Crocus and camellia

A couple of frosts but mostly mild and very wet. Camellia flowering well but getting bedraggled from the rain. Crocuses popping out but I don't have a patch of them and they're too small to look impressive.

We have three camellias; one looks very yellowy and not very well; the other two are vibrant and green-leaved, but only this one of the three has any flowers.

Shy hellebore

Mid January and these helleborus orientalis have come out beautifully. But they are really low on the ground and all the beautiful bits are underneath, so you never really notice how they lovely they are unless you kneel down, lean over, and lift them up, as I did to photograph them.

First frost

First frost since last winter has come really late - third week of January; made everything beautiful. We have some perennial wallflowers already in blossom; the small camellia  (Adolphe Audusson) is just getting ready to flower, and the leaves of the evergreen ceolanthus (California Lilac) look fab with frost on.

Digitalis - foxgloves

These were amongst the first seeds I ever bought, and I huge disappointment at the time, because I didn't realise they didn't flower until the year after you sow them! Oddly, though, quite a few didn't flower the second year either, and so these are the flowers that sat all through two winters before flowering, bless them. I don't remember what sort they were so I can't be more specific. Behind and amongst them is the honesty, that flowered before I started the blog, but which I'll photograph later as the seed pods dry out more. Amazing how a terrible view - across the road are two houses that favour rusting vehicles and building materials to landscape, while behind me is my own rusting vehicle and my ancient garage  - can look great if you kneel down enough, and point the lens in the right direction!

Nigella – love in a mist

Grew these two years ago, but they self-seed a bit, and the rest I fill in by saving the seeds, which are copious, and sprinkling them in gaps in late spring, though they take a little while to germinate after you sow them. They're delicate, a bit fairytale, and everybody admires them for their fine, elegant foliage and exquisite flowers. They're about a 18-20 inches high, on average.

Pyracantha (Firethorn)

I thought this was a sort of hawthorn, because the flowers are just like hawthorn flowers and the smell of them, that warm, cow-like, Maytime scent, is the same - but the leaves aren't serrated like they are in the hedge nearby. I'll try to check on the berries later in the year to see what sort it is.

Hieracium aurantiacum - fox and cubs.

This one grows by spreading itself underground, then popping up, leaf-first, so much so that I had one small plant 18 months ago and now I have it in four places, because I have to keep digging bits up and moving them. The foliage is a bit weedy - low and wild-looking, but the flowers are very bright orange - like a more orange dandelion, but on a really tall stalk.