Best time of year?

It sounds so perfect

Lovely Sue - yes, definitely the best time of year. So cheering to see so many primroses, cowslips, primulas, bluebells, anemones burgeoning, and best of all the blossom!

On a morning like this.....bright sunshine ( there was frost) the daffodils are glowing against the emerald grass , the birds are singing, the trees have a gren halo in the sun.......certainly spring is the best season.....

You've described it so well Stera I can picture it, beautiful time of the year and I love it.....

Hi Sue, yes, spring holds so much promise, everything renewed and raring to go, I think it's the only season of the year that looks so fresh, by the time summer comes, it's starting to look more mellow, Derek.

Snoop - no, I think what you call Mayflowers are little pale pink ones, also called cuckoo flowers. Kingcups are like super power buttercups that grow in boggy ground. There was a field full of Mayflowers a few years ago and then the farmer sprayed it to get rid of the dandelions. Dandelions still there but Mayflowers all gone - I could weep...

We don't have dogs mercury much round here but we do have some Alexanders nearer the coast which is a bit similar.

I haven't seen any wood anemones but friend knows where there are some and has promised to show me - but I do have a few of the blue ones under my little magnolia - wanted some for years so am thrilled!

Great time of year & boy, aren't we having nice weather!
Wish it would rain in the night though, as very dry at moment & even the primroses wilt a bit.

Wonderful description, Stera. Last week I was in the country park next to my eldest's new home. Wood anemones and celandines abounded. I have the blue ones, but no white, even though they have been promised by the pictures on the packets ? The sight of them took me right back to my childhood in wildest Surrey!

Hi Melchi! I'm still hoping to see out local wood anemones, I haven't found them yet. But I do love the blue ones. Mine have spread a bit - now in their third year and I love them. (I only bought one, in flower at a plant fair, so half a dozen flowers in the third year isn't bad.

No - that's very good. I find they spread very quickly, setting lots of seed quite early. I love them too. The white ones are so elegant, though.

Surrprisingly I was reading only a couple of days ago that the wild ones spread very slowly and a large patch is a sign on an old wood - so I expected that the blue ones would be slow too. They can spread as much as they like for me!

I remember them covering the ground in light mixed woodland in Surrey. I saw them again just a week ago in a country park just north of Doncaster. Such lovely flowers! I have been delighted by the blue ones I planted from bulbs just three years ago - they really have taken off. I still covet the white ones, though.

Everything comes to him who waits, or so they say...

Hi Sue, well I've been waiting to win the lottery jackpot for about 23 years, I'm still waiting lol, Derek.

If you'd saved up all the money you spent on tickets all that time you could have had a nice holiday with the savings...

Yes, you're right there Sue, but saving 23 years for a holiday ?, we used to put £12 per week on, but halved it when the price doubled, which I think a lot of people must have done, because the jackpot amount hasn't changed very much, I think it's gone down a bit if anything, it's nice to dream though, Derek.

But you would have had about £15 000 in the bank by now at £12 per week! Plus interest.

We used to do a prize crossword every week and when we got it all right we put the price of a stamp in a jar instead of sending it in. When there was enough we used to go and buy ourselves a book, so every so often we had the equivalent of the book token prize they were offering - and it was definite!

Just call me Mrs Miser....

OK Mrs Miser, too late now Sue, I don't think I'll get the chance of another 23 years, unless I live to be 90 like my father, Derek.

Sue, I'm a bit late but the description you gave was beautiful. I do so agree about this time of year and now my cherry trees & Lilacs are in full blossom. About 3 years ago a friend gave me 3 cowslip plants grown from seed and this year loads - have seeded themselves all around the pond paths. Just lovely! The anemones (white and blue) also had spread and seeded themselves in other parts of garden. I really like the pure white nemorosa.

I love cowslips too, but haven't got any. there are some wild ones around though. I love the blue nemorosa - they look great under the Stellata, though both have finished now. I bought a miniature cherry, Kojo no mai, that is supposed to grow to only 5 feet, but the flowers are tiny in proportion. I haven;t got a pink one - they are beautiful.

