Can we now say it's Spring?

Yes Honey - Spring has definitely sprung, and it's wonderful. We're all going around with big smiles, and I'm smiling having seen all the lovely plants in your garden!

Well, what a lot of lovely images! It must have taken ages to compose this blog. I love that lavender coloured Primula, and isn't that Euphorbia doing well! Lovely to see Spring has arrived. Its so grey and cool here at the moment. But I'm hoping that it will brighten up soon as I have some planting to get on with. :)

oh...forgot to say. I love that comment about the weeds 'treat them as background'. I'm going to remember that for my Open Garden days! ;)

Thanks Sheila. Having just been out to move (laughable that!) a Smoke Bush which was in the wrong place, wrong variety, whatever it took over so had to go. No way I can dig that up, so it got sawn off and some side pieces which had rooted moved. Will have to keep an eye on it as it may shoot out again. If you desperately wanted it to, it wouldn't, but that's the way of gardening. Having planted more stuff up on the field (soon have a copse) I am exhausted and hate to say it, but too HOT!

You're right Karen, it did take ages, but I worry more that I am adding too much and boring everyone to death!
The little double lilac primula is a star, really pretty close to, tiny, so tends to blend into the background (weeds?) a bit, but when it full flower makes quite a show.
The Euphorbia actually got staked this year so looks much better than the usual floppy effort and of course it gets bigger every year. Even OH said how good it looked and apart from admiring the grass when it's first cut, doesn't really comment on much. Mind you, newly cut grass does make the everything else look tidier, regardless whether it is or not.
You're welcome to my comment about seeing the weeds as background, I have a lot as I tend to leave the early dead-nettles for the bees as there is not much else around when they start flowering. When I do get round to digging them out I usually get mobbed by the bees as I am stealing their nectar and pollen! Can't win them all, but I think there are plenty of weeds left for them. I actually like the little pink flowered dead nettle (Lamium purpureum), but of course it seeds everywhere then. Other excuses for weeds are they are in decline in the fields or there are ground nesting bees under them, nobody is going to poke about to see if it's true!

What a lovely display. what you think might be a gooseberry is Ribes speciosum or the fuschia flowered ribes. I have it and it is a lovely shrub. mine looses its leaves mid summer and then regrows them oct / November time and stays in leaf through most of the winter. The thorns are lethal though.
I wish I could get primroses to self seed. they just don't seem to like my garden at all.
and you DO NOT have weeds you have 'British natives' and you are doing you bit for the pollinators. That's what I say if any one comments on them.

That's exactly what it is SBgirl, I had a look and it's actually one which still has the label! Probably because it's wrapped around the stem and as you say they are lethal. Why do I buy things that are so lethal? This was trained against a wall at Wisley and looked lovely, no thought given for the thorns though. I have a Rosa Rugosa which is in a stupid place (it was here when we came) and spreads like mad, trying to cut it back is dangerous!
I do as you say have British natives, lots of them and lots of them I really like, so they get left in, only to seed and spread even more.

Thanks for the tour of your lovely spring garden. It's therapy for me. (I'm needing an attitude adjustment) I love the pretty sweet smelling Poeticus Daphs...and those tulips!
How are Boris and his girls, these days?

Beautiful spring flowers :)

Thanks Lori, it's always good to see the Spring flowers, you get this huge burst of yellow from the daffodils and Jasmine bushes, then it's all over and you forget how much they cheered you up.
Boris is doing well considering his supposed age, I will write a blog about him shortly to bring everyone up to date!

Thanks to you too Hywel, I know Daffodils are not exciting but like the snowdrops are a herald of Spring.

Why are they not exciting ?

Ha Ha. Hywel beat me to it with his question. I love daffodils.

The daffodil is known as "Peter's leek"; In Welsh: Cenhinen Bedr. The Welsh for leek is Cenhinen. Both names became confused over the years so the daffodil is the second emblem of Wales ; the Leek being the first.

I wear a daffodil or a leek, on St David's Day. The former has a better perfume!

I like to see clumps of nettles and other so-called weeds. They attract bees and butterflies.

You're right of course Hywel and Eirlys. It's just that people put photo's of such exotic flowers, beautifully laid out beds and immaculate gardens on here that the humble daffodil seems as if I am not making the effort!!
They have been and still are, glorious and we do have some fields of them about here in Fenland, which are even more stunning. You have to look twice as we have all got so used to the ubiquitous fields of Rape which is also bright yellow.
We still have clumps of nettles for the butterflies, dead nettles for the bees and plenty of wild flower weeds.

