Whats flowering now?

I thought it would be a nice use of my new digital camera, to show you the plants that are flowering in my garden at the moment. Hopefully I'll remember to update this page and so keep a record of the garden year. I've dated the pioctyres so that you will have some idea of when they were taken.

16th February 2002

At the moment the weather is frosty in the mornings but the ground is still very wet and boggy. Weather is fairly mild in spite of the frost.

I bought this plant last week from a Hardy Plant Society meeting. Bob Brown of Cotswold Nurseries was selling this little Viola which is the first one I have ever found to be fragrant in spite of many attempts to raise seed or obtain plants that are supposedly fragrant!

[Right] This is not quite so fragrant as the confusa variety, well not in my garden anyway, but is slightly more attractive in that it has nice contrast between the dark green leaves and the red and white tinged flowers.

[Left] Though these little flowers are quite small they seem to stand out from the background due to their intense blue colouring.

Such a good standby, this plant flowers well nigh all year. Every time a twig or branch starts to grow away from the wall I hack it back to within a leaf joint of the main stem and it seems to be amenable to this, producing yet more side shoots which also flower. I prefer the colour of the other quince that i have, which is a sort of soft apricot but doesn't flower as long as this does. It is on a north facing wall.

Yes I know it's entirely out of season but truly it is in flower. The long stem has fallen across hyacinth leaves that are yet to develop fully and I think it's position near the patio doors is warmer than out in the garden. It doesn't seem to have a smell at this time of the year however.