After an incredibly mild Autumn and Winter so far, the garden is already bursting into life. This seems even earlier after the exceptionally cold winter of last year. It's amazing how often this happens, that extremes of weather are made up for by extremes in the other direction, for example dry summers are often followed by wet summers.

We should be making the most of this mild spell by enjoying the emerging flowering snowdrops, the hellebores which are bursting into life and the gorgeous cyclamen which have been in flower for well over a month.

At this time of year a lot of our time is taken up clearing the many pots throughout the garden and preparing them, ready to take the tulips for the Spring display. We are also assessing our tender plants as the nights are getting colder, and starting to clear and clean the polytunnels and glasshouses.