It was gardening weather today: 11°C and hazy sunshine. At last! I could not only inspect the garden but also finally get some tidying up done. I cut back the last of the perennials still standing, and all the grasses. I usually feel sad to see them go, but this year they had been squashed and broken by the heavy snowfall we had a couple of weeks ago. Looks much better now!
The first crocuses opened while I was working. 😁
And I even saw a bee on one.
The early Hellebores have perked up while the later ones are just about to start flowering. So I picked one of the paler pink ones (incorrectly labelled so I don’t know what it is), for my vase today.
The tiny Narcissus is from a pot of spring flowers I received on Valentine’s Day, but the other items are from the garden.
The darker pink Hellebores are from last week’s vase – didn’t they last well! There is a sprig of Wintersweet in the tiny blue ceramic vase too. (The shrub is still looking lovely but is slowly going over now.)
So nice to have some sunshine – it makes taking vase photos much easier. 😉
I hope to have another day outside this week, before temperatures dip again. I can at least do a bit of weeding and tidy my pots and raised beds. I wonder if you have been able to do any gardening jobs this week?
Thanks to our host, Cathy at Rambling in the Garden, who encourages us every week to go out into our gardens (whatever the weather!) and find something to share in a vase.
Have a great week! 🌷
Words and Herbs 
I am loving these Spring days and just want to be out in the garden all day. A lovely mix of flowers in your vase.
Thanks Rosie. Yes, I would also love to be out every minute the sun is shining!
Well, I suppose it is the season for hellebores. Snowdrops are another seasonal flower that I just do not understand the allure of. I do not grow snowdrops, although I suppose I should try. Hellebores grow here, and some have naturalized, but they do not perform well at all. I probably mentioned that earlier. I would find them to be more appealing if they looked like yours. They actually look quite fancy in pictures from other regions. I think they would be nice amongst the redwoods.
Hellebores (mostly H. niger) are the only thing that blooms in winter here, but I have spring ones opening now too. They are the prettier hybrids or H. orientalis I think, but there are so many different ones available now I get confused!
Well, that had been one of the excuses for not splitting and growing more. There is plenty of other prettier bloom through winter here.
It is hard to ignore the itch to get out to putter about in the garden beds. 🙂 We’re having similarly warm temps, but there’s still a few inches of crusty snow in the shadows, so I’ll wait a bit longer. Also, I don’t want to disturb any overwintering critters before they are ready to wake up. 😉
However, I noticed yesterday my snowdrops next to the house are up and about to bloom. Earliest ever!
Snowdrops are up here too… it all happened in a day! The hares have been nibbling our trees, so one reason I had to get out was to put more protection around them. It’s lovely seeing them around, but they are a nuisance, especially in spring. Looks like frosts are returning at the weekend though, so it was just a brief interlude!
Hooray for Wintersweet and Hellebores! And being outside. I am still waiting for March to prune cold damage, though I think I will get over it..
We are probably getting some hard frosts again next week, but I am glad I got a lot of the debris cleared up now the spring bulbs are popping up all over. 😃
Yay!
So pretty! I still haven’t seen even a bud on any of my hellebores, which is getting irritating if not alarming.
I don’t know where you live, but here in south-west Cornwall my hellebores are only just beginning to appear, one or two buds on a couple, but none of the large clumps I usually have by now.
I’m in coastal Southern California, which I suspect offers a very different climate than yours, but it’s good to know I’m not the only one dealing with uncooperative hellebores 😉 Even though my climate is generally milder than most parts of the UK, my hellebores always seem to lag behind those I see featured in European and even Pacific Northwest blogs. It may be the varieties I’ve selected but, even so, they’re about a month behind last year’s schedule here.
Some of mine are yet to flower. It depends on what sort they are as I grow a mix of H.niger, H.orientalis and hybrids.
Pretty colours. My pinks are slow to emerge this year.
It is often a mystery what factors lead to plant behaviour! I had some hellebores flowering in the heatwave last summer! 😮
Your hellebores vase is a delight and I love your sweet crocuses. I’ve spotted one bee but I disturbed it trying to photograph it. Enjoy your sunshiny weather.
Thank you Susie. I will be out there again today before the weather changes. 😁
Perky flowers, looking so happy on the lovely crocheted mat.
Thanks Sandra!
I like the way you have staged the arrangement, and you have caught the strength of the spring light casting its shadows indoors. You hellebores are lovely.
Thank you. I love having the sun shining into the living room in winter. ☀️
We love the early spring flowers!
Absolutely! 👍
I am glad you are able to get out and tackle some of your outstanding tasks – we have been up to my Mum’ and I am looking forward to getting outside into the garden again. How bright and perky your crocus are looking and it’s always lovely to see more hellebores 👍
It has done me good getting outside again at last, although winter is not over yet according to the forecast!
The year is going in the right direction though… 😉
What a nice surprise to have crocus open while you were working. I have been working like crazy in my garden beds, as we had an unusual killing freeze and I am cutting everything back. Unfortunately, weeds never die in my climate and I have been pulling up bushels of them.
The crocus had closed up again by the time I finished my jobs as the sun had gone down behind the trees! Weeding will be next on my list after tidying up some annoying molehills later today. 🙃
A most pretty spring cameo Cathy. Your weather pattern sounds similar to ours this week – one step forward and then one back 😂 Still the coming spring is definitely in the air.
Yes, spring is definitely in the air, but the forecast looks chilly!
The first blooms are so sweet to the eye and senses! Thank you for sharing 💐
😃 They are real mood-lifters, aren’t they!
Oh yes, Crocuses and Hellebores. Thanks for sharing…mine will bloom before too long…
The patient (or even impatient!) waiting is always rewarded. 😉
What beautiful little reminders of what is to come! Early signs of spring always thrill me. 🙂
Me too Debra! The crocuses are all in flower now and it is lovely to see tiny splashes of colour when I walk around the garden. 😃
Good for you! It’s so exciting to finally get that warm, sunny day when the crocus open and you can almost see the changes as you walk around for the fourth and fifth time. My neighbors probably shake their heads to see me crouching around looking at the dirt, but each little bit of green cheers me up.
I had three sunny days to get a few jobs done and then the snow and icy wind returned. But progress has been made. And the crocuses seem unperturbed!
Oh you have some gorgeous hellebores there! The porcelaine pink one is fab. Are they seedlings or varieties you bought? Amazing little creatures who withstand the nastiest weather. Planted mine on a gently slope so that I can look into their faces. Last year something ate the buds but this time I was prepared.
The dark one is Ice ‘n’ Roses Early Red, and the pale pink one was supposed to be ‘Paradenia’, but isn’t, but I like this colour better anyway! None have seeded themselves around here yet, possibly due to mice disturbance… There is always some challenge or other, isn’t there! LOL! But we still manage to grow so much. 😃
Lots of seedlings here but they all had a tough time with the drought last year.