Saturday 15 March 2014

March flowers in London

It has been a weird winter, with more rain than ever recorded – in 360 years I think it is, but the plus side of that has been the mild weather we have had here in London. Still no frost in my garden this winter, and I hope the rest of March, or April for that matter doesn’t have some silly surprises for us, like snow – the latest I have experienced snow here in London these 15 years I have been here was 8th April! The snow didn’t lay for more than a few hours but it was cold for a few days and the frost killed all the flowers that were out on my camellia. No silly things like that this year please!

My garden is filling up with colours after having looked mainly green over the winter. Many of the spring bulbs are up, some are already finished flowering like the snowdrops – not a single snowdrop left this week. And all the Tomasinianus crocuses are gone but some of the later Vernus crocuses are still flowering, but not for long, another week of the warm weather we are having and they will be all finished.

At the moment I have pots everywhere! Later on, many of these pots and containers will be moved into the flowerbeds to fill in the gaps the early spring bulbs will have left, but for now they have to be parked up here along the path.

And here is the amazing magnolia that I have been eagerly waiting to start flowering for the very first time!

The nursery I bought it from said it was Magnolia soulangeana 'Heaven Scent', and it was labelled so. I have checked many websites and every website says either that 'Heaven Scent' is highly fragrant or strongly fragrant or something similar.

The flowers starts out tightly packed and it took many days from this stage....

....to this – and then....

....to fully open. The flowers are so incredibly beautiful, and surprisingly thick and solid when I touch them.

But they don’t smell anything! Even when I stick my nose all the way down in the flowers, I can’t smell anything else than a very faint ‘flower smell’ and when standing here beside the magnolia, to be honest, all I can smell is my hyacinths growing 5 feet away! How can that be?

I did try to smell several flowers, in case one was produced without any scent (!), but they are all the same. I wonder if I have been sent a different magnolia than what it says on the label? The flowers are beautiful, even without any scent, but I must admit it was a surprise and a letdown to discover there is no scent. I wonder if it will come when the tree is more mature? Anyone got any experience here?

And now to the next big thing to flower, this was my Clematis armandii 'Apple Blossom' in May last year. It spent the summer growing and growing and growing....

And look at it now! I have no idea where I should let it grow from here and have already started to cut off some of the new shoots that were growing into my neighbours.

Most of the flowers that have opened so far are in the top left corner, but the whole plant is totally covered in buds.

The flowers are cute, you can see why it is named 'Apple Blossom'.

Slightly pink on the outside and completely white inside.

Let’s move back to the patio area, my new camellia ‘Takanini’ is still in full flower, I adore those double anemone-formed flowers.

And my teacups are still here, although the irises are finished flowering, emptied out and the bulbs put in the ground – hopefully they will come back next year. These two cups left have anemones, or what’s left after the squirrel has helped himself to lunch several times!

Here are more anemones, this one has not been raided as much and almost all bulbs are here.

Anemone Blanda Mixed.

Anemone Blanda Mixed.

Anemone Blanda Mixed.

The bed down from the patio is filled with spring bulbs, some finished, some in flower and some yet to emerge.

The most fragrant at the moment are the hyacinths I mentioned earlier, I have 9 in total, but they are spread out a bit too much to all appear in the same photo.

Hyacinthus orientalis 'Fondant'.

Some of the Iris reticulata in the pots down here are still in flower, although it is soon over for these too. This is Iris reticulata 'Pixie'.

And this is Iris reticulata 'Harmony'.

Iris reticulata 'Harmony'.

The last of the crocuses, Crocus Vernus mix.

Crocus Vernus mix.

Crocus Vernus mix.

And the daffodils have been flowering for a while too, this is a tiny newcomer to my garden called 'Hawera', although it looks very different than on the pictures I found on Google – another nursery mislabelling? I’ll see when the rest comes out, there are 49 more to come, maybe the rest looks more like they are supposed to!

This one is definitely a mislabelling, as these were supposed to be Narcissus 'White Lion' and they are definitely not. 'White Lion' is a double daffodil, I have no idea what these are, but I like the colours and they smell absolutely beautiful.

This photo as rather special, perhaps you need to click to enlarge it to see what I mean, but here I have daffodils in full flower flanked by fuchsia ‘Annabel’ on both sides – both with lots of buds only days from flowering. I have never had daffodils and fuchsias in flower at the same time ever before!

The Loropetalum chinense is in flower again, this tiny amazing bush doesn’t seem to have a set flowering time, instead it throws out a new set of flowers every few weeks.

