I bought an Astilbe on a whim while at Earsdon Plant Center. I don't know why I got it as it had no information about variety or what colour it is going to be.

So it is going to be almost as much of a mystery as the plants that I didn't buy. Fortunately it seems to be a plant that likes a moist soil that doesn't dry out.

Anyway here it is just after planting, I bought it a couple of weeks ago, but just planted today.

This is a newer tulip that I planted in the trough container. This is its second year, so it is good to see it back, although it has not multiplied. I must admit to having damaged the bulb by cutting through it with a trowel when trying to remove something else.

I thought I had all the dandilions under control, but one appeared out of nowhere it seems. It made a good picture so here it is.

The first new leaves have appear on one of the chilli seedlings. This is 17 days after planting.

I planted a single tulip in a planting trough in 2013, it has travelled with me through a few different addresses since then, and it flowers reliably every year. From the single flower in the first year, there are now five flowers.

Last week I got six bags of compost. I have started putting it on top of the soil starting alongside the house. The soil there is very grey almost like cement and what a difference it makes putting the compost down. It is just a thin layer and I just throw it down a roughly smooth it where needed. I'm hoping that as well as making it look better it will gradually improve the soil. At the moment the clay is very dry and hard on the surface.

I transplanted my rosemary into a container. This is a plant I bought the summer before last. Over the previous winter it got very damp and was suffering. When I moved it to a bigger pot last summer it had very few roots. Now is a completely different story, the roots were wrapped around the pot very tightly and although I tried …

This is an update to the post describing the new red leaves on a varegated bush. I speculated that it could be Pieris japonica also known as the lily of the valley bush. I was unsure as they have flowers in the spring too and I didn't see any.

I saw one when out walking, it was quite a large shrub, much larger than mine and it had lots of flowers.

I took another look at mine, and there are indeed flowers which I had missed as they are low down and somewhat hidden. Oh look just noticed that there are some ant crawling over the flowers!

The shrub I previously thought was a dogwood has its first flower. It is really rather lovely. From the flower it is much more likely to be a Kerria japonica and probably the variety 'Pleniflora'. The tree is covered in buds so this is going to be quite a show.