I've been trying to identify a mystery plant since it first appeared in April. There are two, the first is under The Tree and the second is by the back door at the very edge of the paving.

I've looked though loads of pictures and around the garden centres and not found anything that was remotely alike.

Now the first flower has opened and suddenly it seemed like it might be an orchid and this was quickly confirmed by a search - the leaves are right as well as the flowers.

I wouldn't like to be certain about which exact kind it is but the first one that looked similar was the northern marsh orchid which is a good possibility as I am in the North and the ground is a little damp! But anyway it seems that they are very variable so telling the different ones apart is difficult. So …

After a long dry spell it finally rained yesterday. Today even though it was not sunny it was very warm, even the wind was much warmer than it has been.

So things are rather wet and maybe growth will speed up now. The large tulip flowers were flattened by the rain, another reason to avoid this unnaturally large kind of flower. Fortunately they have flopped forwards so they are still visible. Still, I am glad they are there since they are providing one of the few large splashes of colour at the moment.

Another Geranium is out, this one is a darker pink/purple colour in the back border. This plant has spread into a reasonably large patch so I dug out a small piece and planted it at the side of the house which is lacking some interest.

The Choisya has been slowy preparing to bloom recently and it …

The first centaurea flower is just starting to open

The geranium in the right hand border has its first flower too. I am sure that when this first opened it was almost white, however today it is fairly dark pink.

Here are the chilli plants at 8 weeks after sowing.

There are side branches just about starting to grow.

On one of the bluebells it has looked for a few days as if there may be something growing from the center. It is too small for me to see properly, but with this closeup photo it does appear that a flower stalk may be growing.

I am so excited!

A planted 6 gazanias recently and now the first one has flowered. It one is red which was a bit of a surprise to me even though I was thinking "that bud looks red" while I was planting it.

They flowers only open when the sun is shining and perhaps it has to be warm enough too as this one is barely open even though it was very sunny at the time.

It is now 7 weeks after planting and the seedlings are going to be planted out.

The hardening off process was mixed, the zinnia suffered quite a bit with the leaves drying and shrivelling. The other ones seem fine. I decided to keep the basil indoors so that is not included.

Planting into the small cells was, I think, a success for the zinnia as they have seeds large enough that you can plant one or two in each cell. For the lobelia I would have preferred to plant in a larger pot, as I find that easier to pick out small bunches for planting. It worked out well enough for the Californian poppies and the petunias too.

Most of them are destined for containers and the rest will be planted directly into the ground.

Here is one of the zinnia, it has plenty of roots but its lower leaves …

In the wild flower section at the garden center I saw a meadow buttercup and realized that this was what I had growing in a few places. Now it has flowered and as you can see it really is a buttercup.