Well I wasn’t expecting THAT! A storm called Noa hit the south west of Cornwall in the early hours of Wednesday with 70mph gusts bringing heavy rain as well. The tulips were thrashed from side to side so often they suffered whiplash and the poor battered  Camellia in its already broken pot was tossed aside once more. As this plant has white flowers that get damaged by the wind and the rain turning them brown, it doesn’t look its best for long and now I’m not sure whether to simply call it a day. The safest place for it is inside the conservatory, but the pot is too heavy now for me to move.

This week we’re heading to the back of the garden where I have lots of narcissi planted into one of the raised beds. All white ones as this was formerly my ‘white bed’. (The ones in the header photo are N. Geranium, an heirloom narcissus dating to pre 1930. It is multi-headed and fragrant with pure white petals with an orange cup.)

Clematis koreana AMBER which was voted the winner of the coveted RHS Chelsea Plant of the Year 2016. It has soft yellow flowerheads, which sometimes have a faint pink blush to the edges of the pointed sepals.

This clematis is in a container at the moment as I actually bought it for the front courtyard, but it got badly eaten by snails there and didn’t do much in the way of flowering. Plenty of buds this year so I shall see how it does. Previously I have been underwhelmed by the flowers.

I sowed borage seeds during my first year here (2016) and have never been without. They do self-seed around the garden and can take over if you are not careful. The flowers are very nice popped onto a salad or in a Gin and tonic. I often freeze some in the ice cube tray especially for the G&Ts.

All the tulips are beginning to flower now, lots of older ones popping up in beds and containers (see this tulip post) and the new ones beginning to colour up too. Wednesday’s gale force winds don’t seem to have bothered them too much.

The Pulmonaria (Opal I think) is flowering again in the Woodland border. It practically disappeared entirely this year and I thought I had finally lost it as the leaves took ages to appear.

I have seven containers with new tulip bulbs this year, one of which is above.  Hopefully with the help of some sunshine  I might be able to feature them in  next week’s post.

Temperatures are set to rise this week with a fine weekend ahead so a chance to get out in the garden at last, though I am still being careful not to overdo things.

Jim of Garden Ruminations is now our host and as a former nurseryman has a lot more than the SOS happening over on his blog so well worth following. As always, if you want a peek over other people’s garden walls then please pop over to his site where you find links to many more wonderful garden enthusiasts from all over the world. See here for the participant’s guide.

Six on Saturday