Its been a wet week with more rain than in the whole of May. In one way this is good as most of my plants don't tolerate dry soil and the previous dry spells this year and last have made me wonder if I've made a mistake.

The temperature has been low too so not much growth either but the flowers that are already out are probably lasting longer, at least where they are not damaged by the rain.

So here is my selection of six things in the garden today.

Here is the link to today's Six on Saturday at The Propagator blog, if you want to join in or just see more gardens around the world.

1. Orchid

This orchid was already in the garden, it may be wild as these kind of orchids grow around here.

This year I was very excited to see that there was …

It has rained a fair bit over the week and everything is growing very well all of a sudden. All the gaps that I was thinking would need filling are vanishing!

Not great weather for taking pictures today, but here goes with another Six on Saturday.

1 Monster Lupin

A pack of four Lupins bought from the range last year. The one with the most interesting colours did not survive, I gave one away (which is doing well). The smallest one from last year has come back much larger and has about five flowers at the moment.

But here is the largest one, with an astonishing number of flowers this year. I planted two new ones next to it, which I thought were well spaced, but are really a bit too close given how big it has grown. You can see the blue flower to the left of L. 'Persian …

Comparison with previous years

You can read the round up from 2018 or 2017.

It may be that the dry conditions last year had a knock affect affected the plants that normally flower around this time as several displays were worse than last year.

Growth might be slightly behind last year in a few cases.

Flowering

Tulips

The Tulipa flowered quite late and were there for a good part of the month.

Polygonatum

This grows in a part of the garden that is not particularly shady and is still doing well. I may move it as this is a prime sunny spot for plants that will appreciate it.

Daffodils

By a happy accident I received these daffodils instead of the early flowering ones that I ordered. They were very successful as each bulb produced a couple of flowering stems and some of those stems had more than one flower. So …

A useful amount of rain this week and although it was cold there was no frost. Today I planted all the plants that have been waiting until I dug up the next area of lawn which I completed last weekend. It now looks like it will be dry for a while, so I will probably have to water the new plants until they are established.

I'm quite pleased that there is no gap this year between the early spring flowers and the main summer flowers, I still have daffodils and tulips out and the next round of flowers are already beginning to bloom.

Here is this weeks Six on Saturday, six things in the garden today, see the Propagator blog for a whole heap of other Sixes.

1 Tulipa 'Ballade'

This is the final tulip to flower for me. It has lasted well, perhaps as it hasn't been so warm …

You can compare with 2018 or 2017

The month started with a small covering of snow on the 3rd. There were 3 days when the temperature dropped below zero (which is more than February which only had one) with a minimum of -1.5C and the maximum temperature was 23C over the Easter weekend. So a very mixed month weather-wise. Not a lot of rain, only 2.8cm recorded on 9 days.

Flowering

Daffodils and tulips were the main focus of the month. I am pleased with the new ones I chose last year.

Here is Tulipa schrenkii

Three 'Orange brilliant' and two 'Cape cod' tulips. These returned from last year. These were the only two of the 'Cape cod' that flowered this year, and the leaves are being eaten just like last year, this may be why they are not doing well.

The double tulips that I planted when …

Six on Saturday is hosted by The Propagator blog and here are my six this week. Lovely warm day here so getting this out quickly.

1 Daffodils

I don't know what these are, they are supposed to be 'February gold' but those are all yellow. So they could be 'February silver' which might be the easy mistake to make, but since they are so late flowering they could be just something else entirely.

The trumpets are a pale yellow when they first open and they later darken to a creamy orange. Some of the stems have two flowers although most are single.

I like them so am not complaining, and in fact I was somewhat wishing that I had picked another kind. They early flowering was the main attraction.

2. Tulipa schrenkii

All three of these are now out. Possibly my favorite.

3. Brunnera macrophylla 'Hadspen cream'

This is looking …

Today it reached 17C which is the warmest day this year, tomorrow is likely to be warmer still. I started wonerdering how many warmest days there will be this year. So far there have been 9: on the 4 Jan 2019, 6 Jan 2019, 7 Jan 2019, 15 Feb 2019, 21 Feb 2019, 22 Feb 2019, 20 Mar 2019, 21 Mar 2019 and today.

There are several of the second set of daffodils now out. These are supposed to be N. 'February gold', but they are clearly not. When these first open they have a lemony yellow center, which then turns to a creamy orange. There are also a case where a single stem has two flowers, although they are mostly single.

The photo also shows all three of the Tulipa schrenkii and one of my Tiarella 'Spring symphony'.

All of the Tulipa kolpakowskiana at the back are now open …

Originally there was some Lonicera hedging in the shape of a cube. I cut it right back to a line of shrubs at the front of the right border. I've always been meaning to remove this and transfer it somewhere else, probably to replace the Laurel in the front garden.

I finally dug it up today, it is in temporary accommodation at the moment and will be moved once I've cut down more of the laurel.

The Geum 'Totally tangerine' was too near the path and it is also overshadowing the Nerines, so I chopped it up and moved it further back. The other pieces have been planted in different places to see how they do. They can be removed if the space is needed.

The Physostegia virginiana 'Crystal peak' needed to be moved forward because it is a short variety, so it is now nearer the path. It hasn't …