After an extremely wet winter the garden is still too wet to get any work done properly. The grass is very long and lush but the ground still too wet to walk on in areas. None the less Spring is underway and plants are growing. The daffodils have been a joy. I must remember to get more early varieties however. On dismal days they lift the mood.

When I moved here I inherited a lot of daffodils growing on my hedge (this is Cornwall – a hedge is an earth bank here). Slowly I am managing to identify some of the varieties. They all seem to be pre 1920. The small cup varieties like this one I find very difficult to identify. The differences seem to be very small. However I count myself very lucky since there is a huge range on the hedge. Many very delicate and pretty. And they flower over a very long season starting with the very old ‘Van Sion’ and ‘Glowing Phoenix’ and ending with the small cup varieties.

Now in late March my double primroses are really starting to flower well. This is an old variety ‘Quaker’s Bonnet’ – the old one’s don’t tend to have so many flowers as the modern varieties but they have a lot more charm and I treasure them. I have several newly bred double primroses this year. They are all sold bred by David Kerley famous for his trademark Belarina range of double primroses. I think many of them are extremely good. I have always loved ‘Belarina Cream’ which has a lovely fresh look to it and is trouble free in cultivation. Another favourite of mine is ‘Delft Blue’. David says it is too leafy because he is aiming for wow-factor in the garden centres. In fact it makes it much easier to place in the garden.

Amongst David’s recent releases have been ‘Blue Champion’ and ‘Baltic Blue’. ‘Baltic Blue’ is a very nice shade of blue. I think all the blue double primroses are lovely – and I do have quite a few different varieties – so I am looking forward to seeing how well this one does.

There is so much going on in the garden and I tend to spend time enjoying it (or working in it) and forget about adding to this but I will try harder to share photos this year.