With Storm Ciara raging outside it is a good time to blog about the winter and early spring flowers. There were already plenty of flowers appearing in January, but just a few weeks later the snow drops and hellebore are really coming into their own. What a difference just a few weeks can make to the garden.

20th January

Despite the long nights and short days of mid-winter there are plenty of flowers blooming, even if somewhat more quietly than summer flowers. The primroses are just starting to come out although they are still mainly in leaf with just a few pale lemon yellow flowers. The snowdrops too are just beginning - you have to be on the lookout for them rather than being struck by swathes of white, but there are a few in the lawn by the shepherds hut and scattered around in other corners, forcing their way steadfastly up through the fallen leaves. At a different scale are the hellebore, brutes of plants compared with the delicate snowdrops. The white-green variety and the pale pink are blooming, but not yet the deeper darker purple. The camellia next to the box tree is nearly blooming its buds look fit to burst but it is holding off its splendid show for at least another few days. Spring Cyclamen stand out a strong lipstick pink among the beech leaves.

The Daphne is beautifully fragrant and has been in flower since just before Christmas, it is still covered in flowers with a good deal of delicate pink ’confetti’ beneath. The winter honeysuckle - Lonicera fragrantissima is also at its best. Pale yellow pulmonaria are also starting to show, the flowers very self- contained and small above a mass of oval heart leaves. Then there is the arch of a shrub just above the badger steps. This is the fragrant viburnum bodnantense and is flowering at the very tips of last year's growth. A reminder to prune it in the early spring so that next year the blooms are more concentrated rather than being on stilts, totally out of proportion with a hugely tall woody stem topped by a tiny ice-cream pink flower.

And then of course who could forget the aconites - Jon's favourite flowers - appearing with play-group yellow boldness under the fig tree - apparently called ‘choir boys’ in East Anglia because the leaves are just a small ruff framing each yellow head. The daffodils are not out yet but provide erect green shoots that promise blooms in February and March.

4th & 8th February

Two sunny days provided a great opportunity to work in the orchard, pruning the apple trees and clearing dead perennials ready for spring growth. Also lovely to see how the flowers are blossoming. The pale purple crocus open fully to the sun and the aconites are now out around one of the newer apple trees, intermingled with a host of snowdrops. Hellebore are now widely blossoming, and two of the pink camellia are fully in bloom. One or two of the smaller daffodils are in flower, and the red-blue pulmonaria are now out in the stumpery.