If you haven’t visited the Floral Hall yet this spring then come soon before the tulips are over. They are providing welcome splashes of colour in all the borders and even the yellow ones that were supposed to be pink are looking pretty good.

This is the perfect time of year to sow Echium seeds, our favourite annual at the Floral Hall. We plant it at the fronts of borders and as a trailing plant in our raised beds where its deep blue flowers go really well with the silver ‘Snow in Summer’ and purple sage. It attracts loads of bees and butterflies and flowers non-stop from June to September. If you haven’t got time to sow seeds then you can buy a pot or two of young Echium plants in our new plant sales area. We also now stock a range of annuals and perennials along with a selection of vegetable, salad and herb seedlings grown by trainees at our project for people with learning disabilities.

Our resident ducks are doing well. Florence still hasn’t starting sitting on her eggs. We are still finding abandoned clutches of one and two eggs in strange tucked away places under shrubs, but she and Dizzy seem quite happy making a big mess in the ponds and have yet to become truly domesticated and committed parents.

What’s looking good:

Outside - bright swathes of tulips in the borders
The Tropical House – bright pink bouganvillea; trailing tassels of Thunbergia flowers, gorgeous double apricot coloured Hibiscus flowers and the first Heliconiums just beginning to appear amid the lush tropical leaves.