May exhuberance

While I was away walking in Cyprus in 30+ degrees of heat, the south of England was also having glorious weather. I could hardly believe how green it all looked from the window of the plane and the beautiful patches of white daisies growing on the verges right near Heathrow airport! My garden is also flourishing and for once last weekend's Bank Holiday weather permitted wall to wall gardening which I needed in order to catch up. I can't really single out anything that's of particular merit this year other than the roses which seem to be flourishing everywhere. I have never had so many buds on any of mine although I have sadly lost the little bright orange "Warm Welcome" which was sickly last year and just totally died this spring. Maybe it has been suffocated by the herbaceous clematis "Wyevale" which is a bit of a thug and needs serious thinning out. Not sure whether I should try another rose in the same place but it's hard to find anything which does quite the same job! One mark of the prolonged cold spring is how late the dahlias have been to get started - even in the greenhouse. I planted the tubers from Sarah Raven almost as soon as they arrived but a couple only began showing shoots last week. Ironically, in spite of some extremely cold snaps, I DID manage to overwinter some tubers from last year, packed in foam chips in a large cardboard box in the greenhouse. I have been brutal with digging up and chucking out the tulip bulbs now they are over and for once am left with a few patches of bare earth as the dahlias grow on sufficiently to be planted out. Not sure where I will find space for them all now!