As soon as I got up this morning, I could feel that it was going to be a special day. When I got downstairs to do the breakfast, I was greeted by this wonderful sunrise –
then when I stepped outside to fill the bird feeders – the air felt totally different – no frost or ice or snow, no freezing gales coming from the arctic north or from Russia in the east, just a very gentle breeze coming from the west. Any fragrance from flowers has been lost when it has been freezing, do flowers stop producing perfume when it is freezing or is it that our noses don’t work at such cold temperatures? The whole garden seems to have woken up, the birds are all singing, you can smell the earth and the leaf mould mulch, things are stirring.
When I went into the little woodland I was greeted with the beautiful perfume from the small shrub, Sarcococca hookeriana – a rather insignificant shrub with small white flowers to match – but WOW – what a perfume !
Further on I caught a whiff of the witch hazel, Hamamelis intermedia ” Pallida” , which has a faint citrus smell,
before coming to Hamamelis intermedia ” Arnold Promise ” and this certainly reminds me that it is time to make the marmalade with Seville oranges, it has a much stronger smell of orange peel. This bush is much smaller than “Pallida” ,but the flowers seem much more robust with thicker petals.
While looking round the garden, buds are swelling everywhere. The quince by the backdooor which stopped flowering during the snow and ice is now almost back to full production, just another couple of days of mild weather is needed.
Viburnum bodnantense “New Dawn” is flowering again – you can see the flowers that were frosted last month.
The winter flowering jasmine is back into its stride by the front door, I just hope that this spell of mild weather will last for a time, but I keep reminding myself that winter is far from over.
Flowers of Cyclamen coum are busy brightening up the shady borders, they look so pristine in the shafts of sunlight.
I bought these 3 pots from our local garden centre – they are labelled cowslips – Primula veris, but they are not like any cowslip that we have here, and we have a lot. I think that they will turn out to be Oxlips, a cross between a cowslip and a primrose, I hope so !! These are woodland plants so will go into the new area that we are planting up, where we removed a Pyracantha bush last autumn. I also made sure that the plants that I bought can be split when they have finished flowering – that should make at least 9 plants – almost a drift !!
Camellia buds are looking very fat, almost ready to split and reveal the beautiful flowers inside, they are usually out flowering in February.
Rhododendron buds have been in place for a long time now, they are now swelling nicely but it will be a while before the bushes are in flower, patience Pauline , patience. It has been lovely and sunny all day but it is only February and we mustn’t get carried away. This week should bring the snowdrops and hellebores on, usually the small woodland is looking really lovely by the middle of the month, but it all depends on the weather, so fingers crossed.