The Future is 2013

It's great to see new life erupting from the soil Rose ,it means life goes on and spring will follow :o)

Nice to see Brian. The cyclamen you sent me are all in leaf in their little pots too.

Brian no sign of my snowdrops but yes to my yellow hellebore

Exciting, some of mine have broken through the soil too, but only in the sheltered spot up by the woodland walk border. Winter will soon be over, HOPEFULLY!

So simple but so special. I love to see them.

Wow, snowdrops already! Very cheering.

brian how do you encourage this plant to have more buds? mine only seems to have one!

Sorry Brian ! whatever made me call you rose :o( !!!

Gosh what a treat, I love to see the snowdrops appearing, you are so right Brian its not that far away really, get xmas sorted and then it will be time to start off in the greenhouse again...

I have tried in vain to grow snowdrops - the most cheerful and optimistic little flowers, but this looks lovely - thank you for sharing, Brian.

Wonderful Brian to see the snow drops and others coming through already I hope we do get a decent year next year but I am sceptical.

How can there be end of the world if snowdrops Three Ships in Brian´s garden are erupting? Lol. Very Happy Xmas to you, Brian (or Rose?)! :)

My garden does not know it was supposed to go to sleep for a rest Bjs. I still have a lupin in flower in spite of all the frost we have had. A visitor asked if it was real the other day lol.

Brian thankyou, a breath of air and light. x

Optimistic photos, Brian .. nice to see :o)

Scotsgran@I have two questions. Where do you live and what sort of Lupin is it?

Wonderful sight, thank you for sharing it!
I haven't finished topping up the crocus and tulip bulbs yet, put on hold by the freezing temperatures, so hadn't thought to start looking for signs of new growth. I shall have a gander this morning; the first signs of Spring are so uplifting.

Amy have been called a lot worse things than that,If I were feminine I would be very happy if I were given that name,but i would have to be Beautiful smell nice and,no we won't go there.lol

Sticki assume you refer to the Hellebore.They do take a few years to bulk up,You did not say how old it is or where it came from,Possibly me?in which case it would not be very old,they need cuddles to grow strong like all babies.

Gattina
have a few thoughts on your snowdrops will come back to you later in the day.

oh sorry, yes i mean the hellebore, i bought it at anglesey abbey about 3 years ago
um, shall i give it a fleece ~ is that the next best thing to a cuddle?

Sticki they are almost all very hardy with a couple of exceptions,so fleece no.
If it has grown very little in the three years I would think the roots have not grown much either in which case may be a move in the spring .
I would have thought with the tree shade you have your conditions would have been good for them.
Is it just one plant you have in the garden.

i only have one yellow one brian, plenty of others which do well, its the yellow that hasnt seemed to have produced many flowers ~ so maybe a move in the spring as you suggest ~ thank you!

nice to see signs Brian, not seen anything in my garden yet, but think everything drowned lol
merry xmas to you and your family :o) x

I keep telling myself it's not long til spring. If I tell myself that, I may end up believing it but now I've seen your snowdrop, it really won't be long :))
My hellebores (all orientals) are looking rotten - I wonder if it's just been far too wet for them!!

There were pots of hellebores for sale on our local market last week, but they looked so perfect, I guarantee they had been in greenhouse shelter up until then, and I didn't think scraping frost and snow off the borders to plant the poor things was going to be very kind to them. Beautiful plants, though.

Gattina back to your snowdrops ,as you know they grow well in many locations through out the UK but they also grow well in the Mediterranean Where many grow wild,a lot of these are Galanthus Nivalis forms and there are many of them,They should thrive if you plant them a minimum of 6in deep preferably loosening up and adding to the soil, possibly best facing north as that should be coolest for them.
How you buy them I am not sure but avoid dry packet ones and the ones offered in the UK that are ripped up out of the ground in flower and sold 50 or 100 at a time .
Brian

We live in Central Scotland Katarina. The lupin is one I grew from seed. Its Sunday name is Lupinus hybrid "Tutti Frutti" from TM. I will add a photo of it for you.

looks promising Brian, i have a few snowdrops growing as well. the helebore looks full of buds..

Gattina, snowdrops take best if you plant them "in the green", ie when they are dug up just after the flowers finish. They are funny plants, they seem either to spread like mad or refuse to grow at all. We are lucky in our present garden (and they do grow wild in the woods round here!) but a friend in another part of the country has tried for years without success.

I need more Snowdrops. They are one of those plants (as so many others - Rose, Geranium, Epimedium... sorry, I could go on).

When I say 'need', I mean, "Crave!"

Fractual
And covet,lol
They normally increase rapidly in your part of the world you see them growing wild.
May be a visit to Colesbourn Park would solve the problem,could of course create a different problem, like staying solvent.
Brian

Bjs and Steragram - thank you so much for taking the time to help. We get a form of wild one down in the valley near the stream we can hear from our window, but they seem to have been in decline over the last couple of years, and I don't want to take them from the wild. I have imported bulbs bought in the UK (never seen them on sale here) and tried planting "in the green" with plants donated by an (English) friend from her garden. None have survived for even a season. I think we just don't have the right conditions anywhere in our garden. By the way, the Italian name for snowdrops is "Bucaneve" which translates roughly as (I think) "Hole in the snow". Well, we have plenty of that (snow, I mean) as it is deep outside our front door and still coming down. At least we are headed for a white Christmas! Not sure if that's an entirely good thing.