Today was the first crocus flower.

As this was a newly planted one, it is not directly comparable to last year. Last year the yellow crocuses in the container flowered on 2nd March and this year they are not quite out yet, but will be by tomorrow. So really only a week behind which matches fairly well with the duration of the recent cold spell.

Update: on reflection the day of the first crocus is not very meaningful as they open and close depending on the weather. So it is difficult to pin the exact when it opens and anyway it is affected by the immediate weather.

The snow was around 4 to 5 inches at its peak and it lasted for almost a full week as the final bits of snow rapidly melted on Monday.

So it wasn't as bad here as some other places. The lowest forecast temperature was -5C but as I don't have an outdoor thermometer I don't know the actual achieved temperatures in the garden.

Most things seem to have picked themselves up. The evergreen Salvias have suffered some leaf die back but I think they will be OK, we will have to wait and see.

A Polemonium that was getting leaves before is no longer visible, so something has happened there.

All in all, not too bad though, hope that was the worst of the winter behind us now!

Late on Monday night it started to snow, it was eerie how light it appeared to be, as though it was still twilight. The snow peaked on Thursday when it was a complete cover of 10-13cm across the garden.

Today it has settled and there are signs of it starting to melt. However almost all the flowers are still buried, including all the snowdrops.

So it will have to be six things covered in snow this Saturday. I get to pretend that there is something wonderful beneath the snow and you can pretend to be impressed (optional).

1 Primrose

There is a bit less snow down the side of the house and this primrose is now partially visible.

2 More primroses

These ones are still covered and you can just make out where they are.

Also covered, there is a line of stones between the soil and the gravel. Its …

A mixed month with a few warm days and some very cold days. It seems to have been less wet than last year overall. I've been preparing to plant up later by removing shrubs that I don't like and all the self-seeded cotoneasters in the back corners. The Pyracantha has had a bit of a trim as have the Cotoneasters in the other corner.

Flowering

What's been in flower during Feburary with some pictures, most of which have appeared in earlier blogs.

Cyclamen - new this year

Winter aconite bought in flower this year.

The Snowdrops were planted last year, and the primrose is new this year. I'm quite pleased with the snowdrops as there are a few small clumps dotted around which will hopefully expand in future years.

Hellebore

Of course the Winter Jasmine is still in flower too.

Shoots

There are shoots from the following: Allium, Anemone…

Last year I planted a whole bag of Muscari all around the garden. They grew fine and flowered. There was also an existing clump of Muscari which after dying back after flowering, came back with new leaves in August and September.

But only one of the ones that I planted did the same. So what happened to the rest?

Well it turns out that they are now starting to come up - here is one in a container.

So it seems that they do not always put up leaves in the autumn. One web page I saw state that this only happens for ones that have been growing for over a year.

The plan for this year is to buy a good number of plants early in the year to allow them to get established and hopefully give a reasonable display by the end of the summer.

I am trying out mail order for the first time and in order to get a couple of plants that I really wanted I'm splitting the order across a couple of different nurseries.

This order was with Penlan Perennials and is built around Ligularia przewalskii. In other words I found somewhere that had that plant and then found other plants that looked good. This was a second choice as the first one had sold out.

I put in the order online on Monday night, and it arrived before midday on the Wednesday. They used APC to deliver, the deliver company sent an email with two hour time slot when it would arrive, and it …

The Eryngium is growing away well. This was a pre-existing plant so not sure of variety but I believe it is an E. planum. It is still quite small, the old flowering stalks are still present for reference.

A fair amount of sun today and quite warm. It snowed all morning on Tuesday, but it melted quickly. I saw the first Dandelion flower this week too on Thursday, but not in the garden...

So now on to another six on saturday.

1 The woodland area

So its a tiny area with a deciduous Cotoneaster as the only 'tree', but in my imagination it is going to be covered in snowdrops, crocuses, bluebells and other spring flowers.

However the resident blackbird seems not to share this vision. There must be a lot to eat here as he spends most of the day grabbing the leaves and throwing them far and wide. Sometimes he grabs a young plant along with the leaves and yanks it out of the ground.

I've been collecting the uplifted bulbs and re-planting them on the other side of the garden.

2 Winter aconites

A …