March has brought very mixed weather for us so far, one minute warmish and sunny, then much colder, hail showers, fierce gales, and driving rain. At least I haven’t had to water all my new plantings, nature is doing it all for me. Some of the early narcissus are now fading with lots more taking over and some still to come. It is also the turn of smaller woodland plants to shine for a few weeks, amongst the bulbs.
I’m enjoying this wave of narcissus and hellebores.
They make such a colourful corner in the back garden.
But soon they will give way to different plants for the rest of the year.
It’s primrose time, the banks are all covered with them.
Primula denticulata are joining in.
Along with the very colourful primulas.
Primula sibthorpii on the rockery is always the first primrose to flower, even before the wild ones. Once this one starts, I know the others won’t be far behind.
Prunus Kojo no mai is covered with buds and freshly opened flowers, looking just like snowflakes.
Such pretty delicate flowers, thank goodness the bullfinches seem to have left the buds alone this year.
N. Thalia is now starting to open, soon there will be lots of this variety flowering.
I think these might be N. Silver Chimes. They are planted on the alpine scree so get the summer baking that they need. Such a dainty flower.
Primrose Jack in the Green which a friend gave me a couple of years ago. The flower has a ruff of green leaves/sepals as part of it.
The common Pulmonaria has started flowering, a favourite of the bees, they don’t care if its a common variety!
A lovely contrast of saturated colour. The lovely deep blue of Pulmonaria longifolia contrasts so well with the deep yellow of N.Tete a Tete.
N. St. Patrick’s Day has opened ready for his special day on the 17th!
This group of Corydalis solida and seedlings makes me smile every time I pass it going to the woodland, it is on the side of the ditch.
Corydalis solida is on the left with the lilac coloured flowers,this was the original plant, the pink corydalis is one of its seedlings. Other seedlings are a paler pink or another almost red, sometimes they come true like their parent.
The original Corydalis solida.
The pink seedling.
About 3 ft away I found another , just like its parent. They all now have a nice mulch of leaf mould so the seeds have somewhere nutricious to fall, hopefully I’ll get more seedlings.
Euphorbia robbiae colonising one of the banks to the ditch.
In the woodland itself is Corydalis solida Beth Evans looking very like one of the seedlings on the slope. I have never found any seedlings round her, in spite of always hopefully giving her a mulch of leaf mould each year.
On guard duty!
Soon we will have hundreds, they will get a special post as usual.
Anemone nemerosa, the wood anemone, is increasing nicely either by seed or by underground runners. Whichever it is, I keep mulching round it so that seed has somewhere nice to fall if it so desires.
Brunnera Alexander’s Great, only just planted so only small so far, hopefully it will grow to its full size soon.
A lonely little narcissus which I don’t remember planting, it is all by itself and could do with some friends.
The top corner is looking rather blue with various muscari and scilla siberica, I think more white is needed in this area.
Daphne bholua is still flowering away giving its perfume to anyone who passes by. The road through the village is just the other side of the hedge, I wonder if anyone walking up the road can smell it?
So pretty at this time of year. Acer Sango kaku has such delicate looking leaves, but they are standing up to our gales very well, thank goodness. There are tiny red flowers everywhere along the dainty coral coloured branches, a stunning tree.
Cyclamen repandum flowering in the woodland and increasing slowly. I could see quite a few buds waiting to open.
Euphorbia melliferra doesn’t usually flower in March, usually it is May before the perfume comes wafting across the garden.
I can’t detect any perfume, maybe it needs a bit of heat to release it. I think it must be flowering early because of all the warm weather in February.
Scilla siberica is spreading nicely without a mulch on the alpine scree. Seedlings are now appearing quite some way from the original clump of bulbs, some have even jumped into the rockery both sides of the scree, where the soil hasn’t been improved much at all!
Also on the alpine scree is my tiny tulip, it just needs a bit of sun to open it up.
On the wall by the back door, Veronica is forming a covering and has lovely tiny flowers.
I’m now back at the back door where Chaenomeles is still flowering. I think it might be coming to an end soon, there are only a few more buds to open.
This is my offering for March GBBD, I’m surprised that so many flowers are looking as good as they are in spite of the weather. For days now we have had such gales and driving rain, some days we have had sleet and hailstone, so winter isn’t done with us yet. My poor crocus planted in the lawn have been flattened by the wind so it will be another year before we see them standing proud once more!
Thanks must go to Carol at May Dreams Garden for organising this monthly meme, do pay her a visit to see flowers from around the world.
Your garden is dressed in delightful color for spring. I especially love your use of narcissus with hellebores and plan to borrow that idea for my own garden. Our weather is finally warming up to more normal temperatures for this time of year. Hooray!
Thank you Peter,the colours do make a difference after a dismal winter. I’m so glad you like the corner with the narcissus and hellebores, I’m very fond of it too. I can imagine that you are really pleased that your temperatures are behaving at last, hopefully no more winter for either of us!
Drumstick primula and the checked fritillaries are my ‘exotic’ choices.
Glad you like them Diana, I’m pretty fond of them too, especially the fritillaries!
I love the combination of the hellebores with the daffodils!
They make a good combination don’t they Shelly, and provide much needed colour at a dull time of year, glad you like them.
What a lovely tour of your garden Pauline. The Corydalis solida is very pretty with its colour variations. And how lucky to have seedlings, mine has never produced any! I am glad your weather has improved and I hope it continues to do so as I will visit the UK next month and spend a week of garden touring (and plant buying) with a friend.
Thank you Denise, it was lovely having your company! I’m so pleased with the way Corydalis solida is behaving and I’m looking forward to lots more seedlings hopefully! April should be a good time to go garden visiting here, you and your friend should have a wonderful time.
What a change! I can barely keep up with how quickly things have changed in your garden with the snowdrops just barely over and now it seems everything has come along. The narcissus are really fantastic, I don’t remember seeing nearly as many last spring, and I love that you kept with the smaller types. I may have to copy that since the larger ones can almost be too much in some parts of the garden.
I’m looking forward to your fritillaria post! Mine haven’t even begun to sprout yet.
What lovely comments about the narcissus Frank, thank you so much! They come in waves, first one variety, then another, keeping the interest going until something else takes over. The previous people planted huge King Alfred types, but I’m gradually giving them away as they just fall down at the first gale that hits us, the smaller ones are much better for standing up to the wind.
Fritillaries are looking better each day, but not quite ready for their post!
So many beautiful spring flowers, a pleasure to see them all. Thank goodness the wind and rain didn’t do too much damage.xxx
It was just the tall daffodils that didn’t recover from the gales Dina, so they got cut and were brought inside. More flowers open every day, it is a wonderful time of year.