Nearly...but not quite...Spring

We have been very lucky with the weather during the last two weeks in March. My little standard cherry (Prunus incisa Kojo-no-mai) has looked lovely. It lived up to its name which means 'Flight of the Butterflies'.

Here it is, flowering away.  It is a little difficult to see without a dark backdrop - I have pruned the buddleia which is behind it. 

Lovely primroses have been showing their faces in the border...

...even if they have been nibbled by something, they are still lovely.

An unnamed pink camellia has been flowering really well.

It has been the best ever, well, it was.  It is a little more brown now.

There was one flower on the other unnamed camellia.  I am pleased I took the photos when I did because everything is looking rather more brown and frosted now.  We are in a cold snap with minus temperatures at night and Winter is back in charge.  Certainly not that cold compared to other places in the World, but a shock to the system after the last two weeks. This is sometimes the case, but with our drier and brighter Springs over the last couple of years, it is easy to forget that Winter can come back in April.  I remember a holiday in Oxfordshire during April when I was younger and we visited Rousham gardens (a fabulous place) accompanied by hail and snow - a bit like yesterday.   It is due to warm up a bit next week, so hopefully the Spring flowers can continue without too much disruption.

Vagaries of the weather, but plants carry on regardless

 In the last week, the weather has been really interesting.  We have had double rainbows - this one is taken from the back garden...

 ..and this one was out of the back window of the car, on the way home up the A1.

 Then there have been the biggest hailstones I have seen in a long time.  While I was taking the photo, they came down quite hard and I could really feel them hitting me!  I put the five pence piece in the shot as a size comparison.

 The sunny days have been loved by the plants - above is blossom from Prunus Kojo-no-mai which is a real star at the moment.

I bought two pots of these bright and cheerful anemone blanda at a well-known DIY store.  I like the way the flowers open fully in the sun and then close up again.

 Here's a progress report on the tulips (Ballerina and Black Parrot) from last year which I dried and re-planted.  They are much further on than the new ones I planted, but at the moment, they seem a bit spindly, although they may fill out a bit yet.

 These little sweet violets are blooming along a communal path at the back of our line of terrace houses.

The pushkinia is doing well and I do like the pale blue veining on the petals.  Even though the weather is unpredictable (this is England, after all!), the plants are heralding Spring.