They also serve

As my old pal John Milton said when his sight was failing: "They also serve who only stand and wait."  In life in my back garden there is a lot of standing or sitting and even lying and waiting.  Sometimes life comes to those who wait and if I was a better photographer I could show you the wren that was working its way through my garden; the female blackbird who stood only a foot away from me for ages while eyeing up then picking up worms; and the two kittens who decided to use the space for a territorial dog fight.  But I am not a better photographer, so here are some of the less dramatic aspects of life today.

I am sure that these flower buds only appeared today on the daffodils Narcissus jonquilla 'Sailboat' as the stems only stood and waited in the sun.












As I watched my first bumble bee of the year heating up on a primula I also noticed the leaves of Anemone Blanda 'White Splendour' had appeared

However, it was only after taking the picture that I noticed the flower buds tucked under the leaves as well.


(Why this picture decided to upload itself on its side I do not know and I can't find a way to rotate it)











A fellow member of the Ranunculaceae family of plants is Aquilegia also known as Columbine or, indeed, Granny's Bonnets.

I find the emerging foliage of this one particularly attractive.  It is Aquilegia viridiflora 'Chocolate Soldier' which I grew from seed sown in April 2013.  They didn't do much last year but I am hoping they will flower this year.  The species originates from Siberia, this variety was introduced in 1902 and the flowers are supposed to be scented.  I continue to wait patiently for these.






The plastic greenhouse cover that was blown to shreds in the wind has been replaced and today I planted 70 corms of  the North American Gayfeather Liatris spicata in 70 small pots to start them into growth to delight the bees in the summer.  Just you wait and see.

Other things that appear to be only standing and waiting but are actually working hard include:

Myosotis 'Royal Blue' - Forget-Me-Not
Seed grown, the winter got rid of the mildew that threatened them in autumn.

Myrrhis odorata - Sweet Cicely
Must remember to remove those Sycamore seedlings.

Silene dioica - Red Campion
Fox and Cubs Pilosella aurantiaca in the background
One day, a wildflower haven this shall be.

Little Robin (maybe) Geranium purpureum
Amid runners of Bugle Ajuga reptans 'Braunherz'

Snakes Head Fritillary Fritillaria meleagris in sunken pots
Ox-Eye Daisy Leucanthemum vulgaris in the grown
Daffodil Narcissus 'Fortune' reaching for the sky

But it is not all waiting.  Something's are very definitely happening.  Another Siberian plant, the beautiful blue Scilla siberica is flowering nicely today:

The species daffodil, Narcissus lobularis, is more subtle than its highly cultivated cousins but no less enchanting for all that:

But, you could say they too are only standing and waiting.  Waiting to be pollinated or for the flowers to fade so they can set seed and/or return back to the bulb for the summer. Maybe Milton was only half right for we are all only standing and waiting . . . and serving.

Meanwhile, here's a daisy: Bellis perennis.:)  Have fun.

Cheering Me Home

Today I remembered what I have decided, forgotten and remembered a number of times before: that my most favourite place in this whole wide world is my own back garden.  There are bigger and bolder and better.  There are classier and cleaner and colourful....er.  But when I get off my backside inside and sit on my backside outside in the garden for a while it's like my body begins to absorb all the life around me. The growing plants are celebrating life both because and in spite of everything it brings them.  And I begin to feel that there really is nowhere else on earth I would rather be.

So, here are some of the plants that cheer me just now when I arrive home and take the time to look beyond my own internal little world.

The red tulips of Tulipa kaufmanniana 'Show Winner' are at the end of the drive and are making me smile on each homecoming just now.










The daffodil Narcissus 'Jet Fire' with its orange trumpet at around ten inches has just begun opening in the last few days and is one of my favourites.

Meanwhile the Narcissus 'January' is at last beginning to flower - though I remain a little sceptical of its name it is proving to be a little gem nonetheless.

Tulipa kaufmanniana 'Johann Strauss' opened in the full sun today and looks stunning to my eye.







