The blackbirds have gone to bed well fed today! There is a female blackbird who has taken to following me around very closely so she can benefit from my weeding. Very bravely she comes right in my my feet to see what there is in the soil I have disturbed. A male with a white wing feather stands a bit further off, while the robin perches on my wheelbarrow to keep an eye on things. It has been so very wet this winter and much of the garden is too sloppy for any work to be done. But the sun today was too good (and too rare!) to be missed.

The hellebores are starting to flower nicely although my very pale yellow one has been in flower since just after Christmas. There have been double primroses in flower for weeks too. I think the snowdrops are looking very good this year. The clumps of named varieties are really standing out and inside the gate the little groups of double snowdrops are looking very pretty under the horse chestnut trees. Last year I planted several more hamamelis and I am very pleased with them. ‘Orange Peel’ has been looking lovely in the courtyard where I pass it everytime I walk my dog. The well established ‘pallida’ is fantastic at the moment; its shade of yellow is vibrant and very welcome at this rather gloomy time of year. ‘Arnold Promise’ is yet to flower but is well-covered with buds – I can’t wait. I think I need to plant more hamamelis; they are well worth it. I need to see some colour in the garden when all too often the days are just grey. That is why I love to see daffodils. ‘Rijnveld’s Early Sensation’ starts to flower either just before Christmas Day or a day or two after. I plant a few more bulbs every year! The first of the dwarf narcissus in the raised bed beside the drive are just getting ready to flower. I have quite a few daffodils in pots so I can decide exactly where I want to plant them – its always difficult in the Autumn to know where there is space to plant bulbs! You can never have too many daffodils.

The dreadfully wet winter and spring have pretty much defeated me! So much of the garden has been frequently under water – it is impossible to weed or do any garden work when its like that. I am glad to say that most of my peonies have not worried at all about the weather; they are lucky to be in the better part of the garden! And in fact, the cool weather has meant that flowering is holding on well. there are still plenty of buds to come and already there has been three weeks of flowers in the peony garden. The Kelway’s varieties are doing especially well. ‘Beersheba’ has been superb. This one is a big favourite of mine, ‘King of England’, named for King Edward VII.

Pity the group who came to see the peonies on a day when there was deluge after deluge of rain. At least it wasn’t as windy as the previous day had been but many of the peonies were flattened.

Conditions have made garden work very slow and I have admitted that I need help, so Annette is coming in every week to help. I think it has been a shock to her to find what slow work my heavy soil is – and she has had an allotment for years so is no stranger to hard work. She is still smiling however which is a good sign. Let hope that between us we will make some progress soon!

An unbelievably wet start to the New Year. It seems to have been nothing but gales and driving rain recently. But still plants carry on quite happily. Its not a surprise to see Narcissus ‘Rijnveld’s Early Sensation’ in flower before the turn of the year but I was surprised to see the tazetta ‘Cuscarne’. There is quite a lot going on around the garden. Camellias – transnokoensis and grijsii as well as a double white hybrid are flowering. C. transnokoensis is a real favourite of mine. The lovely Daphne I bought from Junkers in the Spring seems to be settling in nicely. Lots of lovely white fragrant flowers. Its one of their own breeding called ‘Cobhay Snow’. Hellebores are just getting started and all the usual early snowdrops are out. I have started a short Spring Walk along the bottom of the garden partly because I wanted somewhere to plant more Hamamelis. I was able to use some of the good soil from my huge weed heap that was opened up when I had a small digger in to remove some hedging. I think this may become quite an interesting area. Hellebores and daffodils have been planted and for later in the year some species peonies.

Now I am looking forward to better weather so I can get on with weeding and getting the garden ready for the new gardening year.

Since the middle of June when it was shaping up to be a very hot dry summer, it has actually done little but rain! There are a lot of hedges in the garden because I do like the structure they provide. However, wet weather doesn’t help when I need to get them trimmed. It has been a long slow job this year. At last they are done – for now anyway – and I am turning my attention to the other jobs in the garden. Always need to be weeding but I also need to trim the box topiary. My bunnies in particular have got rather fat! They are quite troublesome because getting the ears into a satisfactory shape has been a challenge. One in particular has a nasty habit of resembling Marge Simpson. This week they all had a nice grooming session and are looking a lot better I think!

