Until Sunday there were white frosts every morning and some days the temperature only rose above freezing by a few degrees, the beginning of this week has had greyer skies but it has been warmer. On Sunday we were treated to a wonderful sunset, which is the thing I probably enjoyed more than anything else this week.
Euphorbia rigida is always early to flower
Euphorbia rigida, it self seeds profusely in the gravel
Teucrium flowers in its quiet way all winter keeping bees happy
Crocus, I don’t seem to be there with the camera when they open
Anemone coronaria ‘Mr Fokker’
Iris unguicularis, the large clump under the mutabilis roses, I see these whenever I leave the house
Iris unguicularis in the back border (woodland walk), a newly establishing clump
Flowers forming on Rhamnus alaternus in the new evergreen planting
Elaeagnus in the new planting, I haven’t noticed the dupes forming like this on my pre-existing shrub
Sunday’s glorious sunset
Sunday’s glorious sunset
Sunday’s glorious sunset
What are you enjoying in your garden this week?
Creating my own garden of the Hesperides 
We haven’t any sunsets as glorious as yours Christina, but we do have sun forecast tomorrow, I am hoping very much to enjoy that! The Iris unguicularis as you leave your house must bring a smile each time you see them.
The Iris unuicularis are a great joy, they have been flowering since early December. They are worth waiting for the plant to clump up which can be quite slow but once at a mature size they flower for months and months. I’m so glad I planted them where I did.
What an infectious post, It has made me smile too. The sunsets pics are breathtaking.
We are so lucky that our sitting room window faces in this direction so we have the full benefit of winter sunsets; I’m always amazed (but shouldn’t be because I know the science) that sunsets in summer are way to the right of this view by what appears to be 90°.
I love to see crocus valiantly coming through the ground with Autumn leaves scattered among them. Soon be Spring!!
I haven’t cleared this bit of the border yet, I must remember next year that the crocus flower early.
Wonderful! Seems like spring is right around the corner here in North Carolina, USA
So you didn’t suffer the snow storm I saw in the news? Here, it feels like spring but there is plenty of time for more cold weather.
Such a gorgeous sunset, we had five days of frost and after that I’ve been in the garden everyday. It has been the mildest winter I’ve seen in years.
It’s great you’ve been able to enjoy being in your garden Charlie; mild winter days are a real bonus aren’t they?
Such lovely photographs! Last autumn I planted an Elaeagnus angustifolia because I like the senjed fruit it produces. It has yet to fruit but I wonder if that is what you have got. The fruit should be about the size of a large date and is powdery inside. Amelia
This is an evergreen Elaeagnus; angustifolia is deciduous. I have read that these are edible too, I wonder if I’ll be brave enough to try one! The other plant ( that I thought was the same) is much larger and is always covered in flowers from autumn and through the winter does have a few fruit but they don’t look the same, I’m going to do some research. What is your plant like?
My E. angustifolia has leaves on! Checking back I planted it in November 2014 (time passes) and it has never lost its leaves and is looking very healthy. I bought it online from a nursery. I think I need to do some research too, there must be more varieties than I had thought. 🙂
There are lots of varieties, I’m pretty sure the two that I thought were the same are different apart from the very different ones. My evergreen Elaeagnus flower late autumn and winter whereas the deciduous one flowers in spring.
I’ve just checked on my supplier’s online catalogue and it is deciduous. Perhaps the leaf fall is temperature dependant or perhaps I’ve got the wrong plant. I hope it will flower this spring and let me find out a bit more about it.
All your photos are gorgeous, but wow–the sunsets are stunning.
Thanks Tina – I always love the sunsets!
that Teucrium is delicately exquisite!
Teucrium might be my favourite shrub in the entire garden; it flowers for months (typically November to May), needs no irrigation whatsoever and can be clipped into shape or left to grow in a more airy way.
There’s such intense colour in those sunsets. You’ve taken a beautiful set of photos. You should submit them to where like the BBC weather watch scheme. I like the look of your Rhamnus alaternus. The mellow tones of the flowers are very appealing.
We are lucky to have wonderful sunsets here. I’m pleased with this set because I didn’t use any special ‘sunset’ setting or any enhancement so it really was as intense as you can see.
That’s a gorgeous sunset, Christina! Am I imagining things or are your bulbs particularly early this year? In contrast, the flowers are much slower to arrive here this year, probably because the temperatures have remained on the cool side for an extended period. Even some of my winter bloomers have been slow to show but I suppose that could be a drought effect too. However, I was surprised by a hellebore bloom this week.
I checked last year’s images and the yellow crocus flowered in mid-January last year too and the Yellow Iris I showed in the vase last week also put up one stem in January 2015, so actually things are pretty much the same. I’m glad I looked at the photo archive because it shows I bought dahlias and gladioli from a local store at this time of year so I must go to check it there stock has arrived! So thank you for the question?
That’s a beautiful sunset Christina. That would certainly make me smile. We had a lovely morning sky yesterday, just for a few minutes. I really love the Euphorbia. Can’t wait to see a crocus in my garden!
I’m sure it won’t be too long before your Crocus appear, Cathy. The sunsets are lovely, I removed some of the Leylandii hedge so we could enjoy them later in the year too.
Lovely iris flowers, Christina, and you’ve done a good job on capturing the sunset. It has been so mild and lots of flowers in our garden: Acacia dealbata, Magnolia ‘Leonard Messel’ (rather silly of him!)…very upset about the blackbirds that have killed almost all my crocuses. They’ve turned into such destructive creatures.
What a shame the blackbirds destroy your Crocus; I’m just hoping that the mice don’t find my tulips this year.
Yes, what glorious sunset photos!
Plenty to smile about there! Love euporbia rigida, and of course the teucrium. Mine is filling out nicely, and I have cuttings growing on well. I have dreams of adding irises to flower in front of a little curvy hedge. Glorious sunsets.
Lovely to hear from you again Janet; I hope all is well.
Well but stupidly busy! And determined to get more gardening done this year, which will hopefully also translate into more blogging too…
Everything is frozen solid now, though there’s hardly any snow. I get the most pleasure from watching the birds at the feeders from our cozy back porch.
That sounds a great activity Jason; I think our collared doves already have a nest – I’m not so happy about that as they make such a noise.
Glad you shared what was making you smile this week! Your blooms and your colorful skies are really beautiful.
It has become mild again now and the thing that is making smile most now is just being able to work outside.
What a stunning sunset! Euphorbia rigida has such great structure and blooms, too. It is exciting to see signs of spring. Our weather is warming up this week, and I am looking forward to getting in the garden. I have been working in my arbor garden. It has been a problem area since its inception; but after being redesigned a couple of times, it is finally beginning to develop into a lovely area.
I’ve been able to be outside working in the garden this past week; it is lovely to find small gems of flowers that I wouldn’t have noticed just wandering around.
Wow that is a stunning sunset….and what a delight to see early bulbs blooming. They like your recent frost.
The yellow crocus always flowers this early whatever the weather or temperatures.
I was smiling right along with you…and oh, those dramatic skies!
Spectacular sunset. Bonus after all those lovely flowers.
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