Yesteday was spent with my lovely friend, Raewyn who invited me to join her for afternoon tea. Where will this friends’ reunion take place I hear you ask? Well, any garden centre will do so we did a few! We started at Fryers’ because I wanted to check out the roses for my garden arch and their tea room is a delight. Then we called in at High Legh as it was on our way home, no we didn’t have tea and scones there as well! Must be the first and only time we have ever come home empty handed, but we did come home with lots of ideas. I am looking for tall shrubs that will act as a screen alongside the archway such as, Ilex, Daphne, viburnum or even a flowering cherry.

This morning I decided to spend a couple of hours pottering.  At first, the sun was making every effort to shine, but in the end, it was just me in the cold and rain. I started by digging up what was once a beautiful yellow rose with blooms like huge buttercups. When I first planted it, it was floriferous and I was forever trimming it back to fit the small space it was occupying. Last year I decided to move it and it was not at all happy. It hardly grew at all, just a few small leaves on spindly stems and no flowers whatsoever – it was in a real sulk. I am hoping that, if I can revive it, it would be a lovely specimen to grow up my new garden arch.

I also dug up a spirea from the front rockery. I don’t know why I planted it among the silver leaved plants, it just didn’t look right so it too is in temporary accommodation until I can find a new home for it (not necessarily in my garden). I trimmed away all the dead leaves from the strawberries. The new leaves are already well-established so at least now they can see the light.

I was so excited to see the first of the snowdrops that I planted last year.  Several pretty primulas have been happily flowering since November
This solitary anenome has also been stoically flowering since before Christmas I love this helleborus, it never lets me down and, true to form, the beautiful flowers are in hiding beneath the evergreen foliage.