The garden at the proper start of spring - March 2016

For us in Essex, March has been a lovely month with lots of sunny warm days. With this the garden starts to come back to life. The first things to appear are the Crocuses and Daffodils, however they have been flowering since late December in some cases due to the very warm winter we had. Now though the light levels through March and April increase dramatically.
This increase in light tells plants to start growing and they have. Colour and new foliage is starting to appear like the Primula and Saxifraga. The doors and windows for the greenhouse find themselves now open during the day, within, the Dahlia and Canna tubers and rhizomes have been unwrapped and when active buds appear they will be potted up or planted outside. The delightful colored stems of the Dogwoods have usually served their purpose by Late March, so they along with the dead Sedum seed heads have been pruned down.

The SRGC seed from November have started to germinate and the later flowering crocus that was sown last may is also germinating. More surprisingly is the Anemone pavonia seed is sowed is also had germinated in December, having been sown at the opposite end of the year to which it should have been. This gives my theory of  'Spring flowering plants are usually best sown in autumn, regardless of when the seed is set' some more credibility. Which I think is rather odd because you would think the seeds of a plant would germinate when the parent plant is in growth.

The lawn has also been given it's first cut of 2016. The cut height is quite high. The edges have also been given some much needed attention. From Mid November to Late March we leave the lawn alone and don't cut it. This is because it gets very hot especially in the top part of our garden and it gets baked to nearly death in summer and winter and spring to recover a little before summer heat sets in.
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Primulas

In autunm 2015 I bought some Primula auricula hybrids form ebay (I was expecting them to arrived either dead, dry or rotting away. But no they came with green leaves and exellent rootsystems. In total I brought nine and potted them up the next day. 

Fast forward to today (28th March) two are flowering in the greenhouse. 'Blue Chip and 'Lord saye an saye'. 

Primula auricula  'Blue Chip'

Primula auricula 'Lord saye an saye'

Primulas, Polyanthus, denticulatas and oxlips (P. elatior) are also providing a excellent spring time color show.

This garden is located at the front of the house, just beyond the patio. It stays wet here in summer only receiving sunlight early in the morning up to about 10am.
In November we planted spring flowering bulbs here but In winter it may even get too wet here because I planted two types of fritillaria here (meleagris and imperialis. Snakes head and Crown imperial). None of which have come up, apart from just one snakes head.
It can only be assumed that the bulbs rotted away in the waterlogged heavy clay soil over winter.

In the greenhouse the frst of the primulas in pots are making a break throght the surface of stones. Primula sikkimensis and Primula maximowiczii. These are put onto the patio where it is shady later in the year. Where they continue to grow and flower.

Primula sikkimensis

Primula maximowiczii

Upon the benches are more primula I purchased form ebay. Primula alpicola and its two subspecies. I already have Primula alpicola subsp. alba in a pot just like sikkimensis and maximowiczii mentioned above.

I bought 2 of each. So six pots altogether. The two subspecies are Primula alpicola subsp. luna and Primula alpicola subsp. violacae. These plants are destined for the garden in pots because they would rot if planted straight out. Another plus is this species have a nice sweet smell.
Another I purchased was one i have never grown before, Primula munroi subsp yargongensis this is smaller than alpicola but i find it to be more vigorous compared to it. It also is supossed to smell nice too.

P. alpicola subsp violacae breaking the surface

Flower buds of Primula munroi subsp yargongensis 

Also I purchased some curiosities in the shape of five oak-leaf Primula. Not much Info on them other than that they were 'discovered' in 2001.

Unusall little things. These are also destined for the garden when they have nearly filled their pots with roots.

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In the cold frame

Things have gotten of to a surprisingly slow start. Only one pot is flowering and two are in bud. Others are either not growing or growing slowly. The only flowerer is the Fox-Grape Fritillary otherwise known as Fritillaria uva-vulpis. Others that are in bud are Fritillaria meleagris and Tulipa hagerei 'Little Beauty'

Fritillaria uva-vulpis

  

     Tulipa hagerei 'Little Beauty' flower buds

Fritillaria meleagris flower bud

The cold frame is only about half a year old. It was built in August and September last year. It is home to the potted bulbs and anything that requires protection in its first winter outside. The general view of the frame is below with the pots of bulbs on the left and things being protected on the right.

Many of the pots on the right will be moved out to make space for this years seedlings.

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Other thing worth mentioning.

The Dahlia and Canna tubers where potted up today. The larger ones had water misted around the roots to give them a head start.

Bare rooted perennials from J Parkers where potted up a couple of weeks ago. Just started to grow above ground. There are a mix of Geraniums, Astrantias and Echinaceas here.

Overwinter under fleece in the green house the Abutilon megapotanicum has started to grow also has started to flower in the last week. I hope Aphids and Rust keep away this year.

In Febuary I saw seeds of a rare South American bulb called Pamianthe peruviana, They where relitivly cheap for what the where. I expected no germination. But One seed has germinated this week. 

The Plant is a large one it is grown like an Orchid, with very little soil. It has large white secnted flowers with green stripes on them. It will be about 3 to 6 years before this little seedling is mature enough to flower. 

See you this time in April. From here the garden will only pick up in pace.