The flowers that bloom in the Spring, tra-la!

Wow .. lots going on ...
garden looks great ..
those anemones are superb ..
and well done Mr and Mrs. Blackbird :o)))

You have a lovely garden and lots of colour, I enjoyed my look around, thanks! Good luck to Mr & Mrs Blackbird.

how wonderful your garden is Sue yes its so nice to see all the Spring colour again after such a long cold winter.

I love Lilly of the Valley making its way in spite of the rocky fate, lol. And Sarah Bernhardt is a wonderful peony. I am just surprised, that it is more developed then ferns at this time of year. In my garden ferns usually develop first and then peonies.

Lovely to see your spring garden, and everything putting on such a good show :o)

Thanks Tt - I love the anemones. I planted the bulbs in two consecutive Autumns, and they have really earned their keep.

Thank you Louisa. It is exciting noticing all the things that I have managed to forget over the winter!

Thanks Kath - it's a lovely time in the garden, and we seem to have waited so long for it.

The lily of the valley was planted over 30 years ago, Katarina, before the paving was laid. It migrated through the flowerbed and eventually pushed up between the pavers. There's another line of it a few feet away. It always amuses me! Sarah Bernhardt is gorgeous. That particular fern is always quite late. I have hart's tongue fern that is visible all year round.

Thank you, Hywel - I'm glad you like it.

I am delighted to have a blackbird's nest where we'll be able to observe all the comings and goings. They usually nest in the garden, but not often so close to the house.

I wish to have hart´s tongue fern, too.

Thank you for sharing your lovely garden. I like how your lily of the valley is taking a walk about. I took years of trying to get it to grow in my garden and for the first time it is starting to spread.

Your garden is looking lovely but my eyesight must be failing as I can't spot Mr B at all!!
I love tulips too and had several pots last year which were gorgeous but then, owing to my illness in the Summer, never got round to replanting them for this year. Someone told me they were unlikely to come up if they went straight into the ground but seeing yours, I'm tempted to give it a try this year.
Also love lily of the valley but can't get it to take in my garden. As a child I remember great swathes of it, which we used to gather for posies to sell at our school's Spring jumble sale; they went like hot cakes.
Your anemones are beautiful too - so vibrant. Mine have vanished this year. I do have Honesty though, which like yours is mostly purple but only the few white plants I have are flowering so far. My pink Dicentra is at a similar stage to yours but the white is straggling behind. Today's weather should hopefully cheer things along.

Thanks, Tuesdaybear! The blackbird is quite hard to spot - it's one of those pictures where you look and look and then suddenly see what you're looking for (look for the little round eye.) OH couldn't see it until he'd been outside and looked at the nest! I understand lots of people have a job establishing lily of the valley, but once they succeed - watch out! The roots form a dense mat.
I haven't any white dicentra, although I always think it is more elegant than the pink.

The weather has been lovely this afternoon and we lunched outdoors, which is always such a treat. That's the second time this year, and we only managed three times altogether in 2012. I hope it's a good omen!

It is a treat to be able to eat outdoors. It has been lovely today -we managed tea and chocolate mid afternoon.

Excellent - there's nothing like it!

More tea & chocolate.
That's like it, surely? Lol.
Marvellous garden & great blog, Melchisedec!

Definitely, lol!

Thanks, Mouldy - glad you like the garden. Yours looks very promising - you have done a lot of work.

Things are starting to happen, Melchisedec, so I'm optomistic. :-)

:-)

Sorry I didn't reply to you earlier, Scotsgran. The lily of the valley was planted when my Granny was in charge of my garden, so I'm not sure how long it took to establish. Once it gets going, though, it is pretty unstoppable - in this garden, at any rate! She mentioned it in her gardening diary and how difficult it was to control - and that was in the 80s!

Clever Granny. You must have inherited some of her genes.

I'd like to think so! I certainly absorbed an awful lot of knowledge from her. I didn't realise just how much until I started gardening in earnest. I think of her so often when i am in the garden.

That is nice.

:-))

Thank you , Homebird! The garden is changing every day at this time of year.

The forsythia started out as some pea sticks supporting everlasting sweet peas which I had planted. The sweet peas disappeared without trace, but the forsythia...! I like "legging up" certain shrubs so that they end up like a standard, though the older ones tend to have more than one stem. I've done it with an old and rather unruly box, as well as self-seeded hollies and an old privet. The forsythia isn't a complete "lollipop" but I do keep it in trim as I don't want it too big.

It doesn't always work! I set about seven or eight last year along the bottom wall - about three have taken, and I'm quite pleased about that. I think sometimes they take years. I had completely forgotten about these until I realised they had sprouted! The best thing about growing them like this is that you can keep them to the size and shape you want - because it was a complete bonus, I felt free to cut it back as much as I wanted.

It was indeed - I was delighted!

What a beautiful garden!

Thank you very much, Floralhead2! I'm glad you like it.

:)