My first few tulips are up, and I’m cherishing them as many of them have been eaten by the mysterious rodent or muscalid.
It was a mixed bag of a weekend, with a perfect sunny day, a frosty night, and then a rainy day followed by a misty morning. The flowers were picked in the rain, and photographed as picked – a great opportunity for photographing water droplets but a very drooping arrangement. Back at home I found a better vase for them and they are now all dry and standing up nicely.
As you can see I have added a bit of everything, including the first red tulip, on quite a short stem this year.
Unbelievably Rose Gertrude Jekyll is still flowering, to go with the pink hyacinths overwintered in the fridge, rejected by the tulip eaters in their shared pots.
Narcissus are still coming on, buried in the clay and poisonous enough that they don’t appeal to animals. Iris unguicularis and the green Hellebore x sternii are still going strong.
Pretty much everything in the vase is scented, although I’ve noticed that my Wallflower ‘Bowles Mauve’ doesn’t have much scent compared to the yellow one. Has anyone else noticed that? Or is it just this one?
The pink Fuschia from C’s aunt had a few last flowers, and my 5 Sam Arnott Snowdrops made it through to flower again this year, although they don’t seem to have increased in number.
Cathy who hosts this meme at Rambling in the Garden is featuring a snowy theme this week.
Absent Gardener 
Remarkably beautiful!
Thank you!
Oh those colours were a real pleasure to see, Cath – oil painting colours is what was brought to mind, if you see what I mean. Such a richness about them – and what interesting vase-fellows they are, with a late rose and an early tulip! Such a well balanced vase – thanks for sharing it
Thank you Cathy 🙂 It’s great to have IAVOM to inspire me to do it as I really enjoy my vase all week, especially in these rainy winter days. It was interesting to see how the wide mouthed vase worked so much better than the jar for this type of arrangement.
It’s wonderful how IAVOM had motivated us all 🙂
Gorgeous arrangement, texture, colors, everything. I can’t grow tulips or daffodils in Florida, or at least not very easily, so I have bulb envy. 🙂 Beautiful post.
Thank you 🙂 Tulips are a bit difficult here, I’m also envious of people who can grow them from year to year in the garden. But I can do that with Dahlias. Is it too humid for Dahlias where you are?
Fuchsias and tulips in the same vase, are you in Heaven?
It’s slightly more cold and rainy than I had expected heaven to be 🙂
A gorgeous mixture made prettier by the rain drops. I never noticed Bowles Mauve had a fragrance when I had one a few years ago. Certainly nothing like the shorter lived bedding wallflowers.
Ah, I just assumed that Bowles Mauve should be scented – the other Erysimum I have, which is supposed to be Pastel Patchwork (but seems more yellow) is strongly scented. It flowers for longer than Bowles, so sometimes it seems to get exhausted by flowering, but it mostly lives for at least 3 years.
Lovely and singing of spring. I wish I could catch the scents and grow some of those Fuchsias, they are wonderful.
Thank you 😊 can you grow Michelia? There are some new cultivars raised here which have larger flowers with awesome scent, all on a manageable sized shrub.
I don’t know, I know of the shrub though. I will see. The ‘soil’ -sugar sand is a limiting factor for some things like that.
What a delightful selection. Did Gertrude Jekyll flower over Winter? Or is it just early? Amazing
GJ has just continued. It was quite a wet summer, so we didn’t have a great summer season of roses, so I guess she’s making up for that. 🙂
Better late than never then!
A lovely mixed bouquet that speaks of spring, Cath. It’s beauty is enhanced by the water droplets.
Thank you Eliza It was certainly a good day for water droplet photos, and they are beautiful on the tulip especially I think.
I especially love that last shot of the Fuchsia. 🙂 Your spring bouquet is quite lovely!
I know I say the same thing almost every week but I am fascinated in the range of plants that flower at the same time in your garden. Tulips and roses or even more unusually Narcissus and roses and Fuchsia. It certainly makes for a beautiful interesting vase.
The feeling of abundance is palpable.