I Love Spring!

I took a little stroll in the garden this morning.

Hedelg-finger Riesenkirsche in the border next to the porch.

Lupins I started from seed last year.

I hope to see them flower this summer.

Forget-me-not blue.

I'd forgotten I had imported this little beauty from my oma's garden last year: a pleasant surprise!

Phlox subulata "Candy Stripes". I introduced this little beauty this year. It's really cute, so I hope it feels at home.

Aquilegia. Just another example of how it pays to look closely, before the brightness of the flower draws our eye. How prety is that?

The peonies in the front garden are coming into bud. This year I left last years dry stems in place as support for this years blooms.

Acillea millefolium "Cerise Queen", new to the front garden. I also planted Potentilla atrosanguinea. The front garden has been a bit neglected last year, so there are a lot of weeds (grass mostly) and I had to take out the box (because of the moth), so it's looking a bit sad right now.

Since a few years I keep violets in pots for a bit of winter cheer.

The tulip have done their thing.

The new leaves on the Wisteria are pretty, but every year I'm hoping for some flowers at last ... what am I doing wrong?

A pot planted with white pansies (Marieke's choice), Bellis perennis and pink forget-me-nots.

Back garden. I made the garden arch from a plan in Geoff Hamilton's "Cottage Gardens". The chicken have moved to the back garden for a while, to keep the weeds there (a lot of bindweed!) in check.

In my pajamas!

This fuchsia overwintered in the orangerie. That is just a fancy word for the attachment to the back of the house, that is mudroom, laundry room and cloak room all in one. Because the roof is transparent polycarbonate and we keep out the frost with a little heater, it is also ideal for overwintering tender plants.

In spring this room is bursting with anticipation!

Dahlia.

Iceland poppies.

Giant sunflowers, each of my four kids sowed three seeds.

More Iceland poppies, not exactly thriving in the paper pots...

Topolino sunflowers: a lovely gentle shade of yellow, and small enough to serve as cut flower.

That was my garden tour. Sometimes I get discouraged by all the work. But I love it really, especially breeding my own plants from seeds or cuttings. And now I'm going to have me a nice bowl of cereal in the back garden, with Willem.