Winter gardens tour

Hellebores and snowdrops were looking great in all the gardens visited; a white seedling with Galanthus 'S. Arnott' at Colesbourne Park.

I got back last night after a wonderful though intensive five days of seeing friends and visiting gardens, enjoying the richness of plants that enliven late winter as well as the first decent, warmish sunny days of the year. This is a selection of images from the trip.



My 'winter bling' bed at Colesbourne Park, looking good in its second winter. Yucca 'Color Guard' is outstanding for winter colour and texture.



The foliage of emerging herbaceous plants is an overlooked component of the winter garden: Corydalis temulifolia 'Chocolate Stars', at Colesbourne.

Another example: Iris foliage in an Oxfordshire garden.

Galanthus 'Ronald Mackenzie' - a yellow form of 'Daglingworth'

Galanthus nivalis 'Witchwood'

The garden of friends in Northamptonshire - for security reasons I am being coy about locations - a tapestry of colour and interest.

Galanthus 'Walker Canada'

Not a great picture, but this is one of the most exciting new snowdrops I've seen for ages: albino with a yellow ovary. It is called 'Yellow Angel'.

An extraordinary clump of G. nivalis 'Blonde Inge'

A richly coloured Ficaria verna seedling.

Rumex sanguineus and Cyclamen hederifolium at my parents'.

Another gold medal-winning display from Avon Bulbs at the RHS show on Tuesday. The dark plant in the centre is Lunaria annua 'Chedglow' - must get some seed of that!



A display of Cymbidium by McBean's. A plant of the green one, 'Scotch Mist', accompanied me home. Very inconvenient on the tube.



An unusually coloured selection of Hepatica japonica in John Massey's collection.

John Massey's grass border, still looking good after the winter. It is augmented by Berberis and other shrubs

A double green hellebore in John's garden: more on Ashwood hellebores in another post.