Spring Flowers

Sweet Almond Prunus dulcis var dulcis blossom.

The Almond tree in the orchard is blossoming. I won't get any almonds -- either frost or lack of rain later in the season will get them almost certainly -- but the blossom is pretty, and it's always the first tree in the orchard to flower. Almond trees don't really like the Touraine. They are more an Aquitaine thing.

Daffodils.

The Aged One must grow acres of daffodils in his garden on the hill on the edge of Preuilly. He's given me a couple of bunches and has them for sale at the market. Legally he is allowed to sell them only so long as he restricts the bunches to just daffodils. If he adds greenery or another flower he needs to be a registered florist to legally sell them in France.

 Grape-hyacinths.

Garden Grape-hyacinth Muscari armeniacum is one of my favourite spring flowers. These were photographed on a streetside bank in Preuilly. They naturalise very easily here and form bright blue carpets. They are less picky than English Bluebell Hyacinthoides non-scripta, and a better colour than the usual garden plant Hybrid Bluebell H. x massartiana. I also have the Wild Grape-hyacinth M. neglectum in the orchard, a more sombre blue and denser flowerheads, less prone to forming a carpet.

Wild Grape-hyacinth.

 Lady Orchid leaf rosette.

The last two years a frost in late April has wiped out my Lady Orchid Orchis purpurea flowers just as they were in their prime. Here's hoping this year they are not blasted by frost and get to produce seed.

Sweet Violets.

For some reason a high proportion of the Sweet Violets Viola odorata in the grass at the orchard are white this year.

Also in flower are the Cowslips, Primroses, Lesser Celandine and Snakeshead Fritillaries.