February 2024 in the garden

It certainly is exciting Sheila … lovely to see so much colour in your garden, and extraordinary to see the quince in flower!

Really lovely pics, Sheila! Your garden is right in Springtime mode isn't it.
Love your snowdrop design in the lawn, very pretty. Your skimmia looks so good, mine is not the healthiest looking, it's the leaves.
Your hellebore border is really attractive, I like their placement. Such pretty varieties too. The wallflower evokes mild spring temperatures and sunshine ahead!!!! Very cheerful and I shall imagine its lovely scent.
That pretty little rosebud..I'm cheering it on. Fingers crossed it survives :-)

Snowdrops, cyclamen and primroses: my favourites! Such lovely planting!

It is so exciting Sheila, and you have sure signs of Spring on the way there. The pink hellebore is very pretty and the Japanese quince flowers, all tough cookies even in the worst of weathers.
I bought Pieris Forest Flame yesterday, I've had it before in the garden where it didn't do well, so this one will be in a pot with ericaceous compost. It has lots of flowers coming, I love it already!!

Hb, thanks for showing the Spring flowers in your garden. This is why Spring is my favourite season ... everything awakening for another year.

Lovely amount of colour in your garden.

It's so lovely to see the stirring in the garden! 👍Your flowers look really lovely! What happiness little bulbs like Snowdrops & Crocuses bring to the garden in February!

I also have some Crocuses that are beginning to flower on the balcony as well as Hyacinthins . Later there will be Daffs & Anemones, too, apart from Glory of the Snow. 👍

Nice seeing all the spring flowers in your garden. You have a good selection of Helebores. Thanks for sharing.

Wow, Spring is far better established in your garden than in mine, my crocuses showed their first colour last weekend and my hellebores are still pondering whether to open or not, but they are growing in the shadow of the house so take a while to respond to improved weather. What a happy looking plant your skimmia is and as you say, what a brave but delightful rosebud! Thank you for allowing us to join you for this ramble round your garden, it's been lovely.

How lovely your garden is looking already! The iris and snowdrops look very pretty together. The cyclamen and hellebores are doing really well. It is a wonderful time of year with everything ahead of us. I too love the scent of wall flowers.

Sheila, it was a nice surprise to see the quince in flower. I wasn’t expecting to see it until next month.

Julia, I see what you mean about the shape the snowdrops have grown into in the lawn. lol. The Cyclamen were gifts of seed from Brian many years ago and have spread so well.

Thank you Janey. I lost my original Pieris plants when I moved them when we redesigned the pond. This one is only 4 years old and seems to like it where I’ve planted it.

Shirley now the days are longer and the nights shorter I think I am coming out of hibernation!

Thank you Ange. I am afraid I am no planner. I am more of a see it, like it, buy it, plant it where there is a gap sort of gardener.

Thank you Sue. It’s certainly cheering me up.

Balcony, thank you. Your balcony must be full of perfume for weeks on end.

Ff. thank you. The Hellebore's were seed gifted to me many years ago.

Thank you Xela for your lovely comment.

Wildrose thank you. The snowdrops with the iris growing together wasn’t planned! When we redesigned the pond area the bulbs from the old border were put into buckets together by OH and scattered into the new borders willy nilly. It’s been a nice surprise to see what comes up and where!
My next task is to scrub the pond steps and patio. They are looking so grotty. I am thinking of trying white vinegar to clean them this time. I saw it used by Alan Titchmarsh, to really good effect, on a Love your Garden program a while ago.

Hb, I feel just the same way!

HB, no I don't think there is any perfume on the balcony at all! Violas, as far as I know,don't have any, nor do the few crocuses that have opened. The Hyacinths do produce scent but it's probably wafted away by the wind before I can smell it! Other than a Geranium in the mini-greenhouse there is nothing else in flower on the balcony at the moment. 😥

Balcony, that’s a shame. I don’t get the scent from my garden plants either because of the wind’s direction. I do have a Sarcococca planted by the conservatory door though which releases its scent into the conservatory when the door brushes past it the winter.

I bought some Primroses on Saturday & have now planted them in clay pots on the balcony railings.

They will be a cheerful sight Balcony.

Thanks, Homebird! have you seen the photo I uploaded of them now on the balcony railings?