The British weather is well known as variable, over the last couple of weeks we seem to have had most types so the poor plants don’t know whether they’re coming or going! Mother’s Day weekend (26th and 27th March here in the UK) was beautiful, warm and sunny, we even ventured out with bare legs and summer dresses on! The blossom on the cherry trees around Otley was looking very pretty, my magnolia stellata was just starting to open it’s delicate flowers…

I have a gorgeous white camellia by the side of the drive and that was looking beautiful too…

Then on Thursday morning we woke up to this…

By the afternoon most of the snow had gone but I really thought the delicate blossoms would be a brown and soggy mess. Some of the camellia blooms have been lost but to my surprise the magnolia is still looking beautiful. You can see it in the last photo of this post, still brightening up the garden. This is one of my favourite trees in my garden, I tried to reproduce it in embroidery recently for my embroidered garden book…

I’ve lots of rose bushes in the garden so one of my first tasks in the garden this year was to prune them all. At the top of the garden along the back fence I planted a rosa rugosa hedge many years ago, it hasn’t been the success I’d hoped as the trees on the old railway line behind have grown and block too much light out. I’ve got two types of rose there, what I call hedgehog rose, which has lots of softer prickles on it’s stems, I can cope with those! The others are more of a traditional wild rose, they have evil thorns!! They are really hooked and sharp so they catch on everything and hook together! Well I decided I’d had enough! The evil ones are going!! I’ve started digging out the roots and sorting out the bed on the left of the path. I’ve replanted some shrubs and perennials which had outgrown their space such as my magenta flowered geranium. I’ve still plenty of room to fit the occasional purchase I might make at the Harrogate Flower Show at the end of the month!

Elsewhere in the garden early flowers are giving some welcome colour, the trees are just starting to show a hint of new leaves and lots of perennials are starting to push their shoots up. This camellia by the conservatory seems to have survived the snow reasonably well, the lovely silvery leaves underneath are brunnera Jack Frost, together with a greener one which appeared a couple of years back, that one is even starting to flower already. They look a bit like forget-me-not flowers.

Another favourite at this time of year is the Pasque flower, or pulsatilla vulgaris. I’ve got purple ones and maroon ones, the buds are pretty, all sort of fluffy, the flowers are beautiful and then the seed heads are really pretty too. I used to have a semi-circle of them around the patio but I seem to have lost a few over the years so I really need to plant a few more.

There’s lots to do in the garden at this time of year, I’m still tidying up and weeding at the moment as well as trying to sort out the back hedge area. It keeps me out of mischief! The garden is just starting to green up and fill out a bit after the winter’s rest. This is the view from upstairs today, as you can see, the magnolia is still shining brightly…