Worth the Wait

Although air pressure is dropping after a fortnight of  stability we have not yet had any rain, so the panorama of the morning sun lighting up the bank of Tête-á-Tête under the apple trees was a delight to behold and well worth the wait. The bulbs growing in the grass next to the stream are still not at their best, but the anticipated colour adjacent to one of our local arterial roads is still absent so I can accept the situation in my own garden as it is. The first glimpses of Anemone blanda in flower are always worth waiting for too, and may or may not be any later this year than last:

There are a few pink ones at the base of the magnolia, not looking very pink in the first picture, unlike the brazenly blue ones in the middle, vying for attention with Pulmonaria ‘Blue Ensign’. Anemone nemerosa, the wood anemone, are still preparing to make an exhibition of themselves in the woodland and will make up for their later arrival with the sheer impact of their white carpet.

Also in the blue & white border I spotted some muscari, not the thuggish ones, but a more genteel variation, probably Muscari latifolium, unfortunately disturbed during my changes last year and isolated from their friends; hopefully I can reunite them into one or two clumps as they come into flower. I planted various Brodiaea species in the Autumn, a plant new to me, so I am unsure if the centre picture is Brodiaea corinna as a nearby label says, or if it is a stray scilla that came in a batch of free bulbs at some stage. I am equally unsure about the last picture, showing bulbs that definitely did come in a free batch and look as if they are ornithogalum, but if they are then why did I plant them in the hot border? Another of Life’s little puzzles….