How different it is 12 months later. Today I spotted my first snowdrops almost in flower. There has been lots on twitter and the blogasphere about snowdrops opening early and I was beginning to wonder if mine were going to flower but I needn’t have worried here they are on time, even a little early. There aren’t as many showing as I would expect but I did move a lot of snowdrops last spring so I am hoping they are just delayed a little.
The winter jasmine is still flowering its socks off. I am really pleased as it had a very thorough prune in the summer and is probably only a third of its former self but I think there are more flowers in relation to stems than there was before.
This Vinca (major I think) creeps under the fence from next door. It is a very welcome addition at this time of year and I have learnt that the flowers appear on the new shoots not the long sinuous ones so I am trying to cut it back to have more young fresh green growth and flowers.
A pretty Primula denticulata already flowering. I grew these from seed a few years back and they are bulking up nicely now. Maybe they will be bulky enough for me to divide soon.
Just as I was pleased to see the first snowdrops appear I was equally thrilled to smell the flowers of the Sarcococca confusa (Sweet Box). At first I wasn’t sure where the smell was coming from especially as it was dark at the time. But this morning my suspicions were confirmed and it was the Sarcococca. I have had the plant a couple of years and like so many plants in my garden it was very small, and therefore cheap, when I bought it. This is the first year it has had more than a handful of flowers and therefore scent. It has put on so much growth in the last year that I have cut a small bunch of stems and the flowers are making the living room quite heady with their scent.
Also lurking in the garden but beginning to go over are flowers of Mahonia, Abelia and Ceanothus.
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