garden withoutdoors

teasel with the typical water filled cups along the stem

foxglove, so untypical in my experience, the drought and heatwave prevented it flowering properly last year, it's sprouted these small flowering stems (from what I can see) rather than the typical single stem from the centre

water figwort

giant scabious I grew from seed a couple years ago, still awaiting flowering and teasel which self-seeded

I have 2 pots of sheep's bit I grew from seed. I've had ups and downs with them. I had more than 2 pots before but I'm down to two and I'm not sure if they're all Jasione montana. I seem to have 2 types and I did buy some Jasione perennis Blue Light seeds when I couldn't find montana and haven't seen flowers from perennis yet so maybe some are perennis.

** later ** I have been so upset by slug damage to these plants. Have lost many buds. I see there's a slug in the pot I hadn't noticed when I took the photo - must be more observant!

some leaves seem to be smooth and shiny, this bud is surrounded by the smoother shinier leaves (Jaione perennis Blue Light?)

this bud is surrounded by the furrier hairier leaves (Jasione montana?)

I have these "garden in a pot"s. All self-seeded without any intervention. I now want to separate them and give some plants more room. this pot has a large globe thistle.

and a foxglove, verbascum, snapdragon and a wall lettuce, probably others

better view of the wall lettuce on the other side

another "garden in a pot": tulip (spent), poppies, selfheal, great hairy willowherb

one with foxgloves,  snapdragon and plantain

Estella Rynveld tulips

the ceanothus is taking over my house

below the ceanothus, two kinds of vinca

and pink bluebells

calendula

I love those calendula buds

ajuga

the red campion has self-seeded extensively in the back garden over the last couple of years, Rocky smelling the catnip (nepeta)

I have 3 pots of a centaurea plants from seeds I sowed. I lost track of the exact cultivar. I noticed lots of plants have self-seeded in the pots so decided to tidy them up.

I tried repotting some of the plants (forget-me-nots, a teasel, a verbena bonariensis, great hairy willowherb), some are not looking good, I'll see how they do

another view of the repotted plants, some look quite limp

there were lots of foxglove seedlings which I repotted

other plants removed that I did not want to keep

the centaurea pots after the other plants were removed except for poppies which I didn't think would transplant well and thought they could bloom before causing much trouble

views of each pot

I noticed a large nipplewort rosette in my neighbour's garden. It was so large I had to go get my expanding rule.

56 cm across, one of the largest rosettes I've ever seen.

my fox was in the garden, about where the nipplewort rosette was in this photo

the path through my garden had a lot of dirt accumulated so decided to remove it, I discovered some eyelash fungi, I'd found it in a pot a couple years ago which I lost, so I'm very happy to rediscover some in my garden.

I've never noticed this on a foxglove before, smaller shoots amongst the leaves. Usually there's one large rosette of leaves and a flower spike in the middle. In the midst of the drought and heatwave last summer, it did not bloom properly and over-wintered. I've never had one over-winter, only the first year plants which bloom the second year. Those foxglove shoots not to be confused with the 2 verbena bonariensis shooting up amongst the leaves.

While I was next door I noticed the veronica longifolia which I'd given to my neighbour, is looking good - much better than mine.

and an enormous moth mullein (Verbascum blattaria) rosette in a pot I'd given her

The drought and heatwave last summer had a profound effect on my garden. It seemed to have killed off my auriculas or the slugs did who were desperate and at anything surviving. This is my only auricula this year. The drought and heatwave also seems to  have killed my Chinese lanterns which did not grow at all last year. I was hoping there's be some remnant of life in the roots but no sign of it so far this spring.

surprisingly the monkshood has survived, I have this one in the ground

and this one in a pot which I think grew from collected seed I sowed

Socks with my snapped off tulips - I don't know if it was the wind, birds or even foxes

Yesterday I noticed the first ajuga in flower this year

muscari and tulips (Princess Irene, I think)

Little Princess tulips with the muscari and tulips in the background

Verbascum blattaria, moth mullein makes a fab rosette the first year, this has overwintered as a rosette and should bloom this year.

claytonia

cerinthe

honesty leaves

a very small seedling I noticed yesterday, think it's a speedwell

sheepsbit

bud on the sheepsbit above

this pot which started off as sheepsbit, has lots of self-seeders, I don't even know if any sheepsbit is left in that pot

A catsear I saw in a pavement crack with buds at the end of the flowering stems.

Two autumn hawkbit nearby. I only know it's autumn hawkbit as I've observed the flowers in previous years. Otherwise I find smooth hawk's-beard (Crepis capillaris) and autumn hawkbit (Scorzoneroides autumnalis) difficult to differentiate until I can look at the flowers.

I grew this centaurea from seed but I lost track of what it is exactly. Despite some slug damage, the 3 pots of it have survived the winter. I hope they bloom this summer and become identifiable. I see I have a number of self-seeders in the pots: green alkanet (of course), foxglove, poppy, teasel, great hairy willowherb). I'm going to try to carefully remove them, saving some where feasible.

