Flowering in the Garden Today

Great photos MG. Lots of life around.
I find it so amazing that all these flowers look so delicate & yet they thrive at this time of year with the worst weathers.

If you visit the alps you will see delicate wee hepaticas and soldanellas pushing up through the snow to flower... Plants are far tougher than we think!

What a lovely variety of flowers - and it's still February!

what a lovely show and we dont often get to see your garden. :o)

My solida is no where to be seen yet. is yours very early or have the squirrels got mine.

I like I Sheila Anne Germany and her name stone. Is that yours or BA's handiwork? She is very similar to Katherine Hodgkin in colour isnt she?

Hi SBG that is BA's handiwork - he tends to use small pieces of slate now. Lighter than Katherine Hodgkin's but similar. Could your retic. Iris be Joyce?

My big fear Ojb. is that the weather will go back on itself and then the flowers will suffer - but they will come again next year :-)

Everything looks amazingly early for your part of the world. Have you had a mild winter? Our snow is melting this week, and the first few crocuses are peeping out (only shoots). At this time of year I'm always hoping that they have survived the frost because there's not much to see yet. Your photo's of early spring are encouraging.

wow very nice there Moon-growe
it looks great already ,very nice garden to :))

A very mild winter Chris, snow in December and nothing since... after the last two winters when we were under the white stuff for months at a time it is great. It is a joy to walk round each day and see what else is flowering :-)

14.5C and sunny here today! We're lucky to get that in summer sometimes. But....... what's to come? Like you, MG, I worry about these early flowers.

You seem to be getting great weather Moon grower. I love the Irises. A little warmth and they all appear.

Yes as you say Linda a little warmth and they all appear, I love the wee retic. irises am not so fond of the very large border ones.

14˚C and sunny all morning here to Ojibway

Thats a lovely sight to greet you, had a smile at the way you started because I thought when I saw it amongst the blogs that it was a change from your usual Mg, you do have a lot of colour, mine are only just starting and even then its in dribs and drabs, I must add to my bulbs because I love to see them in swathes as in yours, good excuse to buy more..

hi MG it was sold to me as Joyce but Joyce is blue and this isnt, its purple. Still no nearer an id. ah well never mind. it is pretty.

I seem to remeber BA doing a blog on his name stones. I do like them very much. he has a nice handwriting stye too.

Lovely colours you have going on there MG. Isn't the weather amazing!! I'm almost too scared to say it!!
I like that Iris Sheila Anne Germany.....I've just bought myself some Katharine Hodgkins which looks a bit more powdery blue to me :)

Yes the weather is amazing Scottish and yes Katherine Hodgkins is a powder blue, Sheila Anne Germany is even lighter...

Lovely colour Moongrower. Do the Iris spread over the years. Most of mine are in pots but looking at yours, think I' ll get them in the ground.

Hi Dawn yes but slowly, for example we planted the swath of Joyce and it has bulked up. Retic. irises are so important for spring colour in our garden, along with crocus!

A beautiful selection of Spring flowers and bulbs. I like how some have been planted in waves. A lot of work to plant out - but well worth it!

Love the irises, good job : )

Thanks Petal and Steve, Bulba would tell you it is me just bunging them in and totally incapable of doing anything to a straight line! Seriously we have not straight lines in the garden, neither paths nor flowers.

What lovely pics :)) My favourite is the Corydalis solida but they all look great! :)

The Corydalis comes in pink, white and a blue/mauve colour and is much loved by Bulba and self. Leaves die back about six weeks after flowering.

They're really pretty :) Oh btw..remember I got my haircut one one of the afternoons you said..well it must have grown quicker than normal as I had to do my roots earlier than usual! :)

That is good Pixi

What a lot of plants you have in flower MG. I haven't seen anything like this down here in the South, not even any crocus yet although today's warmth should bring things on rapidly. Lovely pics, thanks for sharing your lovely early spring :o))

You are welcome Lily, I am surprised there are no crocus out down south... ours have been out for several weeks now and some are going over. There was a tremendous display of them at the SRGC Early Bulbs Day last Saturday in Dunblane and Karensusan a new GoYer and even newer SRGC member came along for the first time.

There may well be some out along the verges going into town. The council planted great drifts of them as well as daffs but I haven't been that way for some time. Haven't noticed any out in nearby gardens, maybe I should clean my specs! LOL

Its great to see all that lovely colour Mg. BB wrote a blog last year at this time trying to find a solution to the one trip iris which flower and disappear. Few of us seem to be as successful with these early gems.

Can't say we've ever had a problem with them Scotsgran they get planted and then basically left to get on with it.

No he is mystified at your success when all over the uk some can and some cannot grow them. Yours are wonderful.

Ok so what do you all do with them? I repeat Bulba and I bung them into the ground (not pots) and let them get on with it... our friends do the same thing with the same results. So are you growing in pots. dry crappy soil, not getting enough water to the bulb in summer, cutting off the leaves... I can't right now think of anything else. I promise we never feed, never do a thing to!

I can say hand on heart none of the above. lol. If you read the responses he got, the results are so hit and miss as to be totally inconclusive. Bbs blog 22.2.11. We need a lot more info.

Take a look at the RHS advice Scotsgran just copy and paste the link into your web browser (not Google)

http://bit.ly/y1mBBX

pretty flowers

I should have come back and said I found advice to grow in neutral or slightly alkaline soil.

Such lovely large clumps of bulbs and as you say warm for Scotland! We had 22c monday, that's warm for April.

Siris I posted this blog in February 2012...

Oh, I didn't look at the date! Silly me.

Did you plant under the gravel? I love plants coming up in different places... yours are wonderful. Love the Iris and the yellow crocus near the Terrace.