Coming Up Not Quite Roses

To my amazement it was 2016 that I first noticed bugle coming up in the garden terraces at the Rectory. Every year since I have looked out for it and rejoiced a little when it has appeared, surviving again to add a little wildflower colour to the surroundings. This year there are loads of the little cones of purplish hue towering an inch or two upwards from the beds.

Another plant I have come to welcome is the Common Vetch, I think mainly because I didn't know what it was and took a while before triumphantly identifying it. This flower is both valued and scorned by farmers depending on what they are doing: it adds nitrite to the soil and is a good fodder plant for livestock, but you don't want it around once the crops are growing. In a garden, it merely straggles, coils, and flowers. Again, in past years I've had the odd stringy patch of it here and there, but this season it's all over the place. 

And thus the yellows and golds of early Spring - primrose and celandine - give way to the purples and the pinks.

All being well the roses will appear later on!