These large daffodils regularly come up strongly. My plans seem to be silent on what variety they are.

Apart from ‘Ice Follies’ to the back of B1 these don’t look much like the varieties I thought I’d planted in these two beds. The dwarf daffodils, probably ‘Tête-à-tête’ have come back strongly in B2 and elsewhere.

These started rather inauspiciously on the ground at the front with a chicken wire cover, but after this was removed and they were put on the wall at the back they looked fantastic.

Iris reticulata do well in pots for a short time. Much shorter than crocuses. They have to be covered with chicken wire, and look much better on the wall. I have two pots of iris ‘Pauline’ one flowering for the second year. It may not be worth keeping them after flowering. ‘Purple Hill’ actually had at least one bulb of something else, which looked a bit odd.

The earliest flowers, apart from snowdrops in the beds, and possibly some iris reticulata. They have to be covered with chicken wire to stop the cats messing with them, which is rather unsightly. After they are in flower they keep going for several weeks. They look better on the low wall at the back round the pond.

These were new bulbs planted last Autumn. Even just the leaves are worthwhile.

Two of these bowls were planted with sprouting bulbs in winter 2021/2. They’re just as good this year

Nice to have something in flower at this time of year. The sarcococca is said to be scented, but I don’t get it. I’ve now got some nice clumps of snow drops front and back.

I’d kept quite a lot of rather small tulip bulbs after lifting them in spring. I planted ‘Don Quichotte’ and ‘Sorbet’ in pots on their own, and ‘Monte Carlo’, ‘Helmar’ and miscellaneous lily flowered tulips in a big bowl. Unless they do surprisingly well I won’t bother to keep tulips after the first year in future.

I planted a 30cm wide terracotta pot with Iris reticulata ‘Purple Hill’ at the top, Narcissus WP Milner in the middle and Tulipa ‘Merlot’ at the bottom.