Apologies, if you noticed, for the absence of blogs. I contracted a nasty strain of the ‘flu in December and am only now getting back in the swing of things. At least it gave me the perfect excuse to stay indoors and indulge in some armchair gardening, more on which I hope to relate in the coming weeks.

One of my favourite winter pastimes is scouring the new garden catalogues to look at Hayloft Plants new plants and imagine how they will look in my garden. The little one from Hayloft Plants is always most welcome. Why? It is full of interesting collections of cottage garden plants, all beautifully photographed. Add to this the helpful descriptions and cheery staff comments on the treasures within and resistance is futile.

Mum used to ring me as soon as her copy of the catalogue arrived, to ask about whether we should buy a newly-featured perennial collection between us. We would swap bits of each other’s new plants later in the year once they had bulked up, and did this to great effect with astrantias one year and sedums another.  I now have several interesting varieties of both around my garden.

Recently I have been lucky enough to trial the occasional plant for Hayloft. The beautiful yellow rose ‘Arthur Bell’ now clambers up the side of my shed; I have extended my buddleja collection with two unusual varieties, ‘Miss Ruby’ and ‘Flower Power’ – and in flower this week I have lovely yellow spotted hellebores – well worth a trip to the bottom of my garden, even in this awful weather. Here it is, snapped this morning in gloomy shade and pouring rain, (hence the flash), looking surprisingly cheerful.