Who, of men, can tell that flowers would bloom (John Keats)

I know I've gone a bit booky quoting Keats, but the flowers, especially the roses, that are already blooming in our garden, are creating a lovely display. I was wondering whether anything would have survived all that snow and cold weather we had last winter. But nearly everything has survived (we lost a verbena) and things seem to have actual benefited from the cold.

This is my first peony flower. It's called 'sorbet' and I planted two of them a couple of years ago. The other plant hasn't flowered as yet, but both plants have put on good growth this year.

Please ignore the black spot, it's on most of my roses and although I have sprayed in the past, with having the two cats I don't like spreading chemicals about. A more dedicated gardener would probably do something else to get rid, I just ignore it!

I can't remember the name of the deep red rose above, we've had it for nearly 20 years! It has a small number of blooms on it each year but they are so beautiful. They look like velvet and smell divine.

These two roses are from our climbing rose that my Mum and Dad bought for us years ago, so again, I can't remember the variety. It flowers profusely, even during the winter if it's mild. There were still blooms when it was snowing last winter!

This is a bloom from another climbing rose, Eglantine. It's a lovely double rose that, again, smells lovely. I can't really see the point of a rose that doesn't smell nice.

There's a few foxgloves in our garden, all of which come from the one plant that came from a seeds that a bird must have dropped because I didn't. I love how they self-seed themselves all over the place. The only disadvantage is that they don't flower in the first year, but now I have lots of them some are one year and others are two years and over.

There's lots of other plants growing, some are still seedlings, so there'll be lots more to see and smell in the coming weeks.

TTFN

Louise