The nice thing about going away is the change you see in the garden when you get home. Yesterday was my first day back after a week of lovely sunshine in England. I came back to several seasons in one day with sun, snow, rain and wind but that could not stop me getting into the garden and seeing what had changed.
I was delighted to see that some of my tulips were starting to bloom. They do look lovely and are on nice tall strong stems. What I did not consider when planting them was that they would all bloom at different times, which means I only have a bunch or two to sell until the next ones bloom a few days later! Next year I will increase my bulb order for tulips so I have a greater chance of a lot more blooming at the same time! I love that there is always something new to learn gardening and flower growing. At this time last year it was learning to put up defences against rabbits and slugs which were eating everything and this year it is learning what quantity of flowers I need to grow.
What I was most excited about discovering this week was my first few flowering anemone. I planted a lot of bulbs in the autumn for the first time but very few plants have appeared. This may have been due to mice eating the bulbs or the damp winter weather rotting them. But I now have three flowering and they are beautiful. Definitely my flower of the week! I can see more popping up in the ground and any day now there will be more to put in some jam jar posies.
The daffodils have come into bloom too in the last week. Although there are plenty to see in the garden there are also a lot of patches with lots of daffodil foliage but no flowers. Reading about this it seems to be called daffodil blindness. There could be many causes for this. We did leave the foliage last year for several weeks before cutting it back so I am wondering whether it may just be that the bulbs are old and overcrowded. I may try lifting some and dividing them once the foliage has started to die back. In the autumn I am planning to plant many more new daffodils to increase the volume and varieties in the garden.
Coming back to flowers in the garden has meant a chance to get creative again and I had some fun making up my first jam jar posies of the year. They really brighten up a windowsill or the kitchen table at home and I love making them. It has felt great to see some flowers coming through that I have grown. This is what makes all the hard work worthwhile!
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