Spring Flowers March In.

Spring has certainly arrived in March, the flowers are coming thick and fast with new ones opening up everyday. Wave after wave of new ones are making the little woodland so pretty at the moment, definitely my favourite part of the garden  at this time of year. Other parts of the garden are also waking up, today the sun is shining and has quite a bit of heat in it,  the birds are singing and we have seen them collecting nesting material, yes, spring has sprung! One flower that has been out all winter is the heather which is by the dead oak.

Rosemary has been flowering for such a long time now, since the warm spell in January and all through the frosts of February.

A lovely splash of colour from some crocus, now happily seeding around.

This is how my poor Azalea bush looked after the frosts in February, it had been fantastic, in full flower in January, I thought it maybe wouldn’t flower again at the proper time………..

But when I looked closely, I saw that it was covered with loads of buds, just waiting to open up . I think I will have to spend some time picking off all the frosted flowers!

Primroses are everywhere in the shady borders and are now seeding around which is lovely because quite often they put themselves where nothing else will grow.

Euphorbia amygdaloides robbiae is slowly colonising the side of the ditch which we cross to get into the woodland. This was the drainage ditch when the garden was part of the field next door, very shady for half of the ditch so am glad that this euphorbia is making itself at home here.

All the hellebores are still flowering on all four cylinders, making a wonderful show, this is a lovely anemone centered one, beautiful purple ruff in the middle.

Tiny little Scilla siberica, this is the first to flower, hopefully lots more to come, must plant more each autumn. Because they are so small, lots are needed to make a worthwhile show, I never seem to buy enough!

Hyacinth Windsor looks darker than this really, a lovely dark purple, will plant these on the alpine scree so that they have the drainage that they love.

An un-named dark blue which we bought in a pot from a church sale. They have been released into the garden and are liking conditions so far, thank goodness!

Chionodoxa, pink variety, are happy on the alpine scree with lovely sharp drainage to keep them happy.

Lithodora Heavenly Blue forms a ground cover behind the alpine scree and is now spreading nicely, these are the first flowers this year but hopefully there will be lots more soon.

Cardamine pratensis is planted in the woodland and is now spreading nicely, I think this year I can start taking bits off and moving them elsewhere. The flowers are a lovely lilac/pink colour and it is this plant that is used by the Orange Tip butterfly for egg laying, hopefully we will have lots more Orange Tips in future!

My last snowdrop to flower, Galanthus Wareham. Others have already gone to seed, but this one has only just opened up and is still looking very fresh, hope it doesn’t mind the warmer weather!

Ypsilandra is the name of this plant, I think I bought it because I liked the name! It is only small with these lovely brush like flowers, so glad I bought it.

Corydalis tuberosa is another plant that I have on the side of the ditch by the woodland, it didn’t do much for a couple of years but now seems to be growing well.

Flowering on and off all winter, Viburnum Bodnantense New Dawn is now covered in flowers and making up for lost time when it was so frosty.

One of my cowslips has decided it wants to be red! This and a few that have decided they want to be orange or brown have been moved to a bed by themselves so that they can’t get into any more mischief!!

This is how they should be, smaller flowers of a pale yellow colour. My original 3 plants were given to me by a very dear friend who died a few years ago, I always think of her when they start flowering. Her 3 plants have now multiplied into about 100!

One of the Eric Smithii Hellebores absolutely covered in flowers and looking stunning, well I think so anyway!! Not sure how the Anemone blanda got in there with it.

Another shrub that has been flowering on and off all winter is the Chaenomeles by the back door. It has looked so spring like each time we go in and out, it has almost fooled us many a time.

Pulmonaria longifolia has beautiful long narrow leaves, well spotted, and gorgeous deep blue flowers, must move this soon as I think there is a danger of it being over run by some campanula.

One lonely Grape Hyacinth where I know I haven’t planted any!!

Anemone blanda are popping up all over the place with their faces turned to the sun.

This little Hepatica was new last year, thought I had lost it because until a few days ago there was no sign of it, all of a sudden, up it popped!! Now where did I plant my blue one?

Lots of violets in the woodland, just this one which is pink, all the others are blue or purple. These are the larval food for the Silver Washed Fritillary butterfly, got to keep them happy!

These Snakes Head Fritillaries will be the next plant filling half of the woodland, joining in with the narcissus. Half of the woodland is lower than the other and always seems to be more moist, the first bulbs that I planted here have done well and now I just sprinkle the seed later in the summer. We now have quite a crowd of them here, the only problem is that the red lily beetle likes them just as much as I do, so I will be on patrol from now on!!

The rain that we have had lately has certainly brought plants on a lot, its amazing how they just pop up overnight! Not long now before our hour changes which will mean an extra hour in the garden enjoying all the spring flowers – wonderful!