In my garden

I haven't spent much time in the garden lately. The weather has been cold and blustery with at least one day feeling more like autumn. We have had the coldest May nights for ten years.

The past couple of days have seen the weather become less cold and with some sun. It's much more pleasant, and I have been able to catch up.

The grass was cut for the first time in about three weeks, some weeding was done, seedlings potted up, clematis tied up. 

I have some 'Thalia' narcissi in pots. They were a late purchase after I read about them in a magazine. I am really glad I bought them. They have a delicate white flower with a lovely scent.

Today I caught up with the front garden. Linaria purpurea and Aquilegia have seeded too much so they came out. In their place Eschscholzia 'Purple Gleam' which I have grown from seed, and a geranium sanguineum which may be 'Max Frei'. 

Despite the chilly weather the spring plants are looking good. One of my new plants is Epimedium  youngianum 'Niveum' which has been on my must have list for a while. Unfortunately, it was wrongly labelled. Thankfully, it is still a beautiful plant, with deep pink flowers.

Three baby sparrows visited the bird table with their Mother this week.  

The weather forecast for this week is for increasingly warmer weather and sun. Thank goodness.

  

Cut flowers

I am planning more flowers for cutting this year, most of them will be grown from seed.

This is the list:

• Nigella hispanica 'Curiosity'
  
• Ammi majus 'Graceland' 
• Lathyrus odoratus 'Jilly'
  
• Lathyrus odoratus 'Nelly Viner'
• Nicotiana alata 'Grandiflora'
• Scabious 'Tall Mixed'
• Cosmos bipinnatus 'Purity'
  
• Salvia horminum 'Denim'
  
• Consolida dark blue
• Helichrysum monstrosum 'Summer Solstice'
• Gaura lindheimeri 'The Bride'

The sweet peas (Lathyrus) have been planted. The Ammi, Scabious and Salvia have been hardened off but are a bit small to plant out. The Nicotiana is half-hardy so I am a bit reluctant to plant them while there are still frosts.

I have also bought some roses, plus some herbs for foliage.

• Rosa 'White Gold'
  
• Rosa 'English Miss'
• Sage officinalis                  
  
• Sage icterina
  
• Dill   

 Scabious 'Tall Mixed' and Lathyrus 'Monty Don'

Spring Blossom

These are trees at the environmental centre where I am a volunteer gardener. They look lovely against the blue sky. Unfortunately the blossom doesn't last long. The week before these photographs were taken the trees were in bud, the week after the flowers had faded.

Spring

I wanted some darker blue forget-me-nots (Mysotis) after seeing some in a flower shop. I grew these from seed and I'm really pleased with them The variety is 'Blue Tower'. They look really nice with yellow Primula vulgaris.