We know Spring has really arrived at the Floral Hall when the ducks come back. Each year the same pair return – at least we think they are the same ones. This year we have called them Florence and Dizzy. Florence will spend a lot of time trying to find the right nest under different plants in our flower beds, before laying a clutch. In previous years she’s usually laid around 9 eggs in each of two clutches.

Now at last it is warming up outside and the sun has brought on all the early bulbs that we planted last autumn. There are clusters of white crocuses around the edges of flower borders, dwarf irises in the rockery, miniature daffodils unfurling their flowers, and grape hyacinths appearing under the bushes and trees.

The warmer weather has also warmed the water up just enough to wake up our Koi Carp, in time for our first school visit of the year. Feeding the fish is a popular activity for school children, but our Koi Carp stop eating during the winter, so we were relieved that the nursery class was able to feed a group of hungry wide awake fish rather than sleeping ones.

The children were also able to inspect our newly sited bird boxes to see whether any small birds have decided to make their homes there, as well as participating in making their own nests to take home for Easter.

The Floral Hall gardeners have been busy this week potting up plug plants, completing woodwork painting to give a uniform appearance to all our fences, sheds and gates, and giving a first spring feed to plants in the subtropical glass house.

Highlights at the Floral Hall this week:

Inside:
Grapefruit, lime and orange flowers (they also smell wonderful); pendulous pink flowers of Medinilla Magnifica from the rainforests of tropical Africa and South East Asia; fragrant purple flowers of Brunfelsia pauciflora ‘Macrantha’, orchids and hippeastrums.

Outside:
Spring flowering bulbs such as Iris reticulata, crocuses, dwarf daffodils and Pushkinia libanotica