I'm Still Standing!

Well, actually I'm sitting down here at my laptop. Wishing I could go out birding but finding plenty to do here at home. Sheila's very good at that. I think she's worried I'll just sit around and mope. Anyway, we have a very large garden which we used to open in the National Gardens Scheme [aka The Yellow Book]. So I've been photographing flowers and plants in the garden with my Canon 5Dsr and a 100mm macro lens. All handheld because I'm too lazy to set up with a tripod every time.

First batch 24/3 coming up. I will annotate them all but if you just like looking at the pictures I'll be delighted you dropped in!

What I call a snowball viburnum. They smell great.

A few varieties of daffodils. The third photo is of a clump of true wild English daffodils thriving beside our stream.

Shade loving wood anemone.

An epimedium: the flowers are tiny.

Daphne 'Jacqueline Postill' - you can smell this divine plant up to 20 feet away on a calm day. Rare, hates being moved, planted or pretty much anything but once happy can grow to 6 foot. I've tried to propagate it: succeeded once but failed ever since!

Snakeshead fritillaries do well in a damp bed which is left undisturbed. We have white ones too.

Ornamental cherry blossom.

Easily damaged by frost the flowers are beautiful en masse: magnolia stellata. A small plant growing to about 6 foot after many years.

Skimmia flowers - need a fairly neutral soil as do camellias which come next!

Camellias do well in our garden and are wonderful at the moment.

Leucojum or spring snowflake: they make a clump similar in size to a clump of daffodils.

Not fully in flower yet, this is a pulsatilla or Pasque flower in a rare red dress - normally they're purple.

Tiny blue scillas spread everywhere but I don't mind: they soon die down and disappear until the following spring.

A giant mound of acanthus 'Hollard's Gold'. Good flower stems later that can be dried for winter flower arrangements. Introduced by the Romans.

A deep yellow primrose cultivar.

Anemone blanda - naturalise well in gravel.

One of many self-seeded euphorbias in our euphorbia bed.

Second batch: 1/4

This is a white fritillaria. I think I prefer the purple reticulates.

This lone witch hazel flower appeared long after all the others had withered away. Still nice to see.

Kingcup or marsh marigold in the stream.

Dwarf variegated skimmia: good for a tight spot.

Yellow flowering currant bush: tall straggly - only if you really want one!

A late narcissus - nice delicate flower.

The hellebores are almost over now and are setting seed. They love our garden. I spend many hours weeding them out!

Amelanchier: the perfect small tree for any garden: nice foliage, spring flowers - never gets too big.

This is a rubus or thorn family plant. Very invasive it needs to be hacked at every year. But I love those double flowers.

Two photos of clematis amandii. Grows well on a fence with big leathery dark green leaves. Just outside our back door.

Muscari: I wish I could get rid of it!

A very rare muscari relative: we've had it for years and it still only produces 3 or 4 flowers. Dark and slightly threatening!

Perennial candytuft close-up.

Dwarf rhododendron. pot grown it spends its year behind a greenhouse. Been there for years, seems happy.

Hepatica, named for its liver shaped leaves.

Two more rare anemones.

Brunnera: not a forget-me-not even though it looks like one. A much better perennial plant.

True forget-me-not. Leaves very different.

Celandines are a menace in the garden. This is a double, allegedly sterile but I don't trust it...

Tulip.

Mahonia

I like this fern-leaved corydalis. Good in rocky crevices.

Helleborus corsicus. A flower arranger's plant for those green flowers.

Mimosa - I was once told by a nurseryman who visited us: 'That's not possible here in York!' Well it was cut to the ground in two harsh winters but after ten years it regrew from its stump and is now back with us. Quite a big tree. A special favourite.

Pieris - never really taken off in our garden. Nice new red spring foliage that fades back to green later.

Veratrums are special plants with a spire of flowers [this one has green flowers] but the wonderful ribbed leaves are great. Difficult to acquire but worth the wait.

Chaenomeles or ornamental quince. It does fruit sometimes. 

Sorry, birders. Hopefully if we pull through this crisis we'll get back out on the coasts, moors and fields looking for birds. In the mentime, take care.

More garden chat will follow in a few weeks....

150 UK 2020!