And the mouse plants have just started to flower too. I will take more photos of these amazing plants later on, when they get a bit bigger and resemble mice a bit more, here is the first baby mouse.

Moving down the garden, the camellia is starting to look great.

With some flowers out – and many hundred more to come. Once this camellia has finished flowering this spring I will give it a serious pruning, I haven’t done that for many years and it shows - it has become rather lopsided. I am afraid it could topple over eventually. I am not looking forward to the job, the camellia is very wide, and taller than me and I am 5’9”.

Just down below the camellia, some of the tulips have opened up, this is 'Madame Lefeber', a fosteriana tulip which usually comes again and again. 'Madame Lefeber' has been in my garden for 4 years and I have not lifted the bulbs, but I have some white and pink fosteriana bubs here too and I am not sure they have survived our extremely wet winter. It seems many of them are coming up blind or distorted or not at all.

It seems the Madame is the toughest of them, surviving being waterlogged for almost 3 months!

Let’s move down to the bottom of my garden, as here are much of the spring plants right now.

The most visible one straight away is the Rhododendron 'Christmas Cheer', it has been flowering for over a month now and there are still buds just opening.

It is nice to have a rhododendron in flower this early and lasting so long, my other rhododendron flowers much later and it is usually a lot warmer by then so the flowering season is over in just a few short weeks.

I have flowers a lot less showy, here are my brand new Scilla Siberica 'Bright Blue', flowering for the first time. I have 50 of them spread out down at the bottom of the garden. They are absolutely tiny so you have to be up-close to see them, but I really love these cheerful little flowers.

I also bought 50 of these Puschkinia Libanotica, now flowering for the first time – they are a tiny bit later than the Scillas, this one was the most out of the ground I could find today.

Here in the woodland area there are cyclamens too, lots of them.

In all sorts of colours and different leaf pattern. I let some of them seed every year.

The hellebores have been flowering for what feels like ages by now, they started 2 ½ months ago, in last week of December and some of them are still producing new flower buds.

I couldn’t resist buying a couple of new hellebores this year too, here is Helleborus hybridus 'Double Primrose' , the first yellow hellebore in my garden.

And here is Helleborus ericsmithii 'Winter Sunshine', a rather different hellebore.

Helleborus ericsmithii 'Winter Sunshine'.

Purple Helleborus hybridus close up.

Helleborus hybridus 'Double White Spotted'.

Helleborus hybridus 'Picotee'.

The ballerinas in my garden has emerged again, this is Trillium cuneatum and this lovely clump of trilliums has grown from just one plant in 10 years.

These two look like they are having a dance together. The flowers were not fully opened when I took the photos yesterday.

But just before I was going to pack up and go in for the evening I noticed that one of them had opened a flower - just in time for me to take a photo.

And just behind the trilliums is a plant I rarely photograph, a Euphorbia amygdaloides 'Purpurea'. Most of the year it is just an evergreen plant but now in the spring it gets these amazing flowers, deep bronze/purple coloured and it thoroughly deserves to be mentioned.

And before we leave the back garden, let me tell you what the squirrel has been up to lately. He has got a taste for my rosebuds! I have never seen him eating them before so maybe this is something new on the menu. He sits on the fence and rip off the new shoots and it seems like he eats the small inner part of the shoot....

.....and then he throws the rest on the ground. I find these every day and if he doesn’t stop and find something else to eat, I won’t have any roses this summer!

He even made a dive into the camellia today, probably finding tasty new shoots there too. He isn’t scared of me at all, these photos were taken with me walking around taking photos of him less than 5’ away from him, he just looks at me, probably knows he can outrun me very easily. He is not that fond of the cat though, and my cat makes some half-hearted attempts to chuck him out of the garden now and then, but he can’t really be bothered – and the squirrel can’t really be bothered getting that scared either. Most of the time the two of them seem to tolerate each other as long as they are at opposite ends of the garden – the cat sleeping in the chair and the squirrel munching away on my plants and bulbs. I am not happy but what do I do?!

OK, let’s finish up with a trip to my front garden. The window boxes I planted up in December are bursting with flowers.

These double primroses look very different to my cream coloured Primula vulgaris, I think they are gorgeous, almost like roses.

They are called Primula vulgaris Belarina 'Amethyst Ice'.

And just like the fuchsias in the ground in my garden, the fuchsias here are in full flower too. These have been flowering non-stop since last autumn and I wasn’t sure if they would take a break or what they would do but they have all just continued so I have started to call them my evergreen fuchsias – that’s effectively what they have been this winter. This is Fuchsia 'Velvet Crush'.

