Daffodils in flower

If you choose carefully it is possible to have Daffodils flowering in the garden from January through to May.

All my Tete a Tete daffs are flowering away at the moment. But, I have a couple of pots of Hawera which have very tight flower buds that are still developing. They won't be flowering for a few more weeks.

Here is a selection of Daffodils and Narcissi that have caught our eye.

Forget Me Not

Forget Me Not - Mon Ami

Some gardeners have an encyclopedic memory. They would no more forget the name of a plant and when they planted it in their garden - than forget their children's names and birthdays.

Unfortunately I'm not one of them - which is why I started this blog. Hopefully writing things down will help me remember plant names long after the label has been bleached in the sun or lost down the back of the compost bin.

It was such a nice weekend that I thought it must be time to go shopping in the garden centre...

Snowdrops are go...er gone

All my snowdrops have stopped flowering and I'm trying to decide whether to dead head them or not. For the last couple of years I have got down on my knees and dead headed the lot. 

But, some of the show gardens that specialise in showing off their galanthine collections don't seem to bother and they still keep flowering vigorously every year. Hopefully my little lot will self seed and I'll be up to my ankles in a snowdrop carpet.

First Foot

My garden isn't a winter garden. Come back in spring and summer and it will be green and beautiful, full of interest for the bees and humans too (but mainly the bees).

So, looking out onto the garden it does look rather bare and depressing. But, I thought I should venture out and take a closer look. The snow made even the dead leaves look good, but now that all the snow has gone I wanted to see what had survived. Quite a lot it seems.

I bought Penstemon Sour Grapes last year and it looks great at the moment, all green and fresh. It will be some time before there are any flowers on it again. 

The robin is not amused

Are you still knee deep in snow? In our bit of the country we are well and truly clear of the stuff.

I though I'd put up a few pictures as a reminder...

Only a few inches of snow here in the garden.

Autumn at Stowe National Trust gardens

We recently visited the 18th Century landscape gardens belonging to the National Trust at Stowe and, unlike the previous time we visited, it wasn't pouring, so we got some nice photos of the grounds and autumn colours - including this unusual yellow-berried holly...

New green roof pages

We now have two fairly lengthy pages of information on green roofs:

Season of mellow fruitfulness

Other than leaves, the colour of Autumn also comes from its fruits. There seem to be more berries and fruits than usual this year on many plants, and lots of colourful pumpkins and squash in the shops.

Autumn colours - Leaves

Maple leaf in a New England stream

Fall foliage is one of the best things about Autumn. We've been on a couple of leaf peeping trips to New England, which can look spectacular as the leaves turn various shades of red, yellow, purple and gold. But, there are plenty of places closer to home that look good in Autumn, such as the Royal Horticultural Society gardens at Wisley, Westonbirt Aboretum, which has the national Japanese Maple collection, or, here in London, Kew Gardens. Even the streets near us have displays of Autumn colour, whether in people's gardens or from street trees.

The best bar in Town

Sunflowers are sometimes seen to be a bit naff. But, it is always hard to look at one and not smile. Big, bold and loved by bees - all gardeners should find a place for them in their gardens.

At the RHS Hampton Court flower show this year, there was a large field of sunflowers as part of an exhibition on growing food. It attracted a lot of bees and a large number of people all taking photos (us included).