Landscape (UK)

Dear reader...

- Hilary Scott

EVERY YEAR AS spring approaches, I am filled with anticipati­on. After months of looking at a wet, frosty or snowy garden through the windows, I can now get out and walk round. The question I need an answer to is will my camellia be covered in red blooms? An old plant, it flowers only intermitte­ntly. For each year of beautiful flowers, I endure three or four of nothing. I know my gardening friends and colleagues would have no qualms about discarding this old plant. But somehow, I always feel sorry for it and so it survives. I can only hope this will be another year when it will delight me. One thing I do know will be putting on a brave show are the daffodils. They never fail to create a burst of colour whatever the weather. Growing in borders and in clumps in the lawn, their bright yellow trumpets are a joy. My dilemma is whether to pick them or not. It seems a shame not to have a vase filled with flowers from my own garden in the house, but they last so much longer outside. Further afield, the countrysid­e is waking up, as days lengthen and get warmer. It only takes a little sunshine to make a huge difference. One day a tree can be bare, the next it is covered in unfurling lime-green leaves. Clouds of white blossom cloak hedgerows, as the blackthorn puts on its spring display. A stroll down local lanes is accompanie­d by trilling bird song that equals any choir. What can be better than Britain in the spring?

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