That was the trip around my garden this mid-March. I have many more plants in flower but this is already a seriously long post so it won’t be possible to show you everything. But I can tell you that all my fuchsias are in flower, I still have all the cream Primula vulgaris in flower – non-stop since September 2012 (!), and I have many more types of daffodils in flower than I have showed here. I also have lavender in flower and the lovely Chaenomeles 'Crimson and Gold', some more primroses and I have some violas just come into flower.

I am linking this post to Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day, if you visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens you can see gardens from all over the world and see what’s flowering right now. Until next time, take care.

57 comments:

  1. Eventhough your Magnoliaflowers did not bring you the scent you expected they are so beautiful. So much to enjoy in your garden Helene.
    Have a wonderful weekend.

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    1. Thanks Marijke, I agree, the magnolia flowers are lovely without the scent but I had expected it so… not sure where it has gone! Hope you have just as nice weather as we have!

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  2. Wow! There are so many wonderful flowers in your vernal garden, as anemones, fuchsias, my favorite rhododendron, irises (I tried forcing them in a pot , but them didn't bloom at all), double primroses...oh!
    The squirrel is very audacious, I don't like them particularly in my garden.
    Have a nice weekend, Helene!

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    1. Thanks Nadezda, and I bought the Scillas and Puschkinias after seeing them on your blog, I am so happy I discovered them :-)
      Hope you have a good week-end too!

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  3. Does the magnolia have a sent in the evening? Funnily enough we have a magnolia that turned out to be soulangeana which should have been a purple variety and when it flowered wasn't.

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    1. I tried to sniff the magnolia just before coming in today, it was still light but the sun had gone down. It has been lovely sunny weather all day but alas – no magnolia scent today either.

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  4. Truly breathtaking Helene! I'm encouraged to learn that Trilliums do indeed spread, eventually.. I love the colour of the anemones and irises and your Clematis armandii is looking (and must be smelling) terrific. A wonderful Spring garden.

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    1. Trilliums are not the fastest spreader in the garden but give them time and they will spread. It will help to give them enough water, I didn’t know that the first few years and mine are growing under a huge conifer where the soil tend to dry out as the spring gets into summer. If the trilliums doesn’t get enough water they will die down sooner than necessary and won’t multiply that year, or not much. The same amount will come up next year but no offspring or maybe just a few. Now I diligently water a whole bucket twice a week until end of flowering time and it has helped.
      Also, if you accidentally break a stem of one of the trilliums it will take 7 years before it comes back again – if ever! They need to complete the whole flowering cycle and die down naturally to store enough nutrition for next year. Tread lightly around your trilliums :-)

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  5. Wow Helene, you have a lot of colors that i love. Of course those are the blues and the violets. Your front garden is so beautiful with plenty of blooms. We have iris reticulata here too, i see them in garden shows, but they are tall and the blue flowers seem to be insignificant because of a lot of greens, unlike in yours. Your bulbs flower with the cold, but ours flower at the start of the rainy season.

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    1. Thanks, I think the irises you have seen are a different type of irises than mine, there are many types and those I show here are dwarf irises (I. reticulate). Perhaps you have seen Dutch irises or Siberian irises, they are much taller with more grass like foliage.
      My front garden change during the year and normally I throw out the winter plants in late May and plant summer flowers – which means that what you see here will stay for just another 2 months. But some of the plants will be dug up and end up in the main garden, the pretty primroses will certainly be saved as they are perennials.

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  6. Thanks for this wonderful tour around your blooming garden, Helene. You have a wonderful eye for color and I love how there seems to be a color story going on in your garden. The red camellia/tulips/primroses with black mondo grass really grabbed my eye with their intensity and as we walked to the bottom of your garden the palette softened with the lovely pinks and whites. Your window boxes with their purple with a touch of white combination had me swooning. What a mild winter to allow the fuchsias to be evergreen and how amazing to have them blooming with the daffodils! Happy GBBD, Helene!

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    1. Thanks for your kind words, I try to keep to certain palettes in each part of the garden, but since my garden is so tiny you only have to move a few steps or turn around and you have stepped into the next zone! I can carefully frame things when taking photos but when you stand in the middle of the garden and look around, it is sometimes a bit of a cacophony of colours – I need a bigger garden!
      As for the mondo grass, if you come back in April/May, there will be double red tulips called Abba in between the 3 tufts of black grass (Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens'), a very nice compination :-)
      Happyy GBBD to you too!

