So what happened in the garden during April? It is very different to last year, all the early flowering plants were much delayed - whereas last year I was talking of cutting off the final dead daffodil flowers, this year they are mostly still in flower with only the very early ones that are now finished.

On the other hand the later flowering plants seem to be at much the same stage as they were last year.

Some pictures

A few picture that have not been shown in other entries this month.

This is Pulmonaria 'Trevi fountain'. It has interesting leaves and will hopefully cover a bit of this space that is shaded by the fence for most of the day. The flowers are not easily visible from the house, or indeed until you are fairly close.

Tiarella

I have three different kinds.

The "Pink skyrocket" variety has masses …

It's near the end of the month, but looking back at last years photos it is more similar to the beginning. Not included in this weeks six is the Kerria which is just starting to flower, just like it was in the first days of April last year.

1. Anemone blanda

I planted a number of these last autumn and they have done well in the area at the side of the house. I finally got a photo that wasn't too blurred. The leaves in the foreground are something else, the top left leaves belong to it.

2. Pieris japonica

The bright red new shoots that are so distinctive of this plant are finally showing. Again this is about four weeks behind where it was last year. There was a set of flowers last year, but this year there is no sign of any, so it is not doing that …

A sunny warm day today. Tulips have opened across the whole of Six on Saturday land.

I wanted to include an Ipheion as being a little more unusual but the picture didn't turn out well, so if you wish take a look at it when it opened.

That means an extra Tulip picture, I'm afraid.

Tulips

I planted a single bulb in this planter in 2013 and it has moved with me 3 times, and now they are nine. So this is a special Tulip for me.

Tulips (open)

This is a group of this year's Tulips, "Orange brilliant" and "Cape Cod". Now Cape Cod is supposed to be red with wide yellow borders to the petals and that is how they were pictured on the packet and how they look if you search for them. But mine are almost completely yellow and the red is pretty faint.

…

I planted a single tulip in 2013 in a container that I have kept with me since then, and it has come back every year with more flowers. There are now nine flowers this year.

Of the batch of bulbs that I planted at the time, this was one of the palest, other ones had more red. Maybe they are getting a bit crowded now, so perhaps next winter I will split them up.

The Chionodoxa are now finally out.

The flowers are flopping about a lot which somewhat spoils the effect, but like the Ipheion

I wasn't expecting much from these. The leaves have been up for quite a while and are thin strappy leaves that are mostly lying on the ground.

Recently, impossibly thin flower stalks have risen up with an almost equally thin flower bud at the top.

And yet it opened out into this most delightful flower today.

The variety is "Charlotte bishop", and being pink it makes a change to all the blue spring flowers that I have at the moment. It is the only one at the moment, but more are on the way.

After a week or more of rain and dull misty weather it finally turned sunny later yesterday and for most of the day today. More rain this evening expected and then a dry spell.

It is probably still a bit wet to do anything so I just spent time looking at the new growth and took some pictures.

The tulip that was featured on yesterdays Six on Saturday keeled over during the night and here you can see it bent over the foxglove with a piece of leaf torn off and lying near the base of the stem. I've no idea what is going on here.

I can never get enough of the primroses so here is another picture.

The Chionodoxa appeared very quickly and are now on the point of flowering. Buds here are starting to open.

Here is a bud rising from the center of one of the …

Well that was a very wet week, and when it wasn't wet is was dark and even misty. The ground is saturated. Today wasn't that great and I wasn't going to do a SoS, but then the sun came out and I grabbed a few pictures.

Tulip "Cape cod"

This is a stripy leaved tulip. It isn't fully out really but I only have the one other tulip that is fully out which was shown last week

I am finding that the stripy leaved tulips are having their leaves eaten by something or other. Whereas the plain leaved ones are looking better.

Tiarella with flower buds

All the Tiarellas are bursting into life with some new growth, but this one also has a healthy number of flower stalks, which I am looking forward to opening out. I have four, this one is T. "Sugar and spice" and I reckon it …