Hoping for better things from the rhubarb patch this year. Last year I lifted and divided some crowns and planted them out but they didn't really get going. Possibly they needed time to settle in or perhaps it was the drought. Also rhubarb prefers a rich soil so the bed has been improved with wood chip, leaf mulch and alpaca dung. Anyway they seem to be doing better this year.
 There's a theory that rhubarb and onions grow well together. I've planted onion sets all around the clumps, they're very cheap to purchase. One or other may do well, hopefully a bit of both.

 The view out my bedroom window. Not my usual bedroom. I have turned a cabin I built in my father's garden into a bedroom. Thus I can visit yet maintain social distancing.

 Funnily enough I used to joke that I would probably end up sleeping in a shed- and my wishes have come true!

 There is a small pond on the allotment. The thought occurred to me that it would be nice to have some Yellow Flag Iris (Iris pseudacorus) which grows wild in the UK on marshy ground. Accordingly I purchased several clumps by mail order and put them in a pot sitting in the pond itself to keep the soil permanently moist.
 On a summer day a number of years ago I was walking through a secluded valley in Dorset. The valley had a soggy bottom (so to speak) and there were Yellow Flags in flower all along it:

 I take a walk round the neighbourhood once a day. Needless to say any plans I had for "rural rambles and field trips to the middle of nowhere" have been cancelled. So the local streets are my window on the world.
 I spotted this little clump of Lamium maculatum growing out of a crack in a wall. This is the form known as 'Roseum'. I grew some in a clay pot a year or two back but it didn't last. Also tried it in a couple of spots in the garden but it didn't take. And here it is self-seeded in a crack and doing fine!

 We are having glorious spring days in London. It is strange and ironic that they are made all the more glorious because the pollution, noise and movement of the city have largely ceased.
 I don't propose to dispense medical opinion on this blog but I think I am stating a fact when I say that viruses generally don't flourish in the summer months. And that the human immune system usually becomes stronger as the days get longer and warmer. We must hope this may have some benefit in the present crisis.
 The garden is full of Narcissus Thalia at the moment, which to my eye is one of the most elegant of the daffodils.

 Green Alkanet (Pentaglottis sempervirens) has become a widespread wildflower and for that reason is often regarded as a weed. It has deep tap roots that make it difficult to eradicate and self-seeds readily. Of Mediterranean origins P. sempervirens may have been introduced to these shores as a dye plant; the roots are said to yield a henna shade of red.
 I am very happy to see it colonising rough ground and neglected areas. The haze of blue flowers attracts bees aplenty.      

 Mahonia aquifolium is in flower all over the place; it was popular as a garden shrub and has been much (over)used in municipal planting schemes. However its natural habitat is the understorey of the forests of the Pacific North-West of America.

 M. aquifolium is seen to much better effect where it has naturalised as a garden escape or remnant. The patch above was on a roadside bank under trees not far away from the specimen in the first photo. I fancy this is rather more like the way it grows in the wild.

 Town planning and suburbia have not been kind to this plant but it is in fact the state flower of Oregon. Indeed it is often referred to as Oregon Grape. The clusters of bright yellow flowers form bunches of dark blue-purple berries into autumn which do resemble small grapes and are said to be edible if cooked to make jams and jellies.

 A little addition to the garden that I've been meaning to get round to for a while: making a small paved area right at the back. The garden gets increasingly shady as the surrounding trees fill out with leaves but this spot catches the late afternoon sun. I gathered up a miscellany of bricks and tiles that were lying around. It's still a bit early in the year to be working up a tan however!

 As we all aim to reduce 'social contact' it's a great comfort to commune with nature in springtime. In the garden the patch of Symphtum 'Hidcote' is coming into flower which will attract many bees.

 Anxious times but today was the most perfect spring day. I headed to Lesnes Abbey Wood in South-East London where the Wild Daffodils grow...

 Under the bare trees there are drifts of our native Narcissus pseudonarcissus.
 

