Where are the daffs

I'm not sure whats happened this year, but my daffs seem to be way behind.

Most years they are coming through before christmas, and a lot of them flower in Feb.

But this year,I keep going out and checking, they're just starting to come through, some do have flower buds on, but this seem s way later than normal.

I wonder what decides when a bulb should start to grow? Sunlight .Temperature?

The crocuses are flowering, well the yellow ones anyway,(surprisingly the birds haven't shredded these this year), but again others haven't appeared yet, or just poking tips through.

I had a 'lobsters claw?' in flower in my hanging basket right through the winter, yet it never flowered once in the summer!!...put on loads of beauriful foliage, but not a single flower...It's only dying now because I have the watering system off, and the baskets are dry.(I'm very lazy like that, I never get araound to taking my baskets down, until it's time to plant them again!!...LOL)Luckily most of them have some sort of foliage in that keeps going.

But isn't it great this time of year just walking round the garden, peering at the soil, seeing little bursts of growth of things you forgot were there. It was nice enough to sit out there yesterday, to feel the warm sun on your face, dreaming on warmer sunnier days ahead.

To think about sowing some (some!!) seeds , thinking what to put in this gap or that gap, I even pruned my Clematis down,another job I've negleted to do for yonks.Unfortunately cutting through a couple of main stems lower down, just where I didn't want to!!...oh well, a little hard pruning won't hurt.Once I pulled down the top growth from the arches, there was already fresh new growth there romping away.

The autumn raspberries too were cut down, The buds are fattening up on the honeysuckles and roses, all ready to burst forth .

I love this time of year, so much promise of things to come(hopefully not too much in the way of cold weather that they kept warning us about)

I even got hubby to empty my compost bins at the weekend, loads of fab crumbly compost to spread out (they hadn't been emptied for two years either!!)Bob flowerdew eat your heart out.....

I'm terrible when it comes to doing things you're supposed to, like layering/turning/wetting compost heaps, it gets left to it's own devices,and when i can persuede someone to do it, emptied....
I'm jusy waiting for someone to volunteer to do my greenhouse out (have a huge huge fear of spiders, most of whom seem to have taken up residence in my greenhouse)

I sometimes wonder what it would be like to have a partner that shares my enthusiasm for gardening? Would it be a good or bad thing?As it is, i can do what I want ,where I want (not touching his lawns of course!!...)but if you had someone that also had ideas about what they wanted and where, might lead to a his and hers garden?

I've been in the garden too today and noticed that a lot of crocuses are in flower, but the daffodils are only just peeping through. We've had far more frosts this winter and I think this holds plants back. I've a Cornus mas which is usually flowering at the end of January and it still has tight buds on with no sign of opening.

Like you my partner has no interest in gardening and I think it is much easier for me to decide what wants doing and let him mix cement, do the digging and carry heavy things about. Slave driver or what?

I've been constructing a container for my new peach tree. I'd forgotten that I had ordered some fruit trees until they were delivered two days ago, so I cant plant the peach until it has a container. It is a bit lopsided, but looks OK. I'll have to wait a couple of days for the cement to set properly before I can plant it. I can then train the peach up the base of the conservatory. That bit of garden is terraced, so it is on the level below the conservatory and won't reach the glass, and it is facing south/south west in a nice cosy corner so should be quite sheltered.

Now I've got to decide where to plant two cider apples and a Bramley, Oh and they have sent me a replacement self-fertile Kiwi fruit for one which I told them didn't grow either last year or the year before. I don't know whether to keep it in a pot or not as it might be too tender for outside. It says it is hardy, but the other one died after a keen frost.

Does anyone know how large a pot a Kiwi fruit needs? I know they grow quite tall.

I have to find a space to plant some new herbs that I ordered too. I found the Poyntzfield Herb Nursery on the internet and they have a brilliant selection of quite different herbs, so I got a bit carried away as usual. They should be quite tough though as the nursery is in Scotland.

You sound a bit like me there, I forget things I've ordered/planted etc....LOl

Lucy you, a nice wall to grow a peach tree on, and making your own pots? How do you do that?

Do you have quite a big garden ? A fruit patch?

I've got a kiwi in my garden up the top.It was originally planted to climb through next doors leyllandis which border the top of my garden (he's now cut them down to about 8ft)But this plant has grown evry where but where I want it!! I put a wire up to train it along, and when I go back our a couple of days later, it's turned back on its self...sighs....It's never flowered yet, so I don't know if it's male or female,I grew it from seed out of a shop fruit, so maybe it won't ever flower, but the stems and leaves are decorative, so it'll stay where it is, crawling it's way through the arch and in amongst my clematis and roses...

I grow a few herbs in pots, and last year had a great idea..i have pots on the steps and wall outside my sunlounge, which is on the north sied of the house, always struggled to get things to grow well there, last year I put in a couple of different mints, and they romped off, loved it there, and it was handy, just reaching out the door for a few sprigs for the pots or pimms..

