Last year I ordered and planted some bulbs and didn't record this at the time, so here is the list

On 12 October ordered from J Parkers:

• Tulip Peppermint Stick (Pack of 15)
• Tulip Saxatilis (Pack of 25)
• Tulip Lily Flowering Mixed (Pack of 15). This was a free extra with the order.
• Narcissi Katie Heath (Pack of 30)
• Anemone Blanda Atrocoerulea Blue (Pack of 150)

Also bought locally:

• Daffodil 'Jetfire' (15)
• Tulip 'Ballarina' (15)

Compare with last year.

Weather

The average temperature was 5.8C with a minimum of -3.2C and maximum of 17.0C, and there were 8 frost days when the temperature dropped below zero. So the coldest temperatures were below that reached in February, so both the autumn and spring lowest temperatures were lower than the whole of the winter months.

It rained on 18 days, with a total of 24mm of rain, so a very dry month like Dec and Jan.

Overview

The main part of the garden is quite bare in the winter and it still is. In some ways this is intentional as the earliest flowering plants are at the edges so that the later flowers grow up in front as they die back.

I noticed that I lost my Geum 'Mrs J. Bradshaw' which should have been one of the spots of green. Also missing is a Ligularia…

This coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara) appeared in one of the containers. There has never been one in the garden, although they are common enough round about, especially where earth has been turned over as part of building works in the next estate.

Since the flowers appear before the leaves, it must have been there last year (or longer!) and I didn't just notice it. This prompted me to look it up and I found this interesting coltsfoot page.

It seems that they grow well on clay, so it is ironic that it is growing in the container with compost instead of the heavy clay in the rest of the garden.

I am continuing to have problems finding early spring bulbs that work well with my garden conditions.

There are a few Puschkinia flowering but fewer than last year I feel. The flowers fall over easily and perhaps they need to be somewhere sheltered a bit surrounded by something taller.

Anyway here is a single one at the back of the garden.

So this appeared:

There used to be a Eryngium 'Neptune's gold' in roughly the same location which has a similar lime green colour.

Trouble is that it died last year and was removed.

So possibly it wasn't fully dead and a piece of root remained which is now regrowing, or it is a seedling.

The new shoots last year looked completely different to this. It looks more like a seedling to me. If it is a seedling, then it is most likely to grow to be very different from the original.

The catkins on the hazel are now opening. They take a day or two to completely open, so I try to pick the day where they are about half out to declare Catkin Day. As you can see there are still some that have not opened fully.

This is the latest they have opened which is a bit of a surprise, and I wonder what triggers their opening as this winter seems like it was the mildest it has been since I got here.

Last year was the earliest they have opened - the 22nd February.

I like this orange cowslip-like primula. It has been increasing and there are separate plants with a similar colour like this, one of them is quite a distance away.

This is Primula 'Gold lace'

This blue Primula is in the same area as the previous one. I think I bought it last year to replace ones that didn't survive. Another nearby one didn't survive.

The first of the pre-existing Daffodils to open is in the back border. Last year it was one in the left border, but there are fewer and fewer of the original Daffodils in that border each year and none of the remaining ones is anywhere near flowering.

The first of the N. 'Jetfire' from last year are flowering.