Weather conditions have been challenging for the garden. After a cold and quite wet winter, Spring was dry and hot turning some of the ground like concrete and shortening the flowering season for the peonies. There have been losses in the garden and wind damage. A very large piece of a huge multi-stemmed willow in the middle of the garden snapped in the wind in early July. This effectively lost the centre of the plant. Once it was removed I could see adjacent stems were dangerously weakened and had to go too. The end result was not as bad as I expected and there is much more space and light for surrounding plants. The willow has huge roots and is planted on top of a spring that makes that part of the garden extremely wet so aside from its decorative function it makes quite a contribution to the garden.

I was very pleased in the Spring to see how well the pink Camassia are establishing themselves and also how well the Primula sieboldii flowered. My new shade garden is giving me a lot of pleasure. And I gained an enthusiasm for Hamamelis which led to me buying several new varieties. They are slow to grow but lovely to see in flower in the Spring.

What a worry the last couple of months have been. And what a surprise. It had been a fairly wet winter and certainly there was rain until the end of June. So it was a shock to see how quickly plants started to suffer. It is a real pleasure therefore to see some recovery now there has been a little rain. The primroses are putting out lovely, new fresh green leaves, and, although they will need to be divided this Autumn, I don’t need to fret so much about them now.

The peonies were flowering very well until the later blooms, particularly the double flowers, got spoiled by rain. You see there is always either too much rain, or too little, or its at the wrong time! Yesterday I was measuring the pre-First World War herbaceous peony beds to work out which one could be most effectively enlarged to take more plants. I had a very good summer in terms of finding more varieties of herbaceous peonies bred by Kelways. Now I shall have a busy Autumn getting divisions and getting them planted – there is still space in the beds for the Kelways peonies (I am glad to say). I meet lovely people during my search for the old peonies: many very kind people who love their plants and want to ensure they have a future. And I have made many new friends during my quest. So the peonies bring me joy in many ways: beautiful flowers of course, and knowing that they will be conserved for the future, and the connections and memories they each have attached to them.

Although not entered by me, Paeonia ‘Gleam of Light’ won the judges’ choice in the Threatened Plant of the Year competition run by Plant Heritage at Hampton Court. It was my photo of my plant that had been entered so there was double pleasure. Pleasure for Ros who entered it, and pleasure for me to have been able to help her. My plant is a division that Ros gave me and since her plant wasn’t in flower early enough for her to meet the deadline for entries I was able to help her with a photograph.

Another new year! Lets hope it will be a healthy and happy one. The garden is waking up very early due to the very mild weather and on New Year’s Day there was a lot in flower around the garden. A lot of the double primroses were trying hard but looking bedraggled after all the rain. Galanthus ‘Faringdon Double’ had already gone over having been out for most of December. I started with one bulb of the snowdrop about four years ago (from the Nerine and Amaryllid Society bulb exchange) and there were at least eleven flowers in the clump this year.

Galanthus ‘Mrs MacNamara’ was in flower on New Year’s Day. This is an early flowering variety that was named after Dylan Thomas’ mother-in-law. There are a lot more snowdrops showing through the ground already. G. ‘Margaret Owen’ has increased very well and may be the next in flower. She is planted in the same flower bed as the snowdrop named after her husband, ‘Godfrey Owen’ – an exceptionally lovely flower.

I have been planting early flowering varieties of daffodils in the past couple of years and they are showing through too. I have buds on Narcissus ‘Rijnveld’s Early’. I planted them in the Autumn but I was late getting them in. I shall have to wait another year before they settle into really early flowering.

The quiet week between Christmas and New Year is a good time to pause and think about what needs to be done in the garden. I am removing things that I planted 15 years ago and just aren’t pulling their weight and changing things to try and make less work for myself! This is an extremely wet garden so thinking about where things are planted is important. Not just whether it will be too wet for them to grow in that ground but also, whether at this time of year when it is too wet to walk across much of the grass, they will get seen at all. White flowers show their worth at this time of year since they show up from a distance. A few white hellebores at the end of a path that I can see from the house, the indefatigable double white primrose, ‘Petticoat’ that I have used to edge a flower bed at the top of the same path, not in flower yet but a good big group of Galanthus ‘Wasp’ which can be seen from the downstairs lavatory window. Realistically that is how the garden will be most enjoyed at this time of year.

