Winter wonders - Page 2

Well that's very nice photos and it  is nice to get out and about with out getting wet.The weather is sunny today and I might just escape outside to tidy up.Been for a walk at wrington,the weir was in full flood and the fields very sodden but I did spot a green woodpecker in the bush by the weir.

No wonder you are happy Marion, your garden looks lovely and a credit to you.

TY Pennine Petal.  I also have a lovely family and great friends and good health, but my garden is my inspiration for two of my great loves, poetry and painting.

Happy New Year Marion!  Keep on posting those inspirational photos  - looking forward to what will be popping up in your garden next. 

The sun was indeed a treat today. There's a lot going on under the leaves in my garden, the closer you look the more you see

I was out in garden taking pics today as well. Trouble is I will have to wait 'till laptop is sorted to do anything with them. Hope the wonderful weather continues

So do i, Bev as I was amazed at the number of birds that accompanied me in my labours yesterday.  It was so uplifting after seeing so few recentky.  The holly berrieshve now all been eaten but rosehips still abound so no need for birdseed yet.

My first day of 2013 as a volunteer at the Bristol Botanic garden and I knew it would not disappoint.  First the lovely hellebores -

Then the beaiutiful Iris unguilaris

And this lovely winter shrub I had not noticed before for colour -

And the Coronilla citrina which never

 fails to flower most of the year

This hellebore in bloom at the Bristol botanic Garden is called John's slate

A lare flowering Colchicum

Agrippinum

Thank you for the lovely photos Marion.

My photo earlier had the wrong name. It should have been "Eleagnus Gilt Edge".

Two varieties of Euonymus gunnei

 brightening up a dull January day.

And the beautifully perfumed Daphne "Jaqueline Posnill" kept drawing me back to

smell it.

I have those 2 varieties of euonymus, probably why I muddled it with eleagnus. What a lovely Daphne, wish I had one. I haven't seen any for sale here. Are they hardy? Do they mind limestone?

Quite hardy, Busy-Lizzie and we have alkaline soil in Bristol.  The species is Daphne bhuloa, I think.

you're an inspiration to us all, Marion, but you're right about gardening keeping us active!  My garrya is also a delight - and planted in heavy clay, never fed or looked after, and grows very well!  I have a Crazy for You rose planted in front of it which looks great later on in the year when the garrya gets a bit dowdy.  My other great favourite right now is a large Mahonia - covered in scented yellow flowers - much loved by the blue and great tits who eat the florets, and the blackbirds later in the year who bring their offspring to feed off the berries.  Many birds perch in it whilst waiting their turn on the bird feeders.

It has been so mild and dry today i have accomplished a lot in the winter garden and found my Hammamelis mollis (witch hazel), both red and yellow in flower and three or four brown wallflowers.  My evergreen ferns are delightful as well so must take my camera up tomorrow if i can walk after the last three hectic days of gardening.  I am so pleased it is not raining that i find it hard to stop for anything but food and drink!  Oh and my hellebores have buds on now too.