A WEEK IN MY GARDEN - 7 MARCH

Dry weather and sunshine - in the first week of March?  Who'd have thought it.  I was looking back through last year's photos and saw that we were having snow last March.  Not only is the sunshine a wonderful boost to the spirits, it brings on all the Spring flowers.  After a few lean weeks when it's been hard to find much to interest you with, I now find myself wondering how much I can get away with including in one week's post.

Sunshine in the Rose Garden

 

The sun has also meant that the long awaited snowdrops were over all too soon.  'Fieldgate Tiffany' is one of the few that still look good.  It's large white slightly puckered petals are redolent of a Tiffany lamp I suppose. 

As I predicted last week, the daffodils in the Orchard have opened.  The daffodils are quite short and have a more natural appearance that some of the more showy varieties which seem more at home in the flower borders than in grass.

Pale yellow and purple is one of my favourite combinations and the purple Iris reticulata look great with the primroses  I buy some dwarf spring bulbs each year for a pot or two by the back door - muscari, scillas and other things like that.  After they have finished I move them to a nearby border and hope they will come up again.  My soggy Nottinghamshire  clay is as far from the sunny well drained position that these bulbs require, so it is something of a miracle that one or two of them have decided to reappear.

One bulb that has reliably come back year after year, and in rather a shady area to boot, is the Kaufmanniana tulip -'The First'.  Well worth growing.

It has not just been the sunshine bringing a smile to my face this week.  How about these cheerful little primulas.  I would normally choose white or maybe pale yellow at a pinch and they would look very tasteful, but perhaps they would not raise a smile like these ones that I was given.  The flowers of bright pink, yellow, red and purple are certainly very jolly.

With regard to gardening tasks it's still mainly general cutting back and tidying up, and seed sowing.  The peppers and aubergine have yet to germinate but the salad bowl lettuce and some Ami have sprouted.  I also pruned these espaliered crab apples.  Since this was a little out of my comfort zone, I had put the job off and in the end had to take off a fair bit of growth. For now they look as they are supposed to.  Whether they put on loads of whippy growth in retaliation, only time will tell.

Since they didn't show up well in photographs I have done you a painting instead.

As a final flourish, I bring you something from indoors.  I was given this Amaryllis for Christmas, and what with one thing and another I didn't get round to planting it straight away.  It's made up for lost time and is rather lovely.  It's the first time I've grown one and I can see why they are popular!

That's all for now though.  Thank you for reading and I hope to see you again next week.