MARCH

Whenever I sit down at my desk to write these ‘What’s out now’ posts, I go back and look at what I wrote last year. Gather has been going a while now and I can often go back a few years. With the magic of a Lightroom catalog, many more years than that. Every time it’s different though, especially at this time of year. The start of March is a different beast to the end. Some Marches are full of popping tulips, and some full of snow. I do believe that this one has turned a corner though; there is a warmth that means we have stepped into spring and there is absolutely no going back now.

I have one single variety of tulip in flower though, and so I am not yet so certain in declaring it tulip season. And I am (unusually) ok with that. For now is the time of the daffodil. I kept myself going with some indoor narcissi but they were flung aside when the real deal arrived. My village is famous for its daffodil drifts and no, I still don’t like the common yellows (few of my instagram posts have been quite so contentious), the paler form of Narcissus pseudonarcissus is adored, as much for its name as anything else. I don’t think that is what is slowly creeping across the orchard. The bulbs planted around the fruit trees were meant to be a mix of heady doubles in tones of gold and cream. They aren’t. But I have done my best with them, so here they are.

Other flowers in bloom right now:

Japanese quince - ‘Texas Scarlet’

Exquisite tiny epimedium flowers from some plants bought at NGS open gardens in the Isle of Wight last August, photographed with unidentified heuchara leaves, ditto.