Okay - I know it happens every year and you'd think my excitement levels would dip with time, but......SO pleased to see my first daffodil come skewering boldly through my lawn! Fittingly, it happened on March 1st and the first day of spring. I had been perusing my lawn hopefully for a week or so. My snowdrops had come through in scattered patches about the second week of february. They still look threadbare, as I only planted 10 bulbs about 18 months ago, but it's still lovely to see their delicate heads fluttering with the merest breeze. When it finally happened, the daffodil seemed to burst through all at once. One day - nothing. The next - aha! I was mugged by it as I walked down my garden path. It's not in flower of course, but I can already see a pale hint of yellow, enveloped by a thin sheath of green as it contemplates the time to burst into bloom. I'm eagerly awaiting its less motivated brethren and know they will be joined, in turn, by snake's head fritilliary and, later still, gorgeous bluebells. Native bulbs through and through, of course! I also have wood anemone hiding shyly in the border. Only longer days and warmer breezes will coax their lovely white bonnets into the open. Roll on spring.
On earth there is no heaven, but there are pieces of it - Jules Renard
Hi Corriepaw,
Indeed, roll on spring. Daffodils herald warmer, longer days, and personally it can't come too soon for me. My daffs are well up now, and I have buds on several of my shrubs. My primroses have been flowering for some time, winning the battle against the snow and frozen ground, but I daren't look too closely at some of my plants, which look very dead to me.
Cheers, Linda.
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Hi Sparrow,
Cool! Your garden is ahead of the game, do you live further south than me? (I'll have a look at your profile). I have a Forsythia which is showing the merest hint of sending out buds, but it's in no hurry. Mind you, I can't blame it. The birdbath still has frozen water in it each morning I go out at the moment. Funny you should mention Primroses, as I have sowed some Primrose and Cowslip seeds in a tray today which is now on my kitchen windowsill, along with seeds of Cosmea, Cosmidium, Dianthus, Lemon Bush, Nicotiana and Bidens 'Golden Eye'. I've been a busy boy. Do you have a routine each year in the garden, like a kind of 'calender year'?
No, I live in Lancashire, but my front garden is south facing and sheltered so things do well there. I have a hydrangea in bud. These shrubs remind me so much of my childhood as they were in abundance in my mum's seaside garden. My back garden is of course north facing, so very difficult to manage, and a bit like a war zone at present. My bird bath is also frozen every morning, but today the sun managed to show its face in the back. During the winter the whole of the back is in shadow.
I'm afraid I'm very impatient when it comes to plants and flowers. I want them NOW, not several months ahead, and sowing seeds is only for those with patience. You do have a nice selection of seeds there on your windowsill, and I wish you luck with them. I shall be visiting the nursery to buy mine, ready grown!