What's growing?

While browsing my favourite blogs lately I came across Sue Garretts post 'On starting blocks and itching to go' and immediately I found myself eager to get outside with the camera and start snapping away at all the fresh growth bursting through the borders.
However once I got out there, far from the lovely buds Sue was greeted with, this is what I'm faced with

This is the first thing I'm greeted with, pretty naff huh! This is all damage caused by dogs and has made my lovely garden resemble a quagmire (insert sad face here).

But look what else I found, a Leycesteria Formosa self seeded seedling. Leycesteria aka Himalayan Honeysuckle ot Pheasant berry bush is a must have for my garden.
It's pretty hardy and is capable of staying in leaf all through the winter depending on its location. The wind has stripped the leaves off some of the plants I have in slightly more exposed areas (in other words 15ft to the right of the ones in full leaf) but even these will perk back up in Spring, will grow rapidly in one year and produce amazing Purple bracts for some months.

I love this Hebe for its enthusiasm all year round. This particular one is at least 10 years old now and despite being in an exposed garden the shrub is now approx 9ft in height and easily has a circumference of about 16ft - it's moosive!
This particular one flowers a couple of times of years and it's just coming to the end of a flowering point just now but it's still nice to be greeted with lovely Lilac flowers and plenty of greenery on these dismal winter days.
Another plant that is easy to propagate too, I literally snip off 6" cuttings from the ends any time from spring to early Autumn, strip all but the end leaves off and leave them in a small tub of water until they root approx 4 weeks later (depending on the time of year). They're then potted on and will romp away quickly.

I had planned to throw this Clematis out this year. I've had it about 7 years and it has never flowered so I figured it wasn't worth the effort but when you're faced with buds like this forming on it how can I throw it out? I can't remember the name of it and the label has faded too much but I keep records of these things so I'll check it out.
The plan now is to re-pot it in new compost, prune it and give it a 2 year reprieve.  We'll watch and see what happens!

These are cuttings I did a few weeks ago and I honestly expected them to be dead and rotten by now. Cuttings are not my expertise, in fact the only cuttings I manage with any degree of success is Willow and Hebe (the easiest you can get).
These are Dogwood at the top and Olive at the bottom. The Dogwood actually has tiny buds forming so I'm hoping that's a good sign. The Olive is from a baby plant that snapped in half, rather than just compost it I thought I'd try cuttings from it and see if they work. They're looking pretty hopeful so far but I know nothing about this plant so I'm not getting my hopes up.