In Bloom Today.

Erigeron aureus  "Canary Bird'.

Viola 'Sorbet Orange Duet'.

Blue and White.

This little urban front garden is not usually a pretty sight, but on a rainy day last week it stopped me in my tracks.  For a short while it's a thing of beauty; on a hot sunny day it might not have been so outstanding, but in the low light and humid atmosphere of that moment it seemed to shine.
 Soon the mix of blue and white violets will fade and even the foliage will be flattened by the lawn mower reducing this garden to the unremarkable patch of green bordered with daylilies and fenced in with chain-link.

Springtime Foliage.

Erythronium 'Pagoda' and Ligularia japonica.

Mr Woodrow?

One of my favourite plants is a lovely Agave I discovered as an off-shoot of A. angustifolia var. marginata.  Unlike its parent it was heavily variegated with the cream coloured edges of its parent but with jade coloured centres to the leaves.  It has taken close to a decade to grow it on to the fine plant it is today.
I posted the picture below on a Facebook group called "Planet Variegated Plant" and received a reply saying it was very much like A. angustifolia 'Mr. Woodrow', and on searching for an image for Mr. W. it certainly seems to be identical, making me think that this is a fairly common sport of the original plant.
Anyway what do you think? do you see any variation?

My sport of Agave angustifolia var. marginata.

'Mr. Woodrow'

Firm Favourites.

Here are some of my favourite Hellebores, and you can see from my choice that I am still faithful to some of my oldest plants even when new varieties have been bred with clearer colours, up-facing flowers and doubles.

Two of these are newer O'Byrne hybrids ( the darker double is 'Onyx Odessey' and one with  dark pink veins is  from the 'Cherry Blossom'  seed strain). All the other flowers are from plants that I've had in the garden for 10 years or more.

Clear whites and yellows along with mixes of pink and jade  green.

Cyclamen Update

At the beginning of this month I posted some pictures of  Cyclamen repandum and relatives. Some of these were C. balearicum, which usually have rather dull white or almost grey flowers, but I was happy to see one that had pink blooms with a darker "nose". Since then it has continued to impress me not only with its unusual colour but also by the fact that it's flowering machine. This one is definitely a keeper!

Add caption

Plant Graffiti.

 This is the last chance this year to enjoy the amazing patterns made by vines as they move up and along any vertical surface. In just a few days from now, these graphic lines will disappear beneath new shiny foliage.