The sun has shone all day and better still I had time to be in the garden all day to enjoy the warmth on my back as I weeded, cleared and finished pruning the wisteria on the Pergola over the terrace.I finished most of the wisteria on the 2nd February but only had the time and the weather on my side to finish the last small part today. The surprise is that today there were fat, fat buds – definitely flower buds and not foliage and that on one or two you could see colour – that means it will flower very early this year, that makes me very happy indeed.
Pruned wisteria against the sky (2nd February) The buds are now much fatter.
I am very aware that when I write my posts on a sunny day I am full of hope and positive, when it’s raining or very windy I soon slip into a more negative mood. But these weekly posts are showing me that something is beautiful each week; I feel very blessed.
Anemone The Bride
I love these, I want to plant more Anemones each year they are one of my earliest flowers and continue flowering over a very long period – what’s not to love about them.
In the Crimson zone Anemone Sylphide
This makes me smile a lot, can you see where it is? In the gravel path – that means it has seeded itself!
Muscari are appearing all over the garden, they all need dividing
Not sure which tulips these are but I think they will be flowering by the weekend – I love that! These are in the Left hand border.
I’m surprised and pleased that I now know that if I refrigerate my tulips when they are delivered and plant them in December I can have tulips from mid-February usually it is April. That means new tulips will flower early but those that have been in the ground for a number of years will be later really extending the season. I don’t like to pick tulips from the garden so will continue to plant as many as I can afford into pots in the greenhouse to cut for the house.
Tulip Purrissima
Our native Freesia so sweetly scented
Tulip Exotic Emperor
Can you see how bright the light is and that was at about 4pm today.
Tulip Exotic Emperor
One of the great things about Exotic Emperor is that they all flower together making a really good show. This is fast becoming my favourite tulip.
What are you enjoying in your garden today? Does the weather affect your mood as much as it does mine? Enjoy your week, Christina
Creating my own garden of the Hesperides 
There’s definitely something about spring and spring blooms/foliage that lifts the spirits. That new growth holds so much promise.
that’s one of the pleasures of clearing the beds and borders in spring you discover all the new shoots just under the surface covering of leaves from last autumn.
Tulips in February, how fab is that.
The weather most definitely influences my mood. I’ve just spent the first afternoon outside for many weeks. Me and the garden are singing!
You wouldn’t want to hear me sing, but I was singing in my heart!
Sounds such a fantastic day! I love finding the self-seeded plants – you have to respect their ambition. I’m thinking of giving up gardening and taking up joinery to start an ark. I get low when I can’t get out because of the rain. Amelia
Our weather is often quite similar Amelia but not this winter, we’ve had only average rainfall.
Interesting, I thought all Europe was getting soaked this year, must just feel like it.
It isn’t that we haven’t had rain but just not excessive. Having just checked the forecast for today it predicts rain all day but only 0.1 mm in any one hour which often means it doesn’t actually rain here at all!
Its lovely to hear the upbeat in your voice Christina, the weather affects my mood too, I can understand just how you feel. Today like you, we’ve enjoyed the bluest of skies and this afternoon was a balmy 8c. After seeing the Anemones on yours and Susie’s posts I am going to grow some too, they really do bring some early colour.
Plus the season of flowering for the Anemones is quite long so they may carry on for a couple of months. I should have said the temperature; I didn’t measure it but the last few days have been recorded as 15 -16 °C; it felt much warmer yesterday but I know official temperatures are always taken in shade and there wasn’t much of that in the garden yesterday.
You are blessed with some lovely color.
Yes, blessed is what I feel.
Oh, that blue sky!…and the light in your photos…and your upbeat attitude. I am now in a cheery mood, whatever our own weather may do today (we’ve been having bits of sunshine off and on this month, so I’m already cheerily inclined).
I’m glad I was able to add to your good mood Rickii. It’s a bit more cloudy today but it might burn off as it still feels very warm.
You’re so right, it’s much easier to feel positive on a fine day especially with so many beautiful flowers in full bloom. I love the way self seeders make themselves at home when conditions are just right.
