THE WEATHER -

It's official! This has been the sunniest March on record, with the least rainfall, and one degree warmer than average. The first week started quite cold with a few showers, but the following three weeks were really beautiful - clear, warm, sunny days, but still frosty on many nights. Sunday 23rd was the warmest day - almost like summer! It's now been about three weeks since it rained, and the sodden soil is at last becoming workable. It's not all good news though, as I've had to get out the hose to water my pots, which have become very dry! Dull and cool on the 28th, then back to sunny and warm weather again right until the end of the month.

Maximum temperature 19°C (68°F), minimum temperature minus 3°C (27°F).

I was surprised to see a couple of flowers on my Alocasia sanderiana, a lovely plant with deep green leaves and silver veins. The flowers usually appear in the summer, but these are very early, and show the typical hooded flowers of the aroid family. This plant usually resides in the conservatory for most of the year, but I bring it into the house over winter, as I've found that the conservatory is too cold from around November to March for this tropical plant. I shall re-pot it and put it back in the conservatory at the end of the month.

Crocuses are just wonderful at this time of the year, with their clumps of beautiful flowers which herald the spring. This is 'Saturnus', which has yellow flowers which are striped with bronze on the outside. I bought these earlier in the year, around January, and am really pleased with them!

My Pieris japonica 'Valley Rose' is a picture at the moment, absolutely covered with beautiful pink flowers. This is an evergreen shrub which prefers acid soil. Since moving this plant a couple of years ago from a deeply shaded position where it never flowered, it has gone from strength to strength, and now flowers profusely.

Corylopsis pauciflora is a shrub which is absolutely covered in flowers at the moment. It flowers on bare stems, as the leaves appear later on, after the flowers have died. My plant is only small, around 2 feet high, but although its name is pauciflora, there is certainly no paucity of flowers! The only drawback is that there is no scent from the flowers, but the quantity certainly makes up for that.......

Forsythia is a very common shrub, but just because it's common doesn't mean it isn't good! Mine is full of lovely bright yellow starry flowers - a really cheerful sight on an early spring day. I shall cut it back after flowering, to encourage strong new shoots which will flower next year.

I'm very fond of Narcissi (commonly known as Daffodils!), as they make such a show from February until April, depending on the variety. This one is called 'Jetfire', and has medium sized flowers with a yellow perianth (the row of outer petals and sepals) and orange corona (the trumpet or cup). I have several clumps of these in the garden, originally purchased cheaply from Tesco, as they were past their best, and planted out, since when they have spread very well. When they are in full flower, as in the picture, they are stunning! I love the smell of Daffodils, too - they epitomise spring for me - and the poem of the month, below, is all about the way the smell of a flower is its inner soul. Very true.......

That's all for this month...... Happy Gardening!!

Blackbird, Blackcap, Blue Tit, Chaffinch, Collared Dove, Crow, Dunnock, Goldfinch, Great Tit, Greenfinch, House Sparrow, Long-tailed Tit, Magpie, Robin, Rook, Seagull, Starling, Thrush, Wood Pigeon, Wren.

FRAGRANCE
Patience Strong

God gives us many perfect gifts, of sight and touch and smell,
And many other lovely things too numerous to tell -
But what a strange, exquisite thing is this mysterious power
To draw within ourselves the very spirit of a flower....

And as I sit here in my room so quiet and so still,
I catch the drifting fragrance of a golden daffodil -
I breathe the inner soul of it - it yields itself to me -
I tremble on the threshold of this hidden mystery....

It tells me spring is on its way in spite of rain and cold,
It whispers of the budding tree and days of green and gold -
And I can face the hours of waiting, patient and serene -
Content with this sweet message from the world of the unseen.