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  7. So many wonderful spring images. I do love that tulip magnolia. I want one for my garden.

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    1. Magnolia soulangeana 'Heaven Scent' should be readily available throughout US, if you search for it in your area you should be able to find it. Might be a bit more difficult to find a single stem, but you could always ask a nursery to source one for you if you wanted to have one like mine.

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  8. How gorgeous your garden's looking. I bet passers-by are stopping to have a good look at the window-boxes. The magnolia's lovely - do you think it's getting enough sun to smell strongly? My winter honeysuckle doesn't smell nearly as strongly as it did when I bought it and I think it didn't get the sun early and strongly enough to spread the scent. The magnolia is still gorgeous, scent or no scent.

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    1. We have had sun almost every day the last week, the weather has been absolutely lovely to be honest, after 3 months of rain! I don’t think it is lack of sunshine, but I frankly don’t know what. At some point I was doubting my sense of smell, but I can smell both the lavender and the hyacinths which grows right next to it – and my food doesn’t taste any different so I don’t think I can blame my nose :-)
      I have passers-by stopping almost daily at my front garden, I can see them from my living room window when they stop and look and often talk to people they are walking together with, pointing at my flowers and smile. It’s nice, and I am the only one in my whole, long street with flowers in the front garden!

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  9. Everything looks magnificent, Helene. I cannot even start to list favourites. All the flowers look so beautiful - you are very lucky to have no frost or snow over the winter. Don't wear yourself out - you have a lot happening in your garden!

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    1. Thanks Astrid, I am not wearing myself out, honestly, gardening is not work to me, I go out in the garden to potter about when I want to relax :-) Besides, my garden is rather low-maintenance, despite all the flowers, practically no weeding and no lawn to mow, that helps. Yes, a lot is happening in my garden, as usual, here things are happening all year round!

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  10. I love your front garden window boxes. I can't believe how much you have in flower. Lovely.

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    1. Thanks Elaine, I love this time of year when things really speed up and I can see the changes from week to week.

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  11. Your garden is looking very pretty.. so much colour it's amazing. That naughty little squirrel.. I've seen squirrels in the trees in the back lane but I've never seen one in our garden... Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

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    1. The naughty squirrel in my garden is getting a bit too familiar, he isn’t even scared of me. I think it is the same one coming back every day and squirrels can live to become 20 years old (even though 12 is more common in the wild) – he can be around here for a long time!

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  12. London gardens always seem to be a bit ahead of our Suffolk gardens. How lovely to have your Magnolia out even if it is not fragrant. You certainly have packed loads of gorgeous plants into your garden. And the mark of the true gardener- everywhere you have things in pots; maids in waiting.

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    1. Thanks, yes I didn’t expect the magnolia to flower just yet, I was told it would flower in May, possibly late April in early years so mid March was a surprise and a bit of a worry to me – a week of night frost would have been devastating now. Fortunately there is no frost on the weather forecast for the next 2 weeks either so I think we are in the clear.

      I usually say that I have planted everything in my garden like sardines; tightly packed sideways and staked in layers! And whenever there is an empty gap it is promptly filled by a pot in flower :-) Maids in waiting, I liked that expression! I have a lot of maids, more than 300 actually, counting everything including all the seedlings on my nursery shelf. I really do need a bigger garden….

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  13. Oh my goodness....I could have sat far longer oooohing n' arrrring over your fabulous garden Helene. So many things I 'need'. Your Hellebores have really got me all excited. I've ordered lots of different plugs which are due in May. Now I can't wait. You should be so proud of what you've achieved, the envy of your neighbourhood x

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    1. Isn’t it funny how many things we find we ‘need’ when reading other people’s blogs? I find plants all the time! Thanks for your kind words Jane, I am afraid the only neighbours that can see my garden are the two on either side of mine and neither of them are interested enough to do their own garden so they don’t pay the slightest interest in mine. But my front garden gets nice comments when I am out there watering and taking care of the plants, and I can see people stopping and looking from the window in my living room when I am inside.

      I hope your hellebore plugs start flowering for you next year, or the year after? I have bought some plugs in the past but haven’t been very impressed. Out of a package of six, five died and the fifth looked nothing like it was supposed to according to label. I had my second attempt last year but despite being promised they would flower this spring they didn’t. I hope they will flower next spring but waiting 2 years for flowers…I could have grown them from seeds for free then and waited just a bit longer. I hope you have better luck, I thinks it depends a bit where you buy them and how much you pay for them.

