february in the garden

 It's been a warmish month, and the flowers have come on fast, indoors and out. February in the garden has brought snowdrops and bulbicodium daffodils outside, orchids inside.

I've felt frustrated by the level of flowers; mostly because it's against a bit of background of tragedy; Pieris gone, Bay Tree gone, my 20 year old rhododendron, gone.... 

 

There a sense of pallor about the flowers that come up in early February, the snowdrops and the early iris, the hellebore. So pale, so interesting, so vague in the gloomy half-light of January. Thank goodness for the Bulbicodium, a tiny hoop petticoat daffodil that is like cheerfulness in flower form.

 

Finally comes the Fuji Cherry, which I'm sure was called something else back when I bought it. It's increasingly dissatisfied with life in the pot so I'm tempted to set it free this year. The little black flower on my lockdown bench is a garden regular.