because it was the garden that really attracted the guy who bought the house, or so he said. It jolly well should have been as it was the nicest garden in the street.

Have also been a little bit , shall we say, unlucky with David Austin Roses.
Same for some of my friends.

Some of my roses are still flowering like mad. The climbing Iceberg has about a hundred blooms. I guess at some stage I need to hack it back and fertilize.

Both snowdrops and daffodils spotted today when out striding (shuffling?) along with my nordic poles.....

Iceberg is a trooper of a rose.
I wouldnt say unlucky with DA roses johanna - planted too many in a too small space. The best one I have is generous gardener. But none of them are blooming as much as they did on the first few years.

Jess & jingl - I love New Dawn but don't have it, Golden Showers are slowly taking over my piggeries and your Sympathy sounds fabulous and hardy! To match her, jingl, I have a lovely one called Compassion.

I have just been down the garden to inspect the snowdrops which are coming on by leaps and bounds. I've never seen mini daffodils so near to opening - as they are - in January and it's not even half way through the month.

I dead-headed a hydrangea yesterday and discovered lots of flower buds on it. The snowdrops now have little heads on them - they will be flowering any moment. All my fruit trees are budding, and I noticed that some of my perennial herbs have started shooting. I do hope we don't get any nasty frosts that kill these little shoots off.

Well for those of you that have room - it is a good time to order roses.
The other stunner i have is William Morris - but again, it has gone off the boil in the last couple of years. Not feeding enough methinks. My only complaint about it is that the dead heads don't drop their petals. Unlike Anne Boleyn, a small sort of a rose which, as her name suggests, loses her head all too quickly. Especially in hot sunny weather.

Ventured out in yesterday's sun to check my tiny plot. Five potted geraniums still flowering. Purple candytuft, blue dwarf iris and a pink hyacinth all making a very early appearance. Odd but lovely.

Don't the windows look filthy!

- yes, they do!
It is lovely to see the flowers doing their thing early. It just goes to show that nature does what comes naturally - and gives us an unexpected smile.

Last year I planted 1000 crocuses in the lawn in our front garden. The garden is not big, just average size, and we had the most wonderful show of yellow, white and purple flowers. Caused a sensation amongst our neighbours and people came from all over the village to see them. This year, so far, we have ten yellow crocuses out and hopefully we will have the same, if not more, flowers this year. I have always loved the little crocus, the herald of spring, and wondered how this experiment would work.
Unknown to me, my sister, who lives in Northern Ireland, did exactly the same thing last year and we sent each other a photo of what we thought was our own idea!!
Our grandaughter calls by often and enjoys counting how many flowers she can find - and today she counted the ten! So here's hoping for a beautiful colourful display again this year.

We've got a lovely big green woodpecker sunning himself on our walnut tree at the moment. He's not pecking. Just sitting there with his back to the sun.

OH gorgeous jingl. they have lovely red patches as well as green dont they

jingl - they're usually quite nervous, so he's clearly having a chilled-out and cool time in the sunshine!

Just walked back down to our house frome the village and espied 'our' 2 swans swimming gently alongside the beach - making the most of the sun no doubt

Just found a border type lavatera with a delicate little pink flower on it!

Go to sleep baby. It's too soon!

My campanula has sex got flowers on it as well.

That's what I call a very chilled and cool flower, jingl

Last night's and tonight's frosts might make some of those little buds and shoots have second thoughts

The frost has its compensations - the tiny rosettes on an alpine sedum were delicately edged with rime yesterday - almost a filigree effect.

Must be chilly inland. We even have frost in the "warm" west!