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  14. Helene, Thank you for a delightful garden tour! You have too much to comment on, but I especially love 'Christmas Cheer' and your double primroses! Your lower garden with all the spring beauties is wonderful. But you seriously need to borrow my cat; the squirrel problem would be solved within a day!

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    1. Thank you, I am very fond of ‘Christmas Cheer’ too since it flowers so much earlier than my other rhododendron – and the flowers are just beautiful. My cat is over 12 years old, perhaps he is too old to bother chasing squirrels anymore, besides, he can’t be out there all the time, he spends a lot of time indoors just sleeping. There are lots of other cats in the area but the squirrel seem to be waiting in the wings for the right moment every day!

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  15. Oh my goodness, where do I start? Obviously, your climate is perfect for Hellebores! What a collection you have! I was worried about whether mine survived our brutal winter, but I'm seeing green poking out from the receding snow--so that's a good sign. Your window boxes are stunning, Helene! And the Trilliums, Cyclamen, and Scilla are so perfectly formed and landscaped. But the loveliest display is the Magnolias--their blooming always says to me, "Yes, it truly is spring now!" I don't have Magnolias in my garden, so I'm not an expert on them. But I covet them in other gardens. ;-)

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    1. Thanks Beth, when all my hellebores have produced babies and they have started flowering – in 4-5 years time – then I will have quite a collection! Hellebores are quite tough plants, they grow in Norway too, I don’t think you need to worry about them as long as they have a good snow cover, it is bare frost that kills plants. It will be nice to see how long the magnolia will flower, at the moment we have up to 20C during the day but down to 7-8C at night.

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  16. Your Camellia is stunning, mine is not yet in flower. I love the magnolia too, shame about the sent, but you have a beautiful tree,

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    1. Thanks, I inherited the big camellia with the house, it is at least 30 years old but could be as old as 50 or even 60. The magnolia and camellia will outlive all the other plants in the garden – long after I have gone.

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  17. Helene, look at all those blooms in your London garden. Scented or not, your Magnolia is what I need in our Cheshire garden. I don't think I will ever get weary of saying how much I admire what you can do with a small space.

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    1. Thanks Alistair, it has taken 12 years to get the garden where it is today, but I could have done it much quicker if I had not done it on a shoestring budget. If you go to the post I wrote 7th March you’ll get the link to the nursery where I bought my magnolia. It is an online nursery, I just checked and they sell Magnolia soulangeana 'Heaven Scent', but not as a single stemmed tree. If you want that, you could send them an email and ask them to source one for you, as that was what they did for me last year. I look forward to seeing what you are going to do with your new back garden :-)

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  18. what a lovely garden, so many beautiful flowers. i particularly like the double primroses! Hope the squirrel doesn't cause too much trouble!

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    1. Thanks, I have a kind of love/hate relationship with the squirrel! I like seeing him playing around in the garden, but oh boy does he do a lot of damage.

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  19. Oh my, Helene, I don't even know where to begin! From those gorgeous primroses (love these!) in your front window boxes to the pink and white rhodie in your back garden, everything is just bursting with colorful blooms! We are still having winter weather here, so all your blooms are a treat for these winter-weary eyes. The magnolia is so pretty--even without scent, this is a tree I would be immediately drawn to. I have to echo Alistair's comment--I don't know just how big your garden is, but you have such a variety of blooms that it is a great example of how to use every square inch of space.

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    1. Thanks Rose, those double primroses are just a test, there will be more of them this autumn as I was too late to order the rest of them last year. I have my eye on some beautiful ones, Primula acaulis Parade series and hope to get them in time this year!
      My garden is 62 m2 which I found online is supposed to be 667 square feet, that is including the seating area and the passage at my back door where I have my nursery shelf – basically the whole outside area at the back of my house. So now you know why I keep calling it my ‘postage stamp size garden’ :-)
      My front garden is absolutely tiny, basically just a place to put the rubbish bins, only 4.5 m2, but I have managed to put some plants here too.

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  20. Wow! You have so much blooming in your lovely gardens Helene! Your new Magnolia and camellia ‘Takanini’ are so beautiful and the Double Primrose are breathtaking. I am taking all this in in awe as I await some more signs of spring here in the northeast. It is always a pleasure visiting you!

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    1. Thanks Lee, it has been spring here for a good while, we got a gentle ease into winter and a gentle boot out of it too this year. A small consolation for having to endure all the rain and stormy weather we have had! Sorry to hear you still have winter, I assume spring will be short and swift when it finally arrives!