Derek, sorry to be miserly - comes of being brought up a bit short of the ready I guess - that and being born a Yorkshire woman...
My father lived to be 91 as well but his last year wasn't very pleasant. I just want to live long enough to see the garden mature a bit - we have always had to move before anything grew much, which was very frustrating.
Just hope I'll still be capable of looking after it!

Hi Sue, only following instructions, not connected to your Yorkshire roots, lol.
I don't think I've ever had a plant grow to maturity, I always seem to get fed up of them way before that happens, maybe one day, Derek.

Gosh Derek, can you give me some lessons in ruthlesness? I go on trying to save poor little struggling specimens - a bit like the executioner in the Mikado - "I can't kill anything" (except slugs...) I can give away a plant I don't want but can't just put it on the compost when its healthy! Probably why my garden isn't as impressive as most on here.

Hi Sue, I think your garden is quite impressive,[I've een the photo's] more impressive than mine anyway.
It's not being ruthless Sue, it's just that I get fed up with the same plants every year, that must be why I used to grow hundreds of annuals every year, you can ring the changes with them, Derek.

But what a lot of work they are....Remember my photos are only of selected bits - you can't see the rest!

Hi Sue, yes they are a lot of work, that's why I changed over to perennials, but I still like the idea of different things each year, just not the work, and from the photo's I've seen, I can't believe the rest of the garden isn't in the same condition, Derek.

I love the honesty on here, lol, I have my yard, dogrun and cubby behind the conifers near the bottom pond, rarely photographed, who needs compost bins, log piles and any number of buckets, wheelbarrows and bits-n-bobs that will come in useful one day in their pics, LOL....
I used to have loads of annuals to sort every year, still grow too many really but actually only use a few around my borders as gap fillers, the rest go in containers, I have been introducing more perennials in recent years and was relieved a couple of years back when I had my gammy knee and couldn't kneel at all, my garden fared very well that summer, I decided I like the cottage effect in the two bigger beds, still cannot kneel very well so tend to keep it that way, now admit my garden is a lot easier to manage, although not according to my family but what do they know, its me that does it, lol......

I am very interested to hear your comments about annuals and perennials. I now have more perennials than before, and love to see the borders fill up towards summer. I confess I usually forget what's there until it appears. I still use annuals in containers, and perhaps a few surplus ones in the borders, but even some of the containers are becoming semi-permanent, with a few annuals tucked in. I do agree with you, though, Stera - I can't bear to dispose of a living plant, so there are a few weedy specimens lovingly but perhaps unwisely preserved! But that, after all, is one of the things that gives a garden character. (So I tell myself, anyway!)

Melchi, Character certainly, but I'm not sure what character mine betrays!

Derek you have only seen the best bits at the best time of year, believe me! Perhaps it would be fun one day for us all to photograph our horrible bits!

Lincs I'm sure we all have our scruffy corners. My problem is I can't visualise what would look good so I have to wait and see, so what should take one season can take years!
Have you got one of those nifty kneeler things that you can heave yourself up with, turn over and sit on? I found mine in a second hand shop!

A confessional reveal of scruffy corners sounds fun, Stera! But are we brave enough? ?

I will if you will - could run and run! (But am having trouble uploading pics at the moment - OH can upload them onto his laptop and then email them to me but he doesn't like being asked to do a lot at once!)

I might just take up the challenge, Steragram. My only problem will be trying to choose which messy bit to display!

We don't mind long blogs Melchi! It might encourage all of us - we see so much perfection on here I bet we all have places we feel a bit guilty about.

Ok, Stera - you're on!

Cross your fingers that OH will have the patience to download them and email them to me then!

How frustrating for you that you can't just upload photos yourself. I have got so used to using the iPad now that I find myself hopelessly lost trying to use Windows 8 - which I hadn't got to grips with anyway - but when anything goes wrong it is infuriating. Have you googled the problem? I usually find an answer to most glitches that way.

I have Linux not Windows - everything is free there and the software is similar to what Window was before it went silly. I thought our son had solved the problem last time he visited but it seems not. Will try again and give him a ring if it still won't work.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!

Thanks Melchi!