A place in the shade

With the beautiful high temperatures we enjoyed over the weekend a place that looked quite tempting at times was my back hedge, this was the site for my snowdrops earlier in the year, it is also where my hellebore's are just about coming to an end for another year, you now have to look harder for the secrets hidden in amongst the thickening green foliage. I have just about maintained enough interest along the hedge, aquilegias are in flower along with these wild garlic

I was warned when I bought these that they would spread vigorously, I was so excited because I love wild garlic, they remind me of my holidays in Pembrokeshire where the smell of them is fantastically strong, in the wooded valleys, I can't wait for them to have colonised the whole of my back hedge. I have now had them in my garden for four years and today I can count just twelve flower heads, at this rate it will be another ten or so years before they have achieved the desired effect, then I will probably decide that the smell is far to strong to have outside my bedroom window, but at the moment I think they are wonderful.

If you look really hard you can also find these lily of the valley.

You can see how small the flowers are , the green seed head hanging over them is one of my snowdrops.

I have plenty of lily of the valley leaves poking out of the soil, but these are the only flowers I could find this year. So pretty and delicate.