What's growing

I had today all planned out. Yesterday I did a whole heap of clearing at the polytunnel and at the greenhouse area so that today I could concentrate on the actual garden and the mess that it's become. However today it has decided to rain! It rained all last night as well so even if the stuff stops very soon the garden will be too mushy to work with and I'll just end up making things worse. Great!

The other day I headed into the garden with my camera to look for a bloom or two that I could submit to GBBD (Garden Bloggers Bloom Day) but to my dismay I found nothing, not a single smidging of colour anywhere. I'm certainly going to have to work on this and have decided to start looking into Spring plants that I can add to the garden this year for future spring indulgence.
What I did manage to find though was a lot more new growth than I realised was there. Take a cursory look at my borders and you'll see dead, dead, dead everywhere, nothing appears to be wanting to wake up, however when I got really up close and personal I was pleasantly surprised.

This one surprised me the most. These are Lily bulbs I planted last year and not only did they survive the winter outside but they're already shooting back into growth - ahead of the ones in my polytunnel.

This next one is a self seeded Leycesteria Formosa. I love this plant because it does exceptionally well up here and self seeds so easily, which means no having to take cuttings (which I'm crap at btw).

Leycesteria Formosa aka Pheasantberry bush/ Himalayan honeysuckle.

These aquilegia (Columbine) are beautiful when in flower but they have self seeded literally everywhere now and have become so much of a nuisance that their few weeks of beauty pale in comparison. I'll be doing some serious clearing of them this year.

Aquilegia - gorgeous flowers but self seeds prolifically.

This Rhododendron never fails to provide a riot of blooms every year. A bargain from 'Lidls' a few years back it's again smothered in buds.

I seriously dislike this next plant. I got a small piece of it many years ago from my SIL (who warned me of it's desire to roam - which I ignored of course) and now I would love nothing more than to eradicate it from the garden entirely. It's lovely to look at and makes a great ground cover plant but like so many grasses it is amazingly invasive and tenacious and I spend   waste so much time trying to control it it's ridiculous.

The dreaded unknown grass. Grows to about 6" but spreads for ever.

One of my all time favourite staple garden plant is the Hardy Geranium aka Cranesbill. I have just 6 different varieties in my garden but they can always be replied on to provide splendid flowers even when the salt wind and rain mid summer has obliterated others.
For unusual colour I like 'Johnsons Blue' as it's the one true blue flower I've ctually seen. I have an unknown pink variety which loves any type of soil and situation and provides a neat mat of colour from late spring to winter (though after a couple of years it tends to get very untidy, invasive and straggly looking).
But my absolute favourite so far is Geranium x. Oxonianum, I was astounded when I first saw the lovely star shaped flowers of this neat clump forming perennial and I immediately obtained some for my garden.
Unfortunately - for now - you'll have to take my word for how splendid this plant is going to be

Geranium x.Oxonianum

Cordylines are not a plant I would say I 'need' in my garden. I've grown them twice in pots and although the Green one is still alive it looks decidedly unhappy (note to self I must rescue the cordyline this year) and the Red one died (I think the Red ones are more tender).
So I was very surprised to find that one had self seeded in amongst my Iris bulbs a couple of years ago. I would dearly love to move it to somewhere more pleasing to myself but I think this is one time when I am going to leave it where nature intended (OK I admit, I have no idea how to move one without killing it).

Just look at the state of ground! And yet this is the position it chose to live.

There are heaps more plants started to spring into life again such as The Weigela, Mock Orange, Lupins, Roses, Hydrangeas, Iris's etc etc and it certainly gives me the hope that Spring and finally Summer are just around the corner.