An Early Taste of Spring

We have had the most wonderful end to the winter with a little sampler of what's to come in the spring months ahead. This February had the highest temperatures in many years and we loved it.

Taking advantage of the earlier sunrises we were able to enjoy plenty of beautiful walks by the sea and at times we were the only people there.

 

During last autumn I sowed some Red Campion seeds in a little seed tray. By January they were just big enough to prick out and pot up into tiny little cells, this was an extremely arduous task but resulted in about 150 little plants. This month I finally potted them up into my smallest pots so give them a chance to grow on. Surprisingly they thrived and if the good weather continues it won't be long before they go outside.

  

The warm days and increased daylight tricked the bulbs into some early growth and the appearance of emerging Erythronium Pagodas soon developed into a mass of leaves.

 

I was thrilled to see the return of our wild garlic. It didn't do brilliantly last year as some got munched and the rest were battered by the weather which left just one with flowers. The mild month has produced strong growth with some flower buds already visible.

  

Last year was the first season for the numerous wood anemones we planted and although we had some leaves appear we had very few flowers. I was overjoyed to see many more plants poking through in the planted areas where they hadn't previously been obvious. I was even more excited to see lots of tiny little white flowers. If this progress is anything to go by then they should improve year on year.

After the success of the Joan of Arc Crocus last year we planted even more in the autumn to improve the display. With the early mild weather they were beginning to emerge and there were even a few blooms opening in the sunshine.

They are the most gorgeous large, pure white flower which tend to last longer than the little wispy flowers we had in the garden.

Another success story was the return of some winter aconites. We had a few plants last year but only a couple of flowers so I was delighted to see these cheery little plants trying hard to beat the weeds.

The white Camellia appeared to have survived the winter will only a couple of discoloured leaves. It was planted last year just before the dry summer so didn't have the best start in life but perhaps we'll see some growth this year.

Last year we planted lots of anemone which we bought at the end of season sale. It was wonderful to see some tiny little flowers appear in the sunshine. it was also a reminder of where we had planted them as the grass had grown and covered everything over.

We had a major daffodil planting session in the autumn to increase the daffodil population in daffodil walk. It was a thrill to see that the early touch of spring had brought them to life and we could see the leaves and flower buds emerging through the grass. What a lovely start to spring we have had.