A few things like Hamamelis ‘Pallida’ are enough to draw me down to the other end of the garden to see them and do brighten up the dull days around New Year. At its feet is the long flowering polyanthus primula, ‘June Blake’ a cheerful yellow flower. A lot of the yellow double primroses are in flower: ‘Sunshine Susie’ always in flower in December, and several of the excellent Belarina range. ‘Belarina Goldie’ was a new one last year which is impressing me. It is growing into a very neat plant with golden yellow double flowers backed by a little ruff of a leafy calyx – a jack-in-the-green double. And of course, best of all, the wild primroses are starting to flower. My wild jack-in-the-green primrose is also flowering. I have planted this in an area under an old Cornish hedge along with different varieties of the native Hart’s Tongue ferns. Both plants that you find growing naturally in the hedges around here but the more unusual forms of those plants. They look completely right but a bit more interesting than usual.

My garden diary seems to be a moan about weather. Its never right is it! The Spring has been unusually dry. All the rain has skirted around me. This hasn’t saved the garden from strong wind though. The dry weather backed up by drying wind meant the daffodils went over quickly and the primrose season which started promisingly seemed to be short.

The peony beds are looking fantastic however. The young growth on herbaceous peonies is just so beautiful. The foliage varies from variety to variety so there are all sorts of shade of pink, red and purple. Some are beetroot red, one I noticed as I was weeding was dark red shot through with magenta. Glorious! Another’s shoots came through the brightest pink looking really startling against the soil. Never say but they only flower for a few weeks. They are things of beauty for months on end.

My great excitement has been spotting buds on a variety I got five years ago. I felt unsure whether it was correctly labelled or not. This year at last I have buds. I am on tenterhooks! There is nothing more exciting perhaps than seeing the first flower on a plant and being able to verify its identity – and when I have waited so long, imagine!

The last day of January already! It has been a very wet start to the year so less has been achieved than I would like. A peony bed has been extended ready for more planting and some heavy duty pruning has helped tidy up the courtyard. Fuschia ‘Hawkshead’ is a lovely dainty white hardy fuschia. It is now about seven feet tall and taking up considerable space. Cutting into branches that were easily four inches diameter I could only muse that it seems like yesterday that I planted it! I have also removed a Holboellia and a lot of ivy from a stone wall. These are about the only jobs I can do with the ground so wet. I should have kept on top of the ivy which has now become a big job and the Holboellia had outgrown its welcome several years ago already. Now my problem is that I have a huge sodden bonfire heap too wet to light! But the snowdrops are in flower (this one is ‘Bess’) and the first daffodils coming out. More than anything daffodils raise my spirits and turn my thoughts to Spring.

After a wonderful summer of peonies that have flowered better than ever, the garden is moving into Autumn. Hard work has been underway this year weeding the flower beds and cutting the hedges ; it has been possible to get into some of the ignored corners which now look much better. A thicket of winter honeysuckle has been cleared giving the alba roses that were being elbowed out a chance to flourish again. Jobs like that always prove to be more work than expected but its very satisfying when its done. Now I need to get on quickly with jobs like mulching the beds with well-rotted manure because already the ground is so wet after recent rain that repeated journeys with the wheel barrow turn it to a quagmire.

I have had some success in my search for Kelway’s herbaceous peonies, although it is very sad how many seem to be lost. I have just returned from a round Britain tour with my spade in the car collecting some that have been kept safe in gardens. People are very, very kind. A huge thank you to Michelle Cain, head gardener at NT Sissinghurst, Amy at NT Anglesey Abbey, Sophie and Sarah at Chatsworth and all the private gardeners who have given me plants. Some of the peonies need to flower so I can verify their identity; lockdown put paid to my intention to go and see them in June. But my fingers are crossed that they will prove to be correct. There must also be a very special thank you to Prague Botanic Gardens. This is a very conservation minded institution staffed by very kind people. Definitely a place to visit if you ever get the chance. I am a step closer to my aim of creating a National Collection of herbaceous peonies bred by Kelways but the hunt goes on!