March is when our garden starts to come back to life, and that’s great as I think our garden looks best in spring. It starts with the traditional spring colours of yellow and blue - the yellow of the forsythia and the blue of the grape hyacinths. These follow the daffodils, which this year we didn’t make the most of as with what seemed cooler than usual temperatures we weren’t out in the garden as we have been in previous years. This year our daffodil spotting was mostly from our conservatory window, but this month the weather warmed a little - at times! - so there’s more photos, and we started to work in the garden on those warmer days too.
The phormium below looks a little crumpled this year, but that too has its own charm. It seems to have less ‘leaves’ than usual but does break up the ‘green-ness’ with its pink stripes, so it’s always a welcome addition. I’m hoping that the crumpled-ness is a normal thing, though this leaf looks like one of the frosts could have interfered with it.
One of the larger pruning jobs we did last year was to severely reduce the euonymus, this seems to have helped the ornamental quince as it’s full of the prettiest orange flowers. These are intertwined with the yellow pompom flowers of the kerria, a plant which has migrated from our neighbours. I like the boldness of the two colours together, but then again this shouldn’t be a surprise as orange and yellow was one of the hair colourings I experimented on before settling on, what has become, my normal pink and orange. (It looks way better than it sounds, trust me).
Elsewhere in the garden there’s other signs of new life. The cherry tree at the back of the garden - the one that was hosting the vine and the grapes last summer - also has buds ready to burst out. The blossom, which is being blown about the garden as I type this post, is white and pretty, but not as pretty or spectacular as the pink cherry blossom that people flock to Greenwich Park for.
There’s reminders of how hardy plants are. This primrose looks a little nibbled, but is steadfastly growing alongside a geranium which has died back over winter, while nestled in its pot in a sheltered part of the garden.
Just along from the pot nestled at the base of the tree with its burst of burnished yellow is the new growth of the pyracantha. Its thorns sharp and ready to make their presence known, as I teased them back to the supports on the fence, and through the wire trellis to give some privacy.
The ground at least was soft so unusually we were able to get this spiral support in for the rose closest to the house, normally I miss doing this and the rose bends forward for the light and they end up growing more horizontally than vertically, which also puts them in peril of MOH’s lawn mowing skills.
I’ve already shared photos from my garden in April, so head over there to see how things progress.