Early 2011 or late 2012?

thats interesting annella, i thought some things were later here too.

I was really surprised when I checked my photos out Sticki , some of the above must have been in flower for a little while as well

Very interesting blog, thank you :) We moved into our house this time last year and I've replaced a lot of the plants so I can't say what's flowering earlier/later. My tomatoes are only about an inch tall at the minute, my dad gave me some he'd grown from seed just after we moved in last year and they were ready to be planted out!

My garden is totally confused. I have some flowering early, like the Spirea Arguta, and some flowering late, like the tulips and the azalea. The lovely spell in March brought all the spring bulbs, apart from tulips, on really early and brought shrubs into leaf before it was safe. Hard to draw any conclusions in this extremely confusing season.

Annie you are right... Some plants are lagging behind their 2011 flowering times. Nice pics. :o)

Do you think it was the cold, very cold February TT?

I would guess there are several reasons, including the times when we've had long spells of dry weather ..

I took a photo of the bottom garden 20.04.11 and my sprinkler was on the lawn

Winter 10/11 wasn't severe - it was mild after mid Jan 11 - this helped the plants come along. This time the back end of winter was cold.

...this time last year I had Alliums out, mind you it was 25C! My alliums are barely showing any buds this time.

The prolonged spell of snow killed a lot of my shrubs off in 10/11 Weatherwise

Same here, Buds are just starting to poke up

I've no pattern to help you with in my garden, Annella, but on the whole things seem to be just a little later this year than last. My Judas tree was in full flower in mid-April last year . . . hardly any blossom at all yet; Pulsatilla 2 weeks later than last year; Phlox subulata just coming into flower, also 2 weeks later than last year, but Honesty flowering madly - early!

i seem to remember the whole of april being dry last year, next door have lost half a lovely rhodedendhron i think due to drought.

Thats right December (2010) was one of the coldest and snowiest in 300 years but I think the mild late Jan and Feb 11 helped the (hardy) plants come on. This time we had mild weather in early winter but a very cold spell (-14C here) in the first half of Feb. March was very warm but its actually been colder than March so far in April. At least the next few weeks look better. Met Office forecast temperatures - "...near or even above average across southern areas later" still probably several degrees cooler than late April/early May last year.

I've just been checking through my pics and comparing with last year, the top of my garden looks exactly the same as regards the flowers and shrubs, but the bottom which is shady are behind except the daffs, thinking about how dark our days have been in recent weeks, I put that down to lack of light in that area, I`ve also checked the dates for things in the g'house and my plants and seeds, Toms especially are also behind even though planted more or less the same time, I can only put that down to the dark cold days as well.....

It's all the wrong way round this year - February was bitter after a mild winter; March was just like high summer; April's been wet and cold, often with frost at night. Some things got going early, in March (like my clematis Niobe, covered in buds by 27th March) but have been pulled up short by the sudden drop in temperature. Things which started growing away well have slowed down virtually to stop. The buds on the clematis are still sitting there, and I'm having to cover the blasted thing when frost is forecast. I wouldn't normally expect buds on it till mid April, so its a real mixed bag in the garden this year - just ike the weather.

Most of the plants in my garden are new last year so therefore I can comment on very little...although one observation my Rhoddies (most of these are more than 10 years old) have been looking really unhappy recently - my largest/favourite has produced very poor flowers not even worth taking a picture of! On the up side - the rain this week seems to have perked them up a wee bit-so the very dry weather here in Edinburgh is taking the blame!!

I feel very confused myself, so I can totally understand what the plants are experiencing! It feels like winter still, but today in the GC, the sun came out for about 5 minutes and for that brief spell I was in a whole different world!! The birds started singing, bees buzzing....and then it was all over again and back to winter. I do hope we have spring soon. As you know, I was in Gran Canaria during the really warm week at the end of March, so I missed that completely. I have certainly never seen a rosebud showing colour during April, so that is definitely early. To be honest I think there is a lot more growth than usual for this time of year, but it's difficult for me to monitor that in such a new garden. Interesting blog Annie! :)))

I went to the local Gc after work and it started to rain as I got out of my car (typical) but armed with my pound shop umbrella I carried on regardless. I bought some nice pots, gravel and a few plants. By the time I got to my car with them it was hot, steam coming off the car park and the most beautiful rainbow overhead. There is a lot of growth in my garden Karen, definitely down to the rain but all the flowers seem slow.
And I agree Bamboo the back to front weather has caught a lot of plants out, makes you wonder how they will respond next year.

Nice pics Annella. I agree, flowers definitely slow this year and so cold at the moment.

I was doing the very same thing today Annella, I take a photograph of everything that flowers every day, so I have a record, and last year we had planted up the tropical area, cannas bananas etc....no chance at the moment far too cold, we had hail this afternoon, the clematis and the roses have put on a tremendous amount of growth, but, the rain had caused that to happen, the cold is holding a lot of flowers back, the seasons are changing all the time, nothing we can do about it either, we are at the mercy of the weather!! enjoyed your blog and your photos.....
Our Euphorbia Polychroma has been out for over a week now!! swings and roundabouts!!

I had spikes of lily of the valley showing towards the end of a very warm and sunny January, and we thought we had lost the lot in the fierce snows of February, but they are back again in force, and covered in flower buds. Maybe if the cold didn't completely finish things off it strengthened them. We had a very spring-like March, with warm sunshine and soaring temperatures (27°c some days) and things like the wisteria started to come on far earlier than in previous years, but this recent cold snap has stopped it in its tracks. We haven't quite had a frost (although there are pockets of shade further down the mountain that have) in this latest cold snap, but everything seems to have skidded to a halt and is just holding its breath, inside and outside the greenhouse. I took a photograph of the garden on 17th April last year, and the cherry blossom, daffodils and spirea were in full bloom. This year on the 17th, everything was well on its way out, and we already have quite noticeable baby cherries developing. Our apple and pear trees already had blossom on the 1st April, which, looking back at our records is very early. The bees, which were out and about in force three weeks ago, are hardly to be seen now, so heaven help pollination levels.

Yes, the pollination can't be helped by all this rain can it. I wonder what all the bees are doing during this wet weather. I suppose they are just like us.....hiding indoors and praying for it to stop soon!

lovely pictures Annella :))))))))))))))))))))))))

Annella's pictures are ALWAYS lovely, Paul. By the way, what's with the new avatar? Have you put a pond in your garden? ;o)