 Abbey Wood has long since been encircled by the expansion of the city but the Wild Daffodils still flourish in sight of the central London skyline.

 It looks like they flowered quite early this year. In parts of the wood they're starting to be fade but around them a carpet of Wood Anemones is coming into full flower.

 Anemone nemorosa is another native of our ancient woods. And all around I saw the fronds of thousands upon thousands of Bluebells; a tide of azure blue will soon sweep through the trees.

 Spring Snowflakes (Leucojum vernum) and Summer Snowflakes (Leucojum aestivum) look very similar and in fact both flower in spring. They resemble giant Snowdrops and are available as bulbs in the autumn- particularly L. aestivum 'Gravetye Giant' the form selected from the wild by William Robinson the influential Victorian gardener. It is this variety that I have planted in my garden and (as seen above) in my father's garden.
 The Spring Snowflake is said to grow wild in Dorset and Somerset and the Summer Snowflake grows in great profusion on the banks of the River Loddon in Berkshire (below) where it is still known locally as the Loddon Lilly. [see entry dated 18th. April 2017]

Signs of spring: frogspawn

and a caterpillar.

 There is a very healthy growth of Misletoe (Viscum album) on the bough of next door's apple tree. A decade ago it was a small sprig and it has increased year by year.
 V. album is an obligate hemiparasite i.e. it lives off the host though it also photosynthesises. Birds eat the berries but cannot digest the sticky seeds which they excrete and/or wipe off on branches. The softish bark of apple trees is a receptive surface; orchards of old were known for their Mistletoe.

 Speaking of berries I see this one is coming into flower. Either I have failed to notice this in the past or perhaps it is reaching some kind of maturity? Certainly it has borne no berries but V. album is dioecious. The plants are either 'male' or 'female' and pollinators must travel between plants of both 'sexes' for pollination to occur (as opposed to plants that are monoecious with both 'male' and 'female' flowers on the same plant).
 The bud shown here is in the process of forming and to be honest I'm not sure whether it's going to be a boy or a girl! Will follow up on this, happy to be given the word by any eagle-eyed botanist reading this entry.

 Bare root is an old fashioned way to sell plants i.e. before it became easier to grow and distribute them in plastic pots. When the plant is dormant in spring or autumn it can be lifted from the ground with some soil and will survive for a few days if kept moist e.g. wrapped in wet newspaper.
 A few growers still follow this practice. Most years I place an order with a nursery in Wales who raise wildflowers and bulbs on their smallholding. I reckon they are about as close as you get to actual wild plants. Many garden centres now sell a range of wildflowers grown in plastic but I find them to be fairly tender whereas these are tough as old boots. I think the roots establish better too because they have not become 'potbound'.
 I bought some Columbine for the garden (above) and various sun loving plants for a bed on the allotment: Meadow Cranesbill, Field Scabious, Greater Knapweed etc. Also some Soloman's Seal for a shadier spot and Yellow Flag Iris for the pond. 

 Grape Hyacinth (Muscari armenaicum) in the front garden.  

 There are clumps of White Comfrey (Symphytum orientale) in flower already at a community garden near the allotments. I noticed some very large bumblebees feasting on the nectar. These are queen bumblebees recently emerged from hibernation- and hungry.

 Heralds of spring: Lungworts growing among Primroses and Celandines.

 I have a few Oxlips (Primula elatior) in the garden and will add more. They are woodland plants and seem to grow well on London clay although their native habitat is the boulder clays of Eastern England. When I started planting wild species I had hoped to establish Cowslips (Primula veris) but the clay and partial shade does not suit them. I should have taken note of where Cowslips thrive: open sunny sites on chalk.

 Case in point I saw thousands of Cowslips waving in the breeze on a spring walk last year on the hills overlooking the Vale of Pewsey [See entry dated 29th. April 2019]. The Oxlip is a close relative and every bit as lovely so an agreeable alternative to my original intention.
 Both are related to the Common Primrose (Primula vulgaris). Happily it is indeed common and grows freely all over the place be it country lanes or urban gardens.

