Hellebores – subtle buttercups of Lent…

My favourite hellebore in a pot - image posterised in PhotoShop...

My hellebores are in flower at the moment (and have been for months), but I have only just realised that this is the RIGHT time for them to be in bloom.

Although I knew they were sometimes called Christmas roses, I now find they are also called Lenten roses. And it IS Lent at the moment. More about the naming of hellebores later…

An iPhone picture of cream oriental hellebores this week in the Cardiff Council garden between the Old Library and St John the Baptist Church

Hellebores aren’t roses, of course, but

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Daffodils for St David’s Day…

Miniature daffodils in the garden, in flower in time for St David's Day

Oh how we love our daffodils, here in Wales. And especially today, March 1, St David’s Day – our national day. We have a choice – to wear a daffodil or a leek – so most people choose the daff and an easy way is to buy a charity daffodil pin from Marie Curie Cancer Care. I’ll be wearing mine.

It’s also a day when

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Choisya chooses to bloom in winter

Choisya ternata in full flower in the garden in January 2012

There is absolutely no doubt about it, my Choisya ternata should not have been in flower throughout January, but its blooming is a fact I can’t ignore.

We have had a very

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Return to the Great Glasshouse in winter

The Great Glasshouse at the National Botanic Garden of Wales in early January 2012 - on a mild day of sunshine and showers...

Oh dear, as time goes by I find I am repeating myself. In early January I usually visit the National Botanic Garden of Wales at Llanarthne in Carmarthenshire – partly because entry is free all month.

And for a second year I am sharing my pictures, first from the Great Glasshouse and later from the outside garden. Here is last January’s glasshouse blog post.

The Great Glasshouse at the National Botanic Garden of Wales in early January 2012 - Leucadendron (thanks to South African gardener Diana Studer - Elephant's Eye - for the identification)

Nothing ever stays the same in a garden, and

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Last scraps of summer colour…

Fallen Fuchsia flower...

My garden is an autumn mess, but I took these pictures a fortnight ago, in mid October, while there were still one or two scraps of summer colour remaining.

Now many of these flowers are gone. Soon

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Lavender’s blue (maybe) – but roses are not…

Blue is the colour (with a little help from my PhotoShop) - to see the original mauve Moon Shadow rose, click on this image by Drew Avery

In his prime, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, my father grew hybrid tea roses – 150 of them, row upon row, in our long, narrow back garden.

And like most rose enthusiasts, he dreamed

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Popcorn Hydrangea Ayesha pops out at last

A solitary bee on Hydrangea Ayesha...

A while back I wrote about mophead Hydrangeas (Hydrangea macrophylla). At the time I feared

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A wildlife walk to the Pembrokeshire coast

View from a top-floor bedroom at the Warpool Court Hotel, St David's, with Skomer Island in the distance. Must go over to the island to see the puffins one day...

In August we stayed at the Warpool Court Hotel in St David’s, Pembrokeshire, for a few days. Not cheap and not modern but with great food, great character and amazing views!

This post is

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Mystery weed identified (maybe)…

Leafy mystery plant in a pot in July 2011...

Back in July I blogged about weeds - and this was one I couldn’t identify at the time.

I have waited patiently for it to flower. It looked like

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Hydrangeas: Mopheads on my mind…

Snail among Hydrangea petals...

Hydrangeas are usually glorious in late summer (July/August) here in South Wales, but this year has been disappointing.

I guess it has been the combination of weather over the last few months – short hot, dry spells and longer cool, wet spells.

Definitely mould on this Hydrangea in August...

The very

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