Spring colour!

Remember those bulb lasagnes I planted in the autumn? Well they've only gone and grown. And flowered too. And they're providing lots of spring colour near the house, along with my baby Forsythia you can see in the background of the first photo. I think it's fair to say they worked.

So far the red tulips have won the tulip race - there's also some dark purple and more orangey tulips in each pot, and I'm waiting for those to start flowering. The miniature daffodils are very cute and I'm also pleased with the anemones, which I plan to have in other parts of the garden too.

All around our garden there seems to be colour too. More colour than I remembered last year, but I might just be imagining that. The ornamental quince has burst into life - this one's done really well as it got quite a severe pruning as I dug out lots of holly out that was growing up through it. It seems to be grateful.

ORNAMENTAL QUINCE

ORNAMENTAL QUINCE

CURRANT BERRY

CURRANT BERRY

HONESTY

HONESTY

FORSYTHIA

FORSYTHIA

And there seems to be colour of almost every shade in the garden - the pink of the Currant Berry, the purple of the Honesty (some of which I moved and it's still flowering - phew!), the yellow of the Forsythia and the bluebells are just starting too. And so are the ferns, I managed to give most of them a tidy, removing last year's leaves and revealing those that are just waiting to unfurl.

The Mint is marching on, it's supposed to be a foot or so further back in the border but wants to be at the front - it looks like I'll be battling that this year to get it growing where it's allowed. The primulas are still flowering, but some are starting to look a little tired - and I'm not surprised as they started flowering in August.

My Hellebore has done well this year too, there's been the beautiful flowers which are now setting seed.  There's a couple of smaller plants nearby too and I've noticed many more seedlings already growing so I could be very lucky next year.  The Peonies are growing up behind them and the shoots have grown to nearly 30cm high quickly - I'm hoping I may get some flowers on them this year.

The willow pear, pear tree and cherry tree are in blossom, and there's still more to come from these. I've got a while yet before I try and outwit the pigeons in the Battle of the Cherries - they won last year, so I really do think it's my turn...

WILLOW PEAR

WILLOW PEAR

CHERRY

CHERRY

SUN, BLUE SKIES AND CHERRY BLOSSOM

SUN, BLUE SKIES AND CHERRY BLOSSOM

It's so nice to see things bursting into life again, and for the weather to be so lovely. It's been great to get out into the garden and potter around and into the greenhouse and plant some seeds. There's also a lot of bird activity in our garden; the Blackbirds, Tits and Robins are holding their own against the fat pigeons who waddle through the garden, competing with the squirrels for territory on the grass.  You wouldn't think sometimes this is South East London!

And last week remember I said I was getting fed up of waiting for my red camellia to flower, well clearly it was listening and this week that too has burst into life. Don't you just love Spring?