 The wild species Narcissus cyclamineus is native to Spain and Portugal but not widely cultivated. Nonetheless it is a parent of numerous hybrid daffodils; 'February Gold'  for example (above) is N. cyclamineus x pseudonarcissus. The swept back petals demonstrate the cyclamineus lineage.

 'Rapture' is another cultivar and the petals are even more reflexed. This and the long down pointing corona give it a strong resemblance to the species though 'Rapture' is a bit taller; N. cyclamineus grows to about 6-10 inches (15-25cm).

 The Wild Daffodil (Narcissus pseudonarcissus) has a widespread though sporadic distribution through England and Wales with strongholds in certain areas like the Lake District. Mysteriously it flourishes in such locales but not in others which should be equally suitable as habitats.
 The photograph above was taken in Lesnes Abbey Wood in South East London a couple of years ago. This fragment of an ancient landscape has long since been surrounded and cut off by the expansion of London yet retains large populations of Wild Daffodils, Wood Anemones and Bluebells. [See entry dated 16th. March 2018]
 I haven't really succeeded in naturalising N. pseudonarcissus in the garden but there is another wildling that does better:

 This is the Tenby Daffodil, sometimes called Narcissus obvallaris and latterly Narcissus pseudonarcissus subsp. obvallaris. It was endemic to the Tenby region of South Wales before entering mass cultivation. If it is a sub-species it looks rather different and it's unclear why it was particular to one part of the country.  
  There are other variations of the Wild Daffodil -which is also found on the continent- and I have yet to read a definitive explanation of whether it is one or several species.

 Growing nearby I have Narcissus Telamonius Plenus which may be a double form of N. pseudonarcissus (a rather shaggy one at that). I bought a handful from Shipton Bulbs in Wales. If I may quote from their catalogue:
 "These daffodils appear in woodlands all over Britain... They are nowadays associated with the very old variety N. Van Sion, introduced in the 17th. Century but the forms inhabiting our British woods and gardens are much smaller and wilder looking than the Van Sion offered by Dutch growers today".
 If Telemonius Plenus aka Van Sion is a relative of N. pseudonarcissus it looks closer to the Tenby Daffodil than the Wild Daffodil. Daffodil DNA seems to be somewhat obscure. 

 Low to the ground spring flowers are stirring.

Like these dainty Corydalis Beth Evans.

 Creeping Comfrey (Symphytum grandiflorum) is creeping around.

 Lungworts (Pulmonaria spp.) raise exquisite flowers above speckled leaves. 

 There will be a Daffodil theme to some of this week's entries because quite a few are flowering in the garden at the moment. I generally prefer wild species to cultivars but Narcissus Tete-a-Tete is early, reliable and cheerful.

 Narcissus WP Milner is another cultivar, bred by one Henry Backhouse in the Victorian era. Various sources state that it appeared around 1869 which must make it one of the oldest "heirloom" varieties. The early hybrids often have a grace and simplicity that is lacking in some of the many that followed. 
 W.P. Milner looks rather like our native Wild Daffodil. In fact so much so that I hope I've made the correct ID, I can't actually remember which I planted in this spot! The petals are swept forward and almost hide the trumpet which is a characteristic of the Milner.     

 This weekend I have seen the first bees foraging in the garden! In previous years I have spotted them from late Jan/early Feb taking advantage of the Snowdrops, Hellebores, Crocuses and Daffodils. It hasn't been especially cold this winter but it has been very, very wet which bees struggle with.
 Fortunately the Trachystemon orientalis is coming into flower and it's a bee magnet (as is the case with many plants of the Boraginacae family). The flowers look rather similar to the annual Borago officinalis hence it's sometimes called Oriental Borage.
 In his book 'Dream Plants for the Natural Garden' Piet Odulf places T. orientalis in the section titled "Troublesome invasive plants" but it doesn't trouble me. I planted it in a dry shady area where few plants would flourish and it's fine. The bees think so too...