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!

I 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.

I bought this Eryngium at the weekend and planted it this evening.

Its full name is Eryngium × zabelii 'Neptune's Gold' - a fairly new variety.

The new leaves are a lime green colour as you can see. The label says that this will be followed by yellow thistle like cones that gradually turn an electric blue while the bracts remain golden yellow.

I know that the lawn was a bit of a pond during the winter but this is just ridiculous!

The tulips planted this year are now starting to flower. Wasn't sure what I would think after I realised they were double flowered varieties, but they do look rather impressive. These ones are distinctly different from the first of the new tulips that flowered. These have a much larger and showier flower.

Starting to harden off the young seedlings. There is hopefully no chance of frost at this stage and I am eager to plant them out as they are getting a bit large for the small planting cells.