A slightly belated post on the state of the garden.
I am not going to mention the spring-like weather we have had recently as the last time I mentioned it, this happened.
View of the Garden 5th Feb 2012
Luckily we didn’t have as much snow as some people – the advantage of living almost in the centre of the country – and it started thawing the next day.
During that spell of winter I had some indoor flowers to look at. An Amaryllis that I had been given for Christmas flowered and another, from the year before, flowered as well.
19th Feb Amaryllis Aphrodite 2011(L) and Christmas Star 2012(R)
The second bud of the Christmas Star is now open.The snowdrops have flowered and are now on the way out. We have two types, single and double.
A clump of double Snowdrops
The strange thing is that the double version seems to spread quicker than the single – you would think that the single, being closer to the “wild” variety would be more prolific.
As mentioned in a previous post, the Lenten roses (Helleborus Orientalis) are now flowering well. We have several different types: a selection of different single pink/green/spotted one which have self seeded about. A yellow one that is struggling and a couple of doubles, which seem to be doing well. There are also lots of Helleborus Foetidus, the wild variety. They are all difficult to photograph in situ, but here is a picture I took a couple of years ago.
It is the best way to display them – cut off the heads with a short stalk and float in a shallow bowl of water. They last a few days before they become waterlogged.
Other flowers are emerging in the garden. The few crocuses that the (grey) squirrels have not eaten and the early Narcissi (First one out 4th March).
Finally, it has been getting very noisy in the ponds. The Frogs are producing large amounts of frogspawn.
A Frog in the Pond admiring its efforts
This doesn’t neccessarily mean that winter won’t return – they have been caught out before, but most of the early signs of spring have arrived.
maddergenealogist 
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