I am very happy with these bright red Tulips in a wide shallow blue pot:
My only complaint is that they are supposed to grow to only 6" tall, and these are at least twice that!
They are "Dwarf Praestans". There are 10 bulbs in the pot, but this is a multi-headed variety, so it looks as if there are more. In full sun the flowers open very wide.
But when the sun goes in they close up tight like this:
The Daffodils are just about finished now. My favourites are the strongly-scented "Soleils d'Or" - the ones I bought in the Isles of Scilly. Nice while they lasted, but past their best now:
In order to prolong their life and prevent them going "blind", I will be doing all the right things with those bulbs - feeding them with fertiliser; removing the flowers to stop seeds forming; leaving the foliage to die down naturally, etc. If you want to see some more advice on this, follow this link to the relevant bit of the RHS website - Daffodil blindness.
This is Euphorbia "Clarice Howard", which seems to have recovered a bit this year, after a very poor showing last time.
It is normally very vigorous, and spreads enthusiastically via underground roots. I am forever pulling up bits of it that appear in the shingle.
Along the edge of the border, just by the Euphorbia, I have established a clump of Primroses.
Many of them are brightly-coloured ones bought as a mixed pack from the local Garden Centre, but some of them are the old-fashioned yellow / cream type, which I like better. They seem more natural.
The Snakeshead Fritillaries (Fritillaria Meleagris) are coming along nicely.
I always find it hard to photograph them well, because the flower patterns are naturally blurred and it looks as if the photos are out of focus. A lot of the stems have two flowers.
Not all the Fritillaries are speckly purple. Some of them are white:
This is that beautiful dark-coloured Hellebore given to me by my Facebook friend Alice.