Buds

fringecups

sage

calendula

water avens

Centaurea dealbata

parrot tulips on the left Little Princess tulips on the right

closer view of those Little Princess tulips

later in the day when the sun went around leaving the table in the shade

a couple days before

a claytonia has self-seeding with the Little Princess tulip below

claytonia with flower buds

this was one of my claytonia from 2 weeks ago but I noticed the photo this morning and what a great rosette it makes in the right conditions, this started a while ago and over-wintered

I beautiful yellow rose at the back of the garden which was there when I moved in (20 years ago) and flowers every year with no help or intervention from me.

bluebell buds, I had loads of bluebells in the flowerbeds forming huge clumps preventing other plants from growing, I thinned them out and now just have a few at the back of the garden

my first red campion flowers blooming

I'm a recent grower of red campion after sowing it with a mix of wildflower seeds a couple years ago. Last year I saw how much the bees love it and this year I see what a strong self-seeder it is, competing with green alkanet for the most prolific self-seeder in the garden. Below, red campion on the left, green alkanet behind on the right.

some muscari above starting to wilt but another pot below looking great

I bought this Centaurea dealbata a few years ago. The pot was invaded and overwhelmed by, I think a dandelion. I don't think I had any Centaurea dealbata flowers last year. Now I see a bud (lower right) and it's been invaded by a poppy. I love poppies as well as centaureas (of all kinds). Do I leave the poppy to bloom? or try to move it? I suspect it would not react well to moving so I will leave it to bloom and in future try to remove self-seeders before they get so big.

My "pond", hardly a pond any more as it leaks badly. Purple loosestrife in the centre, yellow flag iris (Iris pseudacorus) on the right which I hardly get any flowers from, Veronica beccabunga spread over the pond.

I noticed that my one comfrey plant has sprouted next to some of my green alkanet so useful for comparison. The comfrey (on the left) is more upright, has longer leaves and a different pattern on the leaves than the green alkanet (on the right).

I saw London rocket for the first time last year (April 2022) in Whitechapel, east London and have been on the look-out ever since. After a suggestion of Tower Hill, I observed it there yesterday (March 2023).

there were some very small plants growing in cracks

plants in the shade were not nearly so developed

some were quite small

thale cress

good view of the texture of the nepeta leaves on the right

some new growth after a few warmer days recently, it's gone back to bitter cold

muscari

bergenia

muscari and tulips

tulip bulbs, so dry! I can't believe I have to start watering already but it's also bitter cold so don't want it to freeze

one of the most interesting things are these seedlings which I don't recognise, I await future deveopment!

some crocus buds

I have a lot of violets self-seeding, nothing significantly different about these, I think the colour-difference is just because one was in the sun more

fox-and-cubs

forget-me-nots, some years I have more than others, this year I don't think I have so many

I noticed a forget-me-not with some longer leaves, I don't know if I've seen those before or not

the grey-green leaves above are Centaurea montana - I think. I have one I'd grown from seed last year. It hadn't bloomed. Now I see a number of small plants but they couldn't have self-seeded as there were no flowers to produce seed. Do they spread via roots?

I'm still watching these larger-leaved spreading small plants. Are they sheepsbit? which are the thinner-leaved plants on the right. Will they have thinner leaves as they develop?

a few small rosettes / seedlings, left to right, plantain, wood avens, red campion, teasel

not sure what the seedling is on the left, I suspect on the right is green alkanet

speaking of green alkanet, I try not to have green alkanet in my pots as I have it all over my garden but sometimes it gets away from me - that pot at the back in the middle is green alkanet - a large one! at this point, I'll let it bloom this spring and plant it out when it's finished

I bought these plug plants from British Wild Flower Plants. I'm not very impressed but awaiting spring to see if they improve.

early Verbascum blattaria (moth mullein) rosettes can be confused with teasel rosettes (not so much by me as I have lots of both in my garden!) but some I've noticed recently are quite similar

this verbascum is quite small so the distinctive wrinkled texture of the leaves is not so evident

teasel rosette showing the distinctive prickly texture of the leaves

lots of larger verbascum rosettes in the garden at the moment, smaller newer leaves grow in the centre (similar to dandelions), those older larger leaves on the outside often have red down the middle of the leaf

both verbascum and teasel crowding out and being crowded out by dandelion rosettes

so many of my pots are stuffed with self-seedeers, below, left to right, red campion, verbascum, ox-eye daisy, below  them, forget-me-nots

compared next to each other, the Verbascum blattaria (moth mullein) rosette is different from a teasel rosette, both have wrinkled leaves but the verbascum has shiny smooth leaves whereas the teasel is rough with prickles, outer edges smooth ovate on the teasel and lobed on the verbascum

rosemary

primula

muscari

bergenia

hyacinth buds, very small hyacinths because they were previously forced, I try to plant out the hyacinth bulbs after forcing them for Christmas flowers in hyacinth vases indoors

I finally planted the sea squill bulbs I received last autumn. They aren't fully hardy so I guess they shouldn't have overwintered in the ground anyway. I've never grown these before so not really sure the best time to plant them.

while sorting out some pots some bulbs got left under the table on my patio, at some point they started growing

I gathered them all up and planted them in this trough