I’ve been sprinkling the seeds around for a couple of years but not been sure any have germinated, gravel paths are always a good source of seedlings in my garden but this is the first Anemone!
How exciting to have anemones self-seed, Christina! I’m lucky if I can even get mine to rebloom a second or third year.
I wonder why that is; mine don’t receive any summer irrigation.
I am not liking this warmer winter as it is flooding us out badly in the garden….snow melt, and then many inches of rain makes for an unhappy garden and gardener….your post put a smile on my face….wish I could grow freesia!
The Freesias need a dry summer climate with free draining soil. I love their perfume. Sorry your winter has been less bearable than usual.
the freesias, are from South Africa. And we both love them.
I think of this form of Freesia being native here as my plants were a given to me by a friend; they had been in her grandmother’s garden and would not have been a special purchase so I think they have been naturalised here for many, many years. Next time I’ll try to refer to them as naturalised rather than native.
heritage plants with happy memories!
How lovely to have freesias in the garden. And those tulips really are pretty. Yes, the weather affects me more than I should like at this time of year – I get very low if winter is too long and grey, but this year we have had some sunshine every now and then which keeps me going! In summer, however, only an extreme heatwave or a very long period of rain that stops me working outside can dampen my spirits. 🙂
The intense heat of summer depresses me as much as long periods of grey (which fortunately is rare in Italy). I love the little Freesias and they are making good sized clumps around the garden so I will be able to divide them and have even more, although they take a couple of years before a new clump will flower.
We have had a couple of sunny days after many weeks of mostly wet weather. It makes a big difference to my mood and we were able to walk by the sea which helps as much.
Walking by the sea with all that expanse of sky as well as sea is always uplifting.
Your massed tulips make a lovely show, I’m not surprised you don’t like picking them. The anemones are lovely too, I’m waiting to see if mine come back this year before I try planting more.
I’ve been very pleased with how the Anemones return each year here, with your soil I’m sure you’ll have similar success.
Your wisteria is one of the first things I remember about your garden Christina! Nice to see it will be bringing you plenty of blooms again soon.
When we bought the house the first thing I wanted to do was build a pergola so we could have a wisteria. It is something I’d wanted almost my whole life.
There’s a lot to enjoy in your garden. Those freesias look delightful and I can imagine the scent. Well done on completing your wisteria. I wish I could say the same.
It is always a great feeling when the wisteria pruning is complete.
Excellent concept for a post. I love the golden yellow spot on the white Freesia.
There is also a little purple so even though the flower is small it makes an impact.
What a lovely spring garden you have Christina. And what a joy to be out in it on a warm spring day. Blessed indeed.
I have been out of action with a vicious virus, but soon, I shall be out there too, I can’ t wait.
I had a virus a couple of weeks ago but it wasn’t too bad; I think I gave to my brother in law when he was with us for the Rugby match in Rome; his version was much worse than mine so I felt very guilty!!
How exciting to see your wisteria buds – always a relief to see them emerging (well it is for me anyway!)… 😉
I really love the Freesia. Wish we could grow it here…..
We have just had a week of the loveliest spring weather, and now most of the fruit trees, especially the citrus, are about to burst into bloom. One plum tree is already in flower. The basil and rosemary have gone into overdrive. So our Cairo bees are busy all day collecting for the hive.
That said, your post made me nostalgic for the first spring flowers of home: snowdrops below the hedge in my parents’ garden in Hertfordshire, England. And I think your anemones are lovely!
Our plum trees are in blossom too, they are always quite early so I don’t think they are earlier than usual. Rosemary flowers here from October/November through until spring but Basil – no that it tender and my seeds for this year have just germinated but they are still on a propagating try keeping warm, they won’t flower until July. We saw snowdrops growing wild on the hills near us last weekend, so beautiful.
I think the weather affects most of us but how cheerful when you can look upon such treasures, Christina. The daffs have started to flower, it’s yellow everywhere. I too planted some anemones and hope they’ll come up this year.