Our first snowdrops

Photographed yesterday, Galanthus elwesii and galanthus 'John Gray'

One more

Missed this one nodding high up a crab apple - Clematis cirrhosa 'Freckles'. See it also on http://romancourt365.blogspot.com, a picture a day (until I get bored...).

Christmas Day Winter Wonderland

Here are some of the flowers out in the garden this morning.

Schizostylis coccinea (Kaffir Lily), has flowered for 6 months now

 'County' 'groundcover' rose 'Hampshire'. At 4 foot high, hardly groundcover. Has flowered its head off in deep shade for 20 years. I hope it now survives full sun...

Fuchsia 'Hawkshead'

Corydalis, from a (legal) cutting from Darwin's  Down House. It now seeds at will.

The first daffodil

Hellebore (asiatic)

Confused Banksian Rose (normally flowers June)

Violas

Cyclomen, with pot cat behind by Omnipuss Art, Lincoln

 'Christmas Camellia', camellia sasanqua.

Heuchera Flame Brulee (with a few weeds)

Hellebore, Double, pink

What to do with green figs?? Have tried chutney.

Fuchsia Hawkshead again...

Penstemon Purple Bedder

And another Penstemon Strawberry Fancy

Primrose: Primula capitata 'Silvana' from Tibet.

and winter flowering honeysuckle, lonicera purpusii  

Enjoy your Christmas,  Best wishes, Stephen and Jean

PS Spring garden opening planned for the Garden Club, on Easter Monday, 2-4pm.

Pretty rampant

 Weigela in front, wisteria behind

 The little clematis 'Joe'

 A pretty rampant lilac!

 And a pretty busy growing bench in the greenhouse

 Rose moyesii 'Geranium' shouldn't like it here, with wet feet, but does

 Another pretty rampant thug: a white wisteria growing through a flowering crab apple

 And a white climbing rose supported by a dead flowering cherry

 The drive lit up with these electric blue irises - Iris siberica 'Stephen'

 The white and purple wisterias, side by side. The purple is anything but rampant, even though it is 25 years old.

 Another view of the white wisteria, with pots under

 and house behind

And finally a very vigorous lilac hiding the house next door.

End of April 2011, photographs taken today

 Saxifrages

 Lily of the valley, waiting for the village plant sale

 The Dunwich Rose, pale cream yellow, single and simple

 Unusual tulips, second year of flowering

 The Banksian Rose, rose banksii, yellow double flowers

 Banksian Rose, close up

 Rose 'Canary Bird'. Single, simple and yellower than the Dunwich Rose

 clematis, new this year

 Blue geraniums, with Choisa Aztek Gem behind

 Purple leaved weigela, with its variagated pale green sport shining out. 

After 3 years, four cuttings have at last survived.

 Cornflowers, with Deutzia behand.

 True lupin, with gorse behind

 Through the geraniums towards the summer house, with sweet pea wigwams visible

 Three trees - pocket handkerchief, front; pink midland thorn; then white hawthorm.

You may need to click to enlarge

Finally today, the first of the Iris 'Stephen', with hellebores behind and Choisa 'Aztek Pearl' in the distance.

Hostas and their enemies

Hostas are coming into leaf and are looking incredibly delicious to the army of slugs and snails that live in the garden. My main solution is to grow them in pots, and to spray the pots with WD40 about now, as the beasts are waking after the winter.

It has worked for 5 years. For hostas in the ground, or other vulnerable plants, spray a barrier to go around them - a piece of old hose for big plants, a plastic bottle section for baby delphiniums and lupins. Make sure there are no overhanging leaves, because the varmints will try every other way to get to their lunch.

Spring Blossoms, April 3 2011

Join me in a walk around the garden this morning to share these blossoms with you. Please note, we do not hire any gardeners! Just Jean and myself.  Click images to enlarge.

Magnolia stellata

Tulips and daffodils

Fritilaries and narcissi

Bought as the daffodil Bravoure, from a famous company, these are clearly not. Short at 12 inches.
If you recognize them, let me know. My guess is Las Vegas.

 This is Bravoure, my only good bloom this year. It is the best daffodil visually, very tall.
I am trying to establish a long term colony, now set back another year.

Pieris forestii. We have very alkali soil, so grow acid lovers in an ericaceous bed. The red leaf tips are just beginning.

Camellia

Pulmonaria, "lungwort", once medicinal.

Symphytum, from the comfrey family. The Beeslove it, wonderful ground cover for shade, and when you hack it back, put it in the water tub to make free plant feed. This one is Hidcote Blue.

More daffodils - a spare patch for a bucket load of spare bulbs out of last year's pots.

Chaenomeles - Japanese quince

We easily tolerate lesser celandines, which carpet some beds with yellow flowers right now. When the flowers die, the leaves disappear too so they are the perfect weed. This green 'weed' is growing next to the broze leaves form "Brazen Hussey". There is a white flowered form just out of picture.

Primroses, seed themselves around wonderfully.

My favorite Ribes, flowering currant, "Alba", flowers for over a month.

Next to it a double flowered gorse, viciously spikey.

Spiraea, "Bridal Veil", well named.

Caltha, Kingcup or Marsh marigold

Another ribes, the yellow flowered form Rines aureum, golden or buffalo current. It has white berries.

Foreground, an epimedium, and behind it a tiny Japanese cherry.

More pulmanaria, here white flowered and blue flowered forms

and here with red flowers.

The evergreen clematis, armandii, white flowered form. We have a pink flowered form to go elsewhere.

The tree Amelanchier, this one canadensis (from Canada) which was pruned when little to become  multi-stemmed instead of single trunk.

Kerria japonica, double form, grows up to 12 feet

and finally today a flowering damson which flowers too early normally to fruit, 

though when it did bear tiny purple damsons, they were a bonus. A Prunus ornamental plum, probably Nigra is purple all through, even the wood. This form has pink flowers, while usual forms like Atropurpurea have white flowers. It is on a Prunus cerasifera rootstock  which suckers badly (green leaves and white flowers).