power plant

As I join Cathy at Rambling in the Garden for her Monday meme (click the link for more vases), I am using a new vase which I have filled with old late-winter favourites. The vase has lots of small holes at the top, which means various stems can be held upright at the same time with no frog or pebbles needed to keep them in place. The title may have got you wondering… so let me explain. The wolves . ‘Wolf’s milk’ is the common name for Euphorbia in German (Wolfsmilch) and here at the front of the vase is my Euphorbia myrsinites in full flower. Sometimes it flowers in the middle of winter, but it is a bit later this year. It’s a wonderful plant for dry spots, especially rock gardens or pots, and seeds itself around against the wall of the house here. The dogs : red dogwood, Cornus sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’.  I still haven’t pruned it back as it looks so pretty and hasn’t started leafing out yet. (And it’s too cold out there anyway!) Then we have the roses ; ‘Christrose’ is t...

The first wood anemones are opening! Anemone nemorosa In the phenological calendar this means we are entering ‘Mid Spring’ and it is time to sow (among other things) radishes and salad crops.

It’s that time of year again where I love to pick the flower heads of my various Hellebores and float them in bowls. The details of the petals and stamens are revealed and can be admired close up without having to get down on your hands and knees in the garden! Most of the names are long forgotten, mixed up, or were wrong when delivered anyway. I am slowly becoming less bothered about not knowing what my plants are called. (So many have such ugly names in any case!)   Do you like to float flowers too? I am joining Cathy at Rambling in the Garden – click the link for more Monday vases from around the world. Have a great week and Happy Gardening!

It’s official. Spring is here! (Well, in the Northern Hemisphere it is). I hope it will warm up here now that the days are longer. A good sign is that the Coltsfoot finally opened this week. According to my phenological calendar that signifies the end of winter and the ground temperature must be above 5°C. Coltsfoot , or Tussilago farfara Happy Spring everyone!

After almost a week away, visiting the UK for Mothering Sunday (British Mother’s Day) , I was excited to return to my garden and see what was emerging. Not much had changed actually, despite plenty of showers and sunshine, but I suppose that is because we are still getting frosty nights. That will hopefully mean that things will not progress too quickly and I will be able to enjoy flowers for longer. In fact the crocuses that opened earlier in the month are still mostly looking lovely. But the crocuses are not one of my Five Favourites this month – I just wanted to sneak in an extra photo! LOL! This month was easier than last to find five plants/flowers that grab my attention. And number one for March was not hard to choose: my beautiful larch trees, Larix decidua . Thanks to Jenny at zonethreegarden , who shared some larch twigs she had forced in a vase on Monday, I was prompted to check my trees as soon as I got home. And yes, they are slowly revealing their gorgeous pink flower...

Joining Cathy at Rambling in the Garden for her Monday meme is always fun. And now that Spring is here and the birds are singing, even more so. It seems a good opportunity to use this pretty ‘vase’ which is in fact simply mini test tubes in a wooden base with birds engraved on the front. My little bird accompanying the vases is not angry, just stunned by all the flowers opening! Firstly, some primroses. These are spreading well across the garden, and with a little help will soon be in all the beds. Most are yellow, but a few in between are white. The mini vases, contain a lovely tall orange Primula bought last week from my supermarket. Next to it a sprig of Viburnum ‘Dawn’. And on the right, Iris reticulata (‘Harmony’ I think), another new Primula, this time a soft peachy double one, and a blue pansy from the amazing little plant that flowered almost non-stop through the winter in the greenhouse, even though it frequently went way below zero in there. It has been rewarded by b...

Perhaps I am impatient, I’d prefer to say optimistic, cutting these stems to (hopefully) flower indoors soon. Last week I shared some Forsythia that took just a week to open once brought inside. Today I have a mix of stems, that may look like sticks now, but in a week they should be beauties…. watch this space! My props are two rocks picked up from river beds in Germany; the larger is from the River Isar, and the small flat pebble from the Danube. The large pink buds are Viburnum ‘Dawn’. These buds are looking a little worse for wear after being stuck at this stage for weeks. After being indoors a couple of days they are finally showing signs of opening! The red stems are Cornus sanguinea. I used a few in a vase earlier this year and they have sprouted fresh green leaves. A previous arrangement, revamped with some Forsythia. The Cornus stems have produced lovely fresh green leaves. The darker stems are the ornamental apricot Prunus mume Beni Chidori, which may take a while to...