More subtle but no less cheering is the sweet violet, Viola odorata, which came from Beth Chatto's Garden, surrounded by the blue Siberian Squill which is just opening up now; Scilla sibirica.

Even these bulbs can throw up an unexpected surprise - in this case a white form has burst forth amongst the blue - or is it?

Crocuses are still delighting me too.

Crocus tommasinianus 'Barr's Purple'



















Crocus x cultorum 'Pickwick'










I read today an article that said if one wanted the contrast of blue and green in a lungwort in one's garden one shouldn't use that old fuddy duddy Pulmonaria angustifolia 'Munstead Blue.'  Too late, I already have but it doesn't look fuddy duddy to me:

Of course, the days are extending and this spring light cheers my soul as well.

Shining through the leaves of the Tulipa fosteriana which should come into flower in April.

Shining through the emerging leaves of the shrub Spiraea japonica 'Goldflame' which came from New Hopetoun Gardens.  Please forgive the wind torn plastic greenhouse in the background.

Shining through the sedge Carex buchananii - perhaps you can understand why I can't just yet bring myself to trim it even though there will be new growth in there just wanting to get going.

Shining down the side path illuminating the Narcissus 'Jetfire' mentioned before and the smaller Narcissus 'Tete-a-Tete' in front of them.

And casting a mysterious shadow across the back garden.

This garden is my home and I love it.

Three cheers . . . 

Tulips from Backwardland

Scotland is a backward land for I have been watching the spring delights emerging elsewhere in these here British Isles often weeks ahead of any action in my own garden.  Today that changed when I came home to find my first Tulip open - a cultivar of a species tulip.

Tulipa kaufmanniana 'Show winner'

I confess it gave my heart a little thrill when I saw it.  However, I am no less excited by the flowering of the hellebores even if some of them are a few weeks behind everyone else:

I think, though, my favourite spot in the garden is here as each time I look something new is happening and today I am impressed by the gently spreading blue flowers of Pulmonaria angustifolia 'Munstead Blue'.  This came here as a young plant that had been raised at Alnwick in Northumberland and is now in its second year.  In the foreground you can just make out a winter aconite (Eranthis hyemalis) beginning to open its yellow flower.  So while this may be a backward land we always seem to get there in the end - wherever there is.

Like an angel passing

I have a great love of profound and complex music: previously I referred to The Sound of Music and today I reference the work of Abba.  For like angels passing through my room the beauties of the plants in my gardens can sometimes be so fleeting that if you do not pause and linger awhile to see then you might miss them altogether.

First daffodil: Narcissus 'Tete-a-tete'

The miniature Iris I referred to in a previous post did indeed flower in February - and already they are beginning to go over.

Iris reticulata

The delicate ephemera of life grabs our attention first: Primula, Galanthus nivalis , and Crocus tommassinianus - even the seedling of a foxglove, Digitalis purpurea, will this year increase its rosette, put up a majestic flower spike then die casting its seed in its thousands across the ground.

While in the background the evergreen and long-lived constants are barely noticed: Yew (Taxus baccata - the oldest of which in Scotland is older than Christianity) and Irish Ivy (Hedera hibernica).

Towering above all this is the bare Sycamore doing that dead man fingering the sky thing - and yet this Acer pseudoplatanus is far from dead.


My garden is littered with thousands of its seeds which shall need picking for many months to come and just when you think you have them all you will spot another crowd of seedlings that will seem to have come up overnight - and, hey, maybe they did.


And the leaf litter it creates and which I have saved in a wire mesh cage can build and sustain the structure of the soil and the millions of organisms that thrive within it.



Although I have plenty of spring things still just showing their tips above the soil there is the odd person that thinks it must be summer.  This Pink is part of something called The Early Bird Series, but really . . .

Dianthus 'Rebekah'

...while here we have a a daffodil called Narcissus 'January' which I am told is a very early flower - usually in January, strangely enough.

And so spring progresses.  Only, this morning I woke up to this:

Have I slept through three seasons and found myself back in winter again?  I don't know but I think Abba can tell me: