Camelia flowers and other garden news.

The chamomile is looking a bit brown after the winter and I need to sprinkle some compost on to encourage side shoots of new growth. This advise was included on the information sheet that came with it, as was the fact that chamomile does not like stony ground. So why is it spreading quite happily into the stones surrounding it? Uncharacteristic and revolutionary behaviour! (And I spent hours removing stones from its little patch too!) It looks like a tiny section of Dungeness in this view from above.

I think these multi-leaved bulbs are my snake's head fritillaries-which I thought had long gone. I am quite excited that they have come back, as they are so beautiful and strange with their chequered pattern.

And here is the Camelia-the star of the garden this week. It lives in this pot because of its love of ericaceous soil, and it does very well considering. Last year there were lots of promising buds in some late winter warmth, but then a frost-or possibly even some snow, killed them off and hardly any opened. This year it has lots of flowers and shines out pinkly in the sun when it is out.

A view from behind the hedge-the jasmine, which needs pruning but which provided Cassie with a prickly seat for about twenty minutes when I was out there on Sunday! She was trying to retain her dignity but without much success. These pictures are taken using the miniaturise setting on my camera-I like the blurry look of them and the way it slightly distorts the colours.

Flower in focus, fuzzy cat.

Fuzzy flower, cat in focus.

You may be able to see that I have been digging up the path. No progress has been made since last year on how to make it into a proper path, how to mend the shed, etc etc. However, rather than waste the growing season, and all this lovely unplanted space-which will only become covered in weeds, I have decided to make a meadow of annuals. I was inspired to do so by a programme I saw a while ago with Sarah Raven, all about an ongoing campaign to reassign some public planting areas in cities as meadows, rather than either grass or bedding plants. The reason for this of course being the need to provide plants for pollinating insects. It was lovely to see these areas of pretty meadow springing up. I would love to do something like this in Forest School when I finally get it back from the clutches of the builders. In the meanwhile I will test ideas here. I have bought some annual seed mixes and am going to start sewing soon. If you sew seeds in cycles the flowering is prolonged. I really do not know if it will work but it is worth a try!