I love to see the daffodils. The river at the bottom of our hill has them planted all around the edge along the roadside through the village , they look fabulous as you come round the corner.
Lots of plants are suddenly in flower with the sudden heatwave we have.
Yesterday I saw butterflies in the garden, a big yellow brimstone & some tortoiseshells.

I agree Greenfinger, it's lovely to see the public spaces when they have been planted with bulbs. We have daffodils all along the Creek locally and reflecting in the water they look stunning. Thanks to all the people in the past who made the effort to plant them on the banks, no mean feat.
I have seen the odd butterfly and the Bumblebees are bumbling about as they do, we even had a Queen wasp who was adamant she was coming indoors and I had to evict her twice, then shut the window - last thing I want is a nest indoors!

I have two Alemanchier I love them something all year round and birds love the berries, mine were bought as shrubs though, I’d love a tree will have to save up!

What a lovely blog a feast of all that shouts spring has arrived. I do love your primula I purchased a dozen of the common yellow ones last year and dotted them here and there around the garden and I`m thrilled that they have self seeded (mostly in the middle of the gravel paths) but they are quite easy to transplant, and now I have seen your carpet of violets its made them a must have for planting under one or two shrubs.

Your spring flowers are beautiful !

Thanks Sewingkilla, I also have two, one in the front garden and one up on the field/meadow at the back where I tend to plant anything that will break up the wind howling across the Fens. Also anything that will encourage the birds and wildlife, one or two I don't need like foxes and badgers, but most others are welcome.
We did lose a Cockerel to something the other week, my wood-chip man (he brings me all his discards) thought it was a dog due to 'droppings' which he said wasn't fox! We have lost chickens to the fox, before we put in a new fence, but did wonder about the Buzzards which are about here as the poor thing seemed to have been moved and 'plucked' which a fox doesn't usually do - who knows?

Thanks Stroller, I really have a 'thing' about Primulas, all types and they do really well here. As you say they are no trouble to dig out where they are not wanted and are usually no bother to transplant whatever the time of year. The violets do run rampant, but are also easily moved elsewhere and are great for under shrubs as they are gone over before the canopy cuts out the light.

Thanks Terra, they are lovely, just the full overview of the garden which needs more tlc! Today it's spitting with rain which will help the weeds to grow even more, can't believe how quickly the grass grew after last weeks first cut!

Weeds? Wot weeds? I didn't see anything other than our native British flora! ?

A wonderful blog with so many lovely flowers, Honeysuckle! ?
I like Primulas but haven't grown any for many years now. There are some wild Primroses around here but there are also lots of Cowslips! ? I see Violets in people's garden on the way to town, one garden even has a slight hollow where they escape the mower blades & so are slightly bigger plants than those that are forced to grow below the mower's cutting edge!

Wow I would love to wander around your garden Honey, I agree with everyone, you have a natural garden and it looks lovely, I also do not class them as weeds, anything that selfseeds and produces pretty flowers is a must keep to me, its taken me years to get the native flowers to spread but now they are doing and I intend to allow them free reign, all except dandelions in my lawn, lol...I'll never have a bowling green because of the dogs but I do try my best to keep it reasonable, as you say a freshly mown lawn does make ones garden look neater....Not bored in the slightest, I enjoyed seeing and reading about your garden Honey...

Thanks Balcony for the bit about the native British flora. I suppose nettles come under that category too and though the white and red dead nettles look pretty in clumps and are good for the bees, the white ones are really invasive and take some getting out! As for the 'slight hollow' you mentioned, we have lots of those, more huge dips than hollows but they also harbour the wild self-heal (Prunella vulgaris) which is also pretty and spreads like mad.

Leaving anything pretty in the wild flower range is how I have so many Lincslass! From what we called 'bird's-eyes' when we were children (one of the Speedwell's) to Campions and of course the Selfheal and clovers. I must do a blog on these pretty little wild plants, some are as stunning as the cultivated varieties - only in miniature!
I understand about the dandelions and the state of the lawn with the dogs (we have rabbits that help there) perhaps the dogs are helping with weeding out the dandelions!