Buddleia davidii goes through a purple patch…

Glorious weed – a dark variety of Buddleia davidii growing over a fence at the back of the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, mid July, 2014

I feel compelled to write about Buddleia, although I am not sure what can be said. This weedy garden escapee gets everywhere in our cities, seeding itself in brickwork crevices and chimneys as well as in gardens.

I have been keeping an eye on it this summer, although I first noticed Buddleia 35 years ago, when I was training

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Counting the daylilies…

Daylily (Hemerocallis) in my garden

As a mini-project this summer I counted how many daylily flowers bloomed in a single pot of the herbaceous perennial plant in my garden. I have no idea what possessed me, except that I am intrigued by the fact that each flower comes and goes in a day.

I first “identified” what daylilies were when I saw them growing in the walled back garden of my in-laws’ tall, Victorian terraced red-brick house in Yorkshire. These were the very common orange or “tawny” daylilies and they were growing near the shed, so I was

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Colby Woodland Garden, Pembrokeshire

The walled garden at Colby…

This was my first visit to Colby Woodland Garden, near Amroth in Pembrokeshire, for decades. So it was my first visit with a digital camera. The garden is

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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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