lonely as a cloud

Ouch! It has been more than a fortnight since I last was here. And the first yellow daffodil -- a St. Keverne, I think -- opened nearly that long ago. We now have a few more yellow ones and several of the Falconet, some of which I evidently moved a few yards northwards without telling myself. A few miniature daffodisl are open, possibly the Tete a Tete, which I should move closer to the street (in front of the row of lavender). There is one calochortus, the pale purple one; the hyacinth is doing nicely, and though we still have only two anemones open, there are more growing where I planted them in soil that I had enriched with compost. I'm now nearly sure they just can't take this heavy clay unless it is amended. There are plenty of ipheion and it would be a good thing to put some of them in the western strip, which is rather dull at the moment. The muscari armeniacum are opening and the cyclamen are still strong; no bloom from the alstroemeria at the moment. The freesias, and some of the tulip species, are in bud.

The plum tree is in wonderful nearly full bloom. The creeping rosemary at the south-east corner is also blooming, which I had forgotten to mention, and the snap peas that I planted in October or November have got a few flowers. Many of the phacelia are open, and of course the osteospermum. There are a few more flowers from the dietes. The loropetalum is clearly budding.

Springing!

For a week and more I've had some mini iris open, starting with the dark purple I. reticulata "George", and going on with the deep blue "Ida" and not quite so deep blue "Cantab". I should put some of those in the place west of the old malacothamnus where it's now rather bare. Today I saw one blue-purple anemone coronaria had also opened, several anagallis monellii, and one scarlet flax in the Zone. The scarlet cyclamen looks quite wonderful; the maroon one is losing blooms. None of the alstroemeria are blooming at the moment; on the east side, the osteospermum are doing well, as is the creeping rosemary, and at the south fence the salvia greggii has started to bloom too. The new grevillea has some deep red buds. The teucrium still looks good.

The daffodils I planted in front of the house last autumn are simply rocketing up out of the ground; some older ones already have swelling buds. That unidentified bulb by the back gate is a freesia, to judge by its flower stem, so I had better move it to somewhere sunnier. Behind the house, those leonotis I transplanted look fat and healthy; in the corner lawn, the half-grown one is fine, but of the others, one
half-eaten seedling remains. In the southern Zone I am going to have far too many of them if I don't watch out.