I got four Tiarella plants of three different varieties, two of the variety "Spring symphony", and one each of "Pink skyrocket" and "Sugar and Spice".

Two are already planted, first the Pink skyrocket is next to the Brunnera.

and second, one of the Spring symphony. It is blending into the background with those very brown leaves.

I kept finding bulbs when looking for somewhere to plant, so I am going to wait a bit before planting the other two and see where there is a good space.

Bought and planted some primrose over the weekend.

The first two are outside the back door.

The second three are in the right border near the Lobelia. I didn't mean to plant them all in a line, I may have to get another one to complete the group...

Last year I bought and planted some snowdrops in early March after it was clear that there were not any already present. I was also given quite a few bulbs which I planted in various places and then promptly forgot exactly where.

This year I didn't see any appearing so just in case I bought some along with some Primula and Tiarella. Here are the ones I just planted.

I was particularly worried that the ones that I'd planted last year were not going to re-appear, but I do believe that they are starting to grow. They are very small, a little below the center of the picture.

There are more more all around the left border area, the ones in the first picture are almost in flower.

I wasn't sure if I would have anything for today, but I took some photos and there happens to be six that are reasonably in focus so here goes.

1 Foxgloves

There were many of these by the side of the house last year. I am assuming that they are foxgloves and that they be will be flowering this year.

2 Sedum

I thought this looked rather colourful.

3 Sidalcea

To my great surprise some of the buds have opened out somewhat. During the cold spell, the flower spike drooped, but it is now straightened up again.

4 Euphorbia

I don't much like this, but it is preparing to flower so will provide a bit of colour soon. By colour I mean green.

5 Lobelia

Both my hardy Lobelias are putting up new growth already. Here is the Starship scarlet.

6 What's this?

It looks like a Californian poppy to …

An unusual December as it has already snowed twice. The ground was frozen for the best part of a week on the first occasion.

Snow on the Sedum

Salvia hardiness

According to the RHS Salvia Hot lips is rated H5 so should survive even severe winters. It has indeed survived so far.

Again according to the RHS the "Wendy's wish" variety has a hardiness rating of H3 and so it may have survived a milder winter here. It is deciduous but given the sudden leaf death after the cold spell I suspect it is not going to make it.

I also believed that I had seen that "Radio red" was also rated at H3 but after checking just before writing this, I was mistaken about that - there is no rating currently on the RHS site for it. Its label when I bought it did say that it was half hardy …

It snowed yesterday and there is still a covering over most of the garden - well there was when I took the pictures, but it has all gone now now that I am writing this up.

So here goes for the final Six on Saturday for the year. It turned out that I had more than 6 things that I wanted to include for a change even though it is late in the year.

1 Blue Primrose

Lets start with some flowers! I like the colour of these, shame that the leaves never look great and the flowers get eaten easily. Here they are looking about as good as they ever do.

2 Bulbs sprouting

Saw these for the first time today. I planted a number of different bulbs and didn't note exactly which ones I planted where.

As I don't recognise them I am assuming that they will be the …

Last week the ground was frozen solid for several days, and after a thaw it is again frozen solid today. So I thought I would use this blog to survey the damage caused and the notable survivors.

1 Cyclamen

Two plants, both the same, planted about one foot apart. On one every flower has flopped and turned to mush. The other one has faired much better, flowers are still upright, perhaps lost a bit of their shine.

I was not really expecting them to survive for another year and so its a bit of a shame that we had such cold weather so early. The leaves still look healthy so maybe there is some hope.

2 Salvia "Wendy's wish"

The label on this said it was hardy, but some commenters on this blog said it never survived the winter for them.

As you can see the recent freeze has completely …

I completed shredding the last of the inner row of the front hedge. The final total was 8.5 tubs or about 320L. I would say that the outer row is less than half the amount of material as the inner row, so on target for about 500L all told I would guess, maybe a little more. It won't last long!

As I finished it started to snow, so here is a picture of the Sedums covered in snow