Think I'll look for a couple of different ones this year to go in the other pots too, I think you can get veriagated ones can't you? Lovely smell too when you walk out the doors and brush past the leaves.Our local garden centre only had achoice of two, guess it's better to check out a herb catalogue maybe.

Your steps sound ideal for the mint plants. I have quite a few different mints, spear mint, peppermint, pineapplemint - which is the one with variegated leaves. I can't say it smells of pineapple though, but it looks pretty. My favourite two are the chocolate peppermint which has chocolate coloured stems and smells just like After Eights, and the apple mint which is a good flavour for drinks and cooking with and is quite tall with pale green soft slightly furry leaves. The new one I have just orderes is called Red Raripila which is described as "unusual red-tinged foliage and a fruity scent. Goes well with peas." It is Mentha x smithiana.

I've also ordered a Stevia rebaudiana (sugar plant) for in the conservatory and it can be used either fresh or dried as a sweetener instead of sugar - so they say.

By the way, the container I made isn't a pot. I made it from dressed stone - I thought if I made it large enough the peach wouldn't try to send it's roots under the house.

I'm still wondering where to put the kiwi - It is the Actinidia deliciosa.

The hens helped me to dig a hole for the Bramley clone which I'm just going out to plant now.

It sounds as if you both have lovely gardens, Pat and Sue. My daffs are only just poking through the soil - we're still having frosts most nights. (This is Northern Spain, and we're in the foothills of the Pyrenees). My yellow crocuses are fully out and looking very cheerful under the conservatory window. Yesterday I discovered two clumps of snowdrops in flower - what a thrill; I had completely forgotten I had planted them last February, having smuggled a potful back in my hand-luggage after a visit to Britain. I had ordered bulbs twice with no luck,(they just shrivelled), so decided they had to be planted "in the green"....it's worked!
My husband is not interested in gardening either; to be honest I sometimes wish he were - I don't have very good health and could really do with the help. He will dig holes and do heavy stuff if I ask him, (several times), but maybe it would be nice to have someone else contributing voluntarily....then again, maybe I don't know when I'm well off -it must be awful to fight over what goes where in the garden...
Your gardening style sounds much like mine Sue - most things don't get done when they should, but I get some happy surprises. Last summer we had generous harvests of tomatoes, courgettes and pumpkins, although I hadn't managed to sow any of them last Spring - they were all self-sown from the previous year, some I think from the compost which did get spread on the veg. patch over winter.(Yes, by my husband, bless him -I really shouldn't complain!)
I'm afraid I can't help you with the kiwi Pat - I've never grown one. There are lots growing round here, but they're always in the ground, and seem to get enormous.
Maggi xxxx

Has anyone got daffodils flowering yet? Mine have lovely fat buds, but still haven't opened. Maybe they will next week when the weather warms up - although it has forecast heavy rain and gales, so perhaps they would be better waiting a bit longer. The Witch Hazel looks nice and cheerful though and the crocuses and snowdrops are still going strong.

I found some out yesterday , the dwarfer ones, they must have shot through quickly....the crocuses are doing well, trange how the birds haven't attacked them this year, normally they shred them to bits.

One of my hellebores is just beginning to flower too.I was reading an article in one of my mags, and saw some lovely really sexy dark coloured ones, must try to find a couple of those too.

My seeds are starting to come through too in the greenhouse (unheated) must start sowing the things now that nedd a bit of heat , but need to get hubby to fish propogator out of the garage, and de-spider it first.
We had our sunlounge decorated last summer,and was given strict instructions by him not to clutter it up this time....I always sat and sowed my seeds /cuttings in there until the whole windowsills, table,floor etc was covered in pots/trays etc.So was panicing a bit about how i was going to manage this year.But over the winter he's dumped tools and the like in there as he's done DIY jobs, rekon that leaves it open to me to do a bit of sowing....just an incy wincy bit...a window-sill or two..maybe the table... ;-)

The witch hael looks lovely, does it smell as good as they say? I don't have much room left for any more trees or shrubs..though saying that I would love to get a Daphne, we stopped in a hotel last spring that had one by the front door, and the smell was incredible, it hit you when you came accross the drive.It was only a little shrub, so could probably squeeze that in somewhere.

I have a clematis up the top of the garden that flowers in Spring, it smells really strongly of lemons, with tiny yellow/green flowers (forget name)wish I'd planted it down on the patio, I keep trying to take cuttings of it, with no luck.

The clematis chirrosa is flowering well, that thats left of it, after hubby chopped down the top because he said it was attacking his sky dish....I thought it disguised it well...I have another one at the top of the garden that was going great guns, unyil I accidentally cut it down at the bottom whilst pruning my raspberries..

Thats what i like about this time of the year, something new pushes through the soil every day, roses starting to show their new leaves..it's all poised ready to race away .

