Getting lighter every day.

I know it is hard to believe in the first week  of January that the days are actually starting to lengthen, but they are.  That said, the bulbs in the garden are not showing much growth.  I have quite a lot of crocus, daffodils, tulips and some hyacinth (which tend to revert to bluebells) in the front and back garden and they are very hard to find.  Usually the daffs are easy to spot by now.

crocus ?

The free bulbs (a bag of daffodils) that I get every year from Summerseat are doing brilliantly in their container.  This is the one that I am test running for the company that makes them and it is holding up well to the hostile weather.

There is always compensation indoors from my two fantastic orchids (Phalaenopsis).  They are a couple of years old now and managed to put on a terrific show for Christmas both years.

They must be the one of the lowest maintenance plants ever.  Very little watering, very little feeding and they do this a couple of times a year and the flowers last for months.  How could it get any better.

As for something which is nigh on totally neglected here comes another one.  I have had this Christmas cactus (Schlumbergera bridgessii) so long that I have no idea when I got it - literally years ago.  I have never re-potted it and it must be choked to death in its original pot.  It gets moved hither and yon depending on what I want to do with any surface or windowsill and gets it gets watered and fed if its lucky.  In return it does this for me.

This year I am hoping to change the borders over to just flowering shrubs - this does include the roses and trees and shrubs already in place.  I want to start to remove the perennials and replace with shrubs as and when I can afford it, or see something I like, not necessarily the same thing!  It will be tough to do as I love flowers and can not imagine living without basics like poppies and columbines and many others.  My thinking is that as I get older the garden needs to be more and more trouble free and a shrubbery seems to be the way to go.