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  21. How fortunate you are to have so many blooms. I especially like that double primrose.

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    1. Thanks, I buy plants and bulbs every year but most of all I propagate and take cuttings so I get lots more plants every year.

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  22. What incredible plants your Fuchsia have been Helene - they have not let you down have they? It's hard not to love the Magnolia - I often can't smell plants that others describe as gorgeous. Maybe as you say, once the plant matures. I haven't a clue if that's how they work. Personally, I'd be over the moon with the flowers. Love your little double primrose - it very like Miss Indigo, isn't it.
    I still check the ground daily on Trillium kurabayashi - still zilch!! Yours are gorgeous.
    I'll bet the neighbours are very pleased to walk past and see your boxes - I know I would be.

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    1. Oh, I think I am over the magnolia scent thing, I love the flowers, can’t stop taking photos of them! The fuchsias are incredible, I can’t believe they are all covered in buds just about to flower – it’s March! I still have lots of fuchsia cuttings I need to find a home for, they will become big plants by July/August.
      Your Trillium kurabayashi has similar flowers to my Trillium cuneatum but yours have greener leaves. When did you buy them and have they emerged before? I mean, not just when you bought them, but subsequent years after planting.

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  23. Wow. Your blooms are amazing! The magnolia is stunning, fragrant or not, and the anemones are adorable...what an intense blue. Seriously, I thought we had lots of blooms in SC, but you have us beat by far! Love the 'Apple Blossom' clematis, too--stunning. Happy Bloom Day to you! ~ Julie, Garden Delights

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    1. Thanks Julie, I have lots of flowers all year round in my tiny garden, over here in our climate it’s really just a matter of choosing the right plants and then squeeze in as many as possible :-)

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  24. So many blooms! So much color! So much spring! I am so jelous!

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    1. Thanks, it’s looking very Spring, isn’t it :-)

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  25. Your garden is full of spring Helene, so much colour and new growth. I am touched by the grey squirrel, such a funny animals, but I know a nuisance in London. Your frontgarden boxes so lovely too, your Camellias and so on, everything is flourishing.

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    1. I like watching the squirrels, but they do so much damage! It would have been better if they kept to the parks instead!

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  26. The magnolia is gorgeous, though that is too bad about the smell. I've gotten the wrong cultivar a couple times (such as the time I bought yellow gladioli for the front of my red house only to have them come up screaming hot pink). Your garden is so lovely! I love the scilla and the hellebore - they are on my list to get at some point!

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    1. Yes, I have got a few wrong cultivars over the years too, like Hydrangea ‘Blue Wave’ which was meant to be a lace cap and turned out to be a pink mop head! I find many plants I ‘must’ have on other people’s blogs, I thought my garden was full a couple of years ago, turns out I was wrong, I have managed to squeeze in many, many plants since then!

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  27. Your garden never ceases to amaze me, Helene! It is the best use of space I have ever seen. I cannot begin to pick out a favorite bloom. Happy first day of spring! P. x

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    1. Thanks Pam, my garden is a testament to how greedy I am in terms of plants and flowers – I want them all! And I still have a very long wish list with many more plants I inted to find a home for in my garden :-)

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  28. Compliments on a really impressive set of pictures Helene, I think I have said before I don't know how you do it in such a small garden. It is a great shame that you have been let down by your "scented" Magnolia as they are quite an expensive shrub to buy being slow to establish. The truth be told, even with the best of intentions, not everything in the horticultural world is always what it should be, I have experienced this too many times in the past.

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    1. I must admit I am surprised about the magnolia, I have smelled magnolias at Kew Gardens and I know what they are supposed to smell! But I don’t know if it is the variety, or the young age of my magnolia – or something else, I have no experience here so I hoped someone would write a comment and tell me, so far no one has provided me with a good explanation. ‘Heaven Scent’ is supposed to be strongly scented, not just with some scent. Maybe I should write to the nursery and ask for some advice. But I do enjoy the look of the flowers, they are extraordinary in any way.

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  29. Wow. What can I say?!! I am so impressed with all the blooms in your garden! You are way ahead of me this year. It all looks so lovely with all the spring blooms coming together. And your front garden is fabulous, too. That Amethyst Ice is just gorgeous! I'm worried for you, though - that squirrel looks like he has settled into your garden and is munching on everything to see what is his favorite out of the buffet! I hope you can figure out a way to get rid of him!

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