I should think you are a week or two ahead of Yorkshire with your flowers.

I tried to sniff the witch hazel this morning but wasn't sure whether the lovely scent wafting round the garden was from that or the Sarcococa, or both. If you want a small, evergreen highly perfumed winter flowering shrub, you can't go wrong with a Sarcococa. Mine has been flowering for two months now and has dark maroon berries following the tiny white flowers. Your lemon scented clematis sounds lovely too. My daphne mezerium and the d. odorata both died last year. I had had them for a few years and I know they are quite short lived, but they did smell beautiful. I'll have to replace them.

I don't think your husband can complain about a few seed trays if he's using the sun lounge for his stuff. I'm just wondering about bringing a few trays of seedlings into the conservatory as the greenhouse is getting a bit full (already).
I think Wallaby1 has a picture of a sultry dark red helebore on another forum. It is called 'Queen of the Night' and I'm also looking out for one, they are beautiful.

That's a beautiful witch hazel Pat. I think I must get a sarcococa bush, as both you and Philomel have recommended it in the last few days. At the moment I'm trying to germinate 10 Daphne mezereum seeds I got from Chiltern seeds, but apparently they're very difficult to germinate....
I have a handful of daffodils out in a sheltered spot near the house, but the ones out in the open are hanging fire at the fat bud stage. So far only yellow and purple crocuses are out, the snowdrops are over, and a few wallflowers are opening in the sheltered spot under the conservatory window...Spring seems so near, yet so far away - the last few days have been cold, wet and windy again and I've been unable to get any gardening done - not that I have much time during the week anyway, but I like to pretend I would have done some if the weather had let me!
Maggi xxxx

Oh yes here is my sultry Queen of the Night!

And Sarcococca ruscifolia

Today there are three tiny daffodils flowering. I don't know if it is in desperation as they have come up down the edge of a wall. The hens have obviously scratched them up from where I planted them and they are flowering where they landed. Still it is lovely to see a little splash of yellow.

I have a few Tete a tete opening, as cold as it is they can't wait any longer! One or two were opening a week ago, they are earlier than some but this is late, by about a month at least!

Took this today

Well it's nearly the middle of April and the daffs have arrived at last. Here is a photo of an unusual one. I'm trying to remember its name. The flowers always seem to face the sunny side, so you have to think about placing it for the best show.

And here is a picture of some of the Carlton daffodils. These have been in 35 years now and are all over the garden.

I bought a bag of 100 and planted them around the garden when I was expecting my first baby. (Doesn't time fly!) When my mother found out what I was doing she said what an amazing coincidence as she had bought and planted 100 King Alfred daffodils when she was expecting me. And even more surprising there are still a few of the King Alfreds flowering each year. Only about three clumps now, but still big and beautiful with their long golden trumpets and lovely scent.

My grandfather built the house in 1911 for his parents and an uncle and aunt as two semi detatched bungalows and the family have lived here ever since, but it is converted into one now my parents have died. It is nice to know all the history of the place, and right from my great grandmother we have always loved plants.

Pat would it be Cassata? That is a popular one on the market. I have had some flower for a while, there are some later ones to come. Some of mine tend to face the sun too, it seems disappointing when you're on the other side!

http://www.whiteflowerfarm.com/111151-product.html

Thanks for the birds list, it's amazing how many there are when you list them. I saw the white wagtail again briefly, they must be going to nest here.

My latest Narcissus Thalia

No pic! What a lovely story! Strange how history repeats itself isn't it? It must give you a sense of belonging.

I think I have some King Alfred, they are very big but will have to check for scent

I've just been to Farndale again. Thousands of wild daffodils. Beautiful!

No it isn't Cassata. I think it is called Teton with a circumflex accent over the e, but I can't be sure. I looked up teton in the French dictionary and teton with an acute accent means breast. Can't see any resemblance.

The petals at the back are a very pale lemon, nearly white and the split cup is a lovely citrus yellow. I've looked through all the narcissus pictures on the internet and can't find anything like it, and I can't remember where I got them from. I think it was a Dutch bulb company. I usually keep a note of any new plants in my gardening log but they aren't in it. The year Dad died didn't get much written up as I was either at work or the hospital all year, so any rare gardening stints went unrecorded.

I've got a small clump of Thalia too which usually flowers quite late. I went to check them when you put your photo in and found a large slug munching all the flowers off. There is only one bud left, so not a very good display this year.

Can't resist popping in here to add to the linguistic input here....."teton" in Spanish means not just breast, but "enormous breast" - or rather "tit".....I hope I don't get banned for using this word in a non-ornithological context.....
Maggi ;) xxxx

Thanks Maggi, Perhaps it is really Cassata, but the supplier had a breast fixation and thought English speakers wouldn't know if he called it teton! p.s. no R.